Keeping the Dream Alive

Goldilocks has a lot of company. In the search for a church, you may have discovered that some churches seem too hard—they bash and bruise people with the truth. Others seem too soft—they claim to love people, but don't teach God's Word with conviction and power. Where can you find a church that's "just right"?

No perfect congregations exist this side of Heaven. But we can still dream! By faith, we can see the church's potential as well as the problems. We can see the church as it is, but also dream about what the church can become by the power of God.

Let's face it. Too often, Christians have separated into quarrelsome factions and sects, though Jesus prayed for our unity. We've crystallized our theological opinions into finely honed tests of orthodoxy, even though Jesus warned us not to replace God's commands with man-made traditions. We've quarreled over petty issues when we should have been reaching out to a lost world. We've treated the church like a political organization or a social club instead of acting like the body of Christ. Leaders have engaged in power plays instead of shepherding the flock with humility and love. We've turned our backs on each other when we should have been serving Christ shoulder-to-shoulder.

So what should we do? Throw up our hands in despair and give up on the church?

No. If we love Jesus, we can't give up on the church. Christ is the foundation, the head, the Savior and Lord of his church. Even when it's flawed and struggling, it's still his church, the one he promised to build (Matthew 16:18).

It's still our church, too. Sinners saved by grace, we are knit together by God's Spirit into "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God" (1 Peter 2:9).

What is the Restoration Movement about? On one level, it's the story of great men—and faithful women, boys, and girls who dare to dream about what the church could be. It's the story of people on the move—reaching the lost, planting churches, sending missionaries, feeding the flock of God. It's also a story of great orations—sermons, publications, and one-on-one discussions that plead for Christians to return to basic biblical precepts like the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42). Regrettably, sometimes the movement hasn't appeared to "move" at all. We've acted as if our forefathers completed the task and we can simply take it easy and rest!

But the work of restoration is ongoing—and it's more than just restoring a set of ideas, important as they may be. God's goal is restoring people. He wants to restore our souls (Psalm 23:3). He wants us to gently restore others caught in sin (Galatians 6:1). As we're faithful in this work, "the God of all grace" promises to restore us and make us "strong, firm, and steadfast" (1 Peter 5:10).

This isn't just our history. It's our mission: the restoration of lost people, and the ongoing reformation of the church so we can accomplish the task. These ideals need to be understood, embraced, explained, and passed along to future generations.

Keep the dream alive.