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Our job is to make goodness fashionable. It doesn’t matter if someone’s life is ruined, degraded, or wrecked beyond comprehension, as God’s ambassadors we connect the world with the goodness of God in such a way that anyone has the potential to become a new creation. Then God will make of others what he is making of us: people unlike the world has ever seen.

When followers of Christ become God’s visual aid in the earth, they show others what heaven is really like. Missional is a code word for people who have learned to think properly about the kingdom of God. God calls them: “My Body,” and Christ’s Body is supposed to be distinguishable from all other bodies.

The church should understand itself as a redeemed community in a reconciled society. We see all created things as having the possibility of reconciliation with the Father. We reject the term “non-believer,” because everyone believes something. And what we believe about God is the most important thought we will ever have. What we need to call people who have yet to believe is “pre-Christian.” This helps us view them with potential to become part of the body, because the Father is not willing that any should perish.  Everyone is part way there in terms of being reconciled since Jesus died once for all.

“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again… Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” ~2 Corinthians 5

God is not holding people’s transgressions against them (he is not like some evangelicals I know). The reason God’s not holding anything against anyone is because Jesus died once and for all. Therefore, since all are reconciled the way is open for all who will to come and stand before God and receive redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ.

In the body, we build the society of heaven where it’s safe for people to discover who they are: where they realize their dreams and learn to be more than they ever thought possible. As Christ’s Body we show the world what heaven is like and connect real people with God’s goodness and majesty. We make goodness fashionable. Ladies and gentlemen this is the church; anything else would not be the church.

(Sources: William Wilberforce; Graham Cooke)

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We exist for one-another-ness. Our connectedness extends beyond ourselves. That’s why the church is so important: it connects people. The church is the only organization on earth that exists for the benefit of its non-members. It’s for everyone who needs God whether they are seeking him or not. That means everything we are becoming in our relationships with one another are not just to be spent upon ourselves. Christian community practices love and grace on each other so that it can offer them perfectly to a sinful world that desperately needs the love of Christ.

The test of our authenticity in God’s eyes is found in how we express our love for one another. How we represent God’s kingdom in the local context through service to others is vitally important. If we can’t do it well in the church, we don’t have a chance in the world. We must come to grips with the idea that the church is a contribution to society: we are created for others.

The gospel is the “Good News” of reconciliation for everyone. God wants to rescue people from darkness and to transfer them to the kingdom of light. We are called to the ministry of reconciliation and it includes everybody. As ambassadors of reconciliation our job involves opening up embassies in our homes, offices, schools, and neighborhoods that reaches out to everyone in the community. The authentic Christian mindset understands the church as a group of ambassadors who builds genuine relationships with people everywhere.

Reconciliation means that God has declared that there are no obstacles in Christ. In other words God is saying, “There is nothing standing in the way… I’m not mad at anybody.” God poured his wrath out on Jesus so that anyone can freely come and take a seat at the table.

Our calling consists of being authentic Christ-followers who offers the world a taste of what the kingdom is really like. If God has removed the barriers, then we too must remove anything standing in the way. There are no walls built around God’s kingdom. It’s an open door, not a protected fortress. There is an invitation for whosoever will come. If God has made the way, and we travel the way, and the way is open… Then it must be our job to extend the invitation to whosoever will.

The Father sends the church, the ekklesia, the body, a group of people, to teach the world to be like Jesus. The church teaches others to be disciples fashioned in the image of the invisible God. The church should be a place where people discover what it’s like to be connected to the kingdom: to be connected to a family, a group of friends, part of a body, and to belong to something where people are given a part and a purpose in which they learn to function and live. This is the call to one-another-ness.

(Sources: Various Lectures by Graham Cooke; Oneness Embraced by Tony Evans)