The cultured church
Martha Olawale
“So, in Christ, we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Romans 12:5
The polarization in our world is overwhelming and the language is overly divisive. In place of unity, people are divided and thrown into battle arenas, grouped black, grey, white, majority, minority, rich and poor. Our differences are magnified, and our joint venture of humanity is suppressed under the demands of racial and cultural identity. The wholeness for which we are all created by God is fractured into nonessentials. When you think you’ve found the niche to hang on to, you realize there are more tiny fragments, and you need to realign.
The message of the cross is different in every way. It is unifying because there are no fractions in heaven and there should be none in the church. God delights in all His children and we should not act differently when Christians who don’t look like us walk through the doors of our church because our focus is to bring “all” to the knowledge of Christ (1Timothy 2:4). It’s okay when the worship team does look like most people in the room because it’s not about us but about glorifying God. The church should reflect Heaven and if that’s where we are headed, we have to start getting used to sharing the path that leads there with others.
The cultured church is not defined by race. She is the reflection of Heaven. Our identity is rooted in our faith in the Lord Jesus and when we walk through the doors of any church standing on the truth of God’s word, it is home. It doesn’t matter what the people look like or what the predominant culture in the building is, it just matters who they follow. And if they proclaim Christ as Lord, they are family.
The Christ factor in Christendom eliminates the fractures that divide the world. The wedges between us are blurred out by the blood of Jesus and we are unified by His crucifixion and resurrection. As followers of the divine nature of Christ, our culture mimics the nature of our father and our eternal home—Heaven. Though we are many, we are one body! We chant for the same cause and walk the same path with the same hope of the glory of standing before our Savior.
