Chapter four and five
Student’s name
Institutional affiliation
Chapter four comprises the nature of God’s church and its mission in North American. The chapter explores how the societies in the region expect the church exists as the vendor of faith services and good to the communities (Guder & Barrett, 1998). Furthermore, the life of the church requires the rehearing of the gospel by returning to the biblical teachings. As a result, the church would navigate against the challenges encountered due to recent trends in social and cultural systems. On the same note, the chapter explains the nature of good news, which explores the gospel of describing the life of Jesus Christ (Guder & Barrett, 1998). The gospel defines the reign of God in which the church continues to spread the word of God to different people. Notably, the reign of God exists as the missional perspective in which the church significantly gets involved in the construction of the kingdom of God. According to Guder and Barrett (1998), Jesus Christ acted as the servant of the reign of God through His mission in whom he exercised its authority over issues such as oppression, alienation as well as domination. Moreover, church power and culture get intertwined as culture closely relates to power, which works for good or evil (Guder & Barrett, 1998). Every person lives in a set of culture in which defines their practices and social understandings. Similarly, the church exists as the alternative culture despite the hostile societies and the government it operates in hence offering alternative sets of behaviors, ethics, and relationships (Guder & Barrett, 1998). Moreover, the new testaments exist as the political language for the churches to use while on different missional works. Guder and Barrett (1998) explain that the gatherings comprise the citizens of heaven as the church represents the reign of God various assemblies around the work in diverse cultural backgrounds. Equally, missional church shares and built the foundation on the body of Christ, as indicated in the New Testament. As per Guder and Barrett (1998), the body possesses many parts but works together in the unity of the same spirit. In the current world, the church continues with the work of Jesus Christ through missional work comprising preaching, healing, and teaching communities the word of God not only in North American but also in the rest of the world.
Personally, most valuable issues in the reading material exist as the church as the body of Christ and explained in the new testaments. Working together as the church despite the difference, as members, just like parts of the body for the common goal, significantly helps in missional church work. Furthermore, working together as a church enables Christians to achieve different missional goals, which make them citizens of heaven. Moreover, church as an alternative culture persists as a suitable approach and strategy to incorporate in daily thinking and practices. Such a strategy would enable changes in surrounding behaviors and ethics and follow the Christian way.
Culture indirectly or directly associates with power in various societies. The cultural system comprises language, customs, and traditions that offer individuals their identity as well as powers to focus on evil or right. Churches get surrounded by culture or cultures as their neighbors hence sharing different aspects such as food and languages and related customs. Churches, just like Jesus, conducts the gospel work in a specified cultural context in a particular time and place. The church should interact and engage with different cultures, but never should they get controlled by the cultural setting of the environment. Based on this fact, in dominant cultures where church communities speak the local language, they should cultivate and form the culture of God and not that of the world.
References
Guder, D. L., & Barrett, L. (1998). Missional Church: A vision for the sending of the church in North America. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.