What is the nature and mission of the local church?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated in Life Together that a Christian community is a rare thing. It is precious and to be treasured. Though his words come from a specific time and place that wrestled with difficult challenges, his words can be helpful to us. The nature and mission of a church is as much aspiration as it is reality, perhaps more so. As congregations, we often fail at being Christian community. Admission of such frailty only strengthens a community of faith. To receive forgiveness, one must first admit to sin. This is as true for the individual as it is for the community. We are to be known by our love, but we are imperfect people called to a life of perfection. This is a difficult walk. To suggest otherwise may be a denial of the cross.
The local church is to witness to the saving nature of the Christian faith and life. The mission of the local church is thusly no different from that of the Universal Church. How it goes about this will vary from congregation to congregation. This is the freedom and responsibility of the local congregation. The local congregation has the freedom and the responsibility of proclaiming the gospel as it sees fit.
A church is a place of worship. A church is the place where the Word is preached and the Table is shared. It is a place where believers can gather for formation and to be edified by one another?s presence. The work of the faithful is witnessed through the work of the community in its programs and mission efforts. Churches are places of study, where theological scholarship is nurtured. Churches are places of prayer, of contemplation. A church is as much a spiritual school as it is a theological school. I would suggest strongly that there is no difference between theology and spirituality. Becoming Christian is a discipline. It requires a nurturing environment to support and encourage such discipline. That environment is Christian community.
One thing that makes a church a unique institution is that the skills one develops in a Christian community are not to be limited to one?s engagement within that community. Christian community does not end when the benediction is proclaimed. Love, patience, kindness, self-control?all the fruits of the Spirit are to be revealed outside of the community as well. Our disciplines of study, prayer, fasting and others are not limited to the space of the church building. Church is not simply a Sunday morning activity. Christian community is a place without walls. It is in the world without being of it. It transforms and reconciles. It seeks mercy and justice. It is the Body of Christ.
St. Teresa of Avila summed it up beautifully in this prayer on the Body of Christ.