{{2011_09_28_t1.jpg}} {{2011_09_28_t2.jpg}} {{2011_09_28_t3.jpg}} [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2011_09_28|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_iii|| Topics Collection iii ]] ======The Church III ...====== Wednesday, September 28, 2011. We are talking about what church can be and should be. We could spend a lot of time looking into what humans expect from the church. We could organise opinion polls. We could set up a democratic way to define a church. {{2011_09_28.jpg }} **What should church be? ...** But is it the right approach to church to follow our own ideas? Is the democratic approach to church definition right? What is the role of democracy in the church? Humans can, of course, invent their own church. I think we can observe that - there are religions or cults which look a little bit like someone has invented it. And there is a lot of pressure to form churches according to the expectations of particular groups or our main social streams. But we need to answer another question. What should the church of Jesus look like? What is the Christian church - and what should it be? It is not just an invention of humans. It is the church which started with Jesus. He deliberately started a new church by his apostles and disciples. His whole life and mission is to establish something new - in us and with us. {{ 2011_09_28_2.jpg}} **It is up to him! ...** What the church should look like is up to Jesus. And there is no other way - we cannot invent the church, it has already been invented. It is not up to us to decide what the church should do. Jesus is the head and leader of his church. He did this in the past, and through his spirit he is doing it today. I do not try to justify some conservative way, not a particular organizational part of his people. For me the church is all the people who live with him and believe in him. It is more than an organization, though I also see it living in and through organizations. The church is every day new, as is his grace on which the church is built. I am quite sure that when we search his presence, then we learn about the church. He will guide us to renew the church. It is a renewal which is coming from within. It is a renewal which is coming out of faith. When his love, his truth, his grace, his spirit are filling our hearts, then church will be fantastic ... (Roland Potthast) [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_iii|... more texts]]