The Unstoppable Church

"And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." Ephesians 1:22

When the church knows who she is - she cannot help but transform the world.  When the church knows who leads her - nothing can destroy her mission and charge.  The church is the body of Christ, the fullness of God who fills everything.  The church is not a shadow of Christ, an imitation of Christ, or a disciple of Christ - the Church is the living body of Christ.  When the church, that is its substantive members, make Christ head and Lord of all, she naturally takes on the actual form of Christ's body.  This body is consistent with what we see the body of Christ being and doing in the New Testament account of Jesus of Nazareth. It is also consistent with the form of Christ that is revealed in the Old Testament law and prophets.  This body that is the church does not act LIKE Jesus, it IS Jesus.  After the incarnate Christ ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, the Holy Spirit was given to the gathered believers to create in them the church - the embodiment of Christ's own essence.  And since every authority and power on earth and in heaven, both now and in the future, has been placed under the dominion of Christ by the Father, there is nothing that can overcome the church and there is nothing that the church cannot overcome.  The church is God's ongoing revelation in the world.  It is God's presence to the nations, God's open door to all who seek life.  Jesus' ministry is meant to continue through his manifestation in the church.  Jesus' sacrificial love and service, his prophetic word to religious leadership, his abiding hope in the face of death through his resurrection are all to be expressed through the community of believers.   These tasks cannot be duplicated, imitated, or re-created by human efforts or by institutional organization.  They must naturally occur by the indwelling Spirit of Christ being himself within the community.  Only when Christ is being Christ's body in the church will it overcome all things and refuse to be overcome by anything but its submission to the will of God.  By submitting only to the will of God and by making Christ Lord over all, you make the church all that she is meant to be.