I Liked Jesus Better Then 4

The medium really is the message, says Rubel Shelly in his new book, I Knew Jesus Before He Was a Christian… And I Liked Him Better Then. That famous line by Marshall McLuhan is applied by Shelly to the church: God has chosen to use a collection of clay pots to manifest who God is and what God is doing in this world. Shelly takes the opportunity to motivate us to see the potency of who we are and what God has called us to do.

What do you think of his idea that the church is the medium of the gospel today? What happens when we see church members as family members and not as fellow volunteers? Is your church more like a restaurant or a family?

But before we go any further, I want to make a point. Rubel Shelly is in the Churches of Christ, one of the three segments of the Restoration Movement. The other two are the Christian Church and the Disciples of Christ. I’ve received not a few letters and comments that folks appreciate I’ve acknowledged the Churches of Christ. I know some of their history, and I know some of them think they are the only truly faithful Christians in the world, but they aren’t. What I’d like to say to them is that they are one of us. They are not alone as they have sometimes thought but they are part of the worldwide church, and I value them. There. Now on with what Rubel Shelly says in this fine chp.

Jesus says some strong things about families, as when he said his true mother and brothers and sisters were those sitting around him (and not those in whose family he was nurtured). But this isn’t to disparage the “nuclear family but to magnify the value of extended family in Christ” (76).

Church isn’t something we do; worship isn’t a place to go; outreach is not a program. We are church, we worship as family, and love — in relationship — is genuine outreach.

What happens when we treat one another as family? Two things: we love God and we love others.

Here’s a big one: “Institutional Church functions more as a restaurant than as a family to its members” (79) and that means “a gathering is more like a family reunion than a restaurant visit.”

He tells a couple good stories — one of how a man was treated when he was found in sin; and then one when a pastor told an illegitimate child that he was a child of God.

He trots out the great “one another” texts in the NT.