Message: “Maturing in the Body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16, Psalm 80)” from David Carey Dixon

A message from the series "Sunday Service." Today we’re trying to broach the subject of how to grow as mature disciples on a collective level, i.e., as “church,” the Body of Christ. Why is “church” such a challenge for us? Has it always been so? Surely there can be no real maturity without learning to live together in love and harmony. Being the church of Jesus is an even greater challenge today because of the seismic changes our culture is going through; human bonding has become so fragile that precariousness assaults all our relationships everywhere. The family is a serious object of attack from much of society and often shows as many signs of fragility within the church as without. So church is regarded by more and more people in the West as an outmoded form of community, too rigid, not relevant to mainstream society, even an enemy of human progress. So it sometimes seems we’re entering a new kind of Dark Ages. What should our response be?! The church needs a total reset – a return to our roots and to the power of the Holy Spirit, letting go of old cultural baggage that only represents nostalgia for the 20th century, and refocusing on Jesus’ message and mission: He came to humanize God! Can we learn to do that? It will mean distinguishing the institutional church (the organization) from the church as a movement of the Holy Spirit (the organism) … and then letting ourselves be led toward a deep renewal of the Good News: the vision of Jesus in all His true glory and love as God’s personal emissary to the wayward children He so longed for. He’s the One who invites us to participate in this renewal of His Body in the world! Will you pray for this?!