The High Definition Leader by Derwin L. Gray

Author:Derwin L. Gray
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2015-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

The church represents the divine reign as its sign and foretaste. Themes woven into the fabric of the book of Ephesians illustrate this intended meaning. When the author speaks of the breaking down of the barriers between Jews and Gentiles ([Ephesians] 2:11ff.) that has resulted from expansion of the gospel mission to the Gentile world, he states that this profound social change within the small community of Christians represents God’s purposes for the world: “that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of two, thus making peace” (2:15). The emerging multicultural church is here a foretaste of God’s redeeming purposes for the world, which is the mystery now revealed: “that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (3:6). This point is even more explicit when the church is described as the sign of God’s wisdom for the cosmos: “so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (3:10). As a sign represents something else and as a foretaste represents something yet to come, the church points away from itself to what God is going to complete.11

Despite this biblical exposition of God’s heart for the local church on earth, the missional movement in America has missed the most important gospel reality. If the church in America is going to be truly missional and equip local congregations, we must grab hold of Jesus’ heart for diverse local churches.

Multiethnic Churches Are About the Great Commandment to Love

As I said in chapter 3, a vision of the future transforms what you do today. At Transformation Church, our vision is that one day thousands and thousands of people, in response to the unsearchable riches of Christ, would love God with all of their hearts, minds, souls, and strength and that they would love their neighbors—white, black, Asian, Latino, mixed ethnicities, rich, poor, middle class—as they love themselves. Wouldn’t that be a beautiful world? That experience would be heaven on earth, and it would be a sign and foretaste of Revelation 5:9–12. It’s thoroughly God’s heart. This is Jesus’ Great Commandment and the Great Commission. When he was questioned about this, Jesus had this response:

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