Still On-Purpose?
by Jared Johnson
This month, we have heard several takes on “purpose” in an individual sense. I don’t have anything to add to what’s already been said very well on that front.
One of my favorite metaphors that helps us think about corporate purpose comes from, of all things, flight.
What do you see in this image?
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/6372670 National Archive; public domain; B-52s at Davis-Monthan Air Force storage facility
May I put words in your mouth and assume you thought something like “old planes?”
How do we know they’re old planes? Did you come to that conclusion by their general shape? Was your initial impression of “plane” modified by “old” once you noticed that certain parts are missing?
Just what makes up an “airplane?”
Is an object a plane just because of its shape? Of course not, because a few wood scraps can be slapped together to look like a plane. A model or toy is supposed to look like a plane, but can’t do what a plane does.
There are at least 3 general ways to define an airplane: function, design, and composition.
By function, we could say a plane is a human-built, heavier-than-air transport machine (as opposed to blimps or hot air balloons).
In design, we could say a plane is a mechanical device made to transport things of value (people, cargo…) through the air (not primarily for driving on land or floating on water).
In composition, a plane is a mechanical device with a fuselage, wings, air-dependent propulsion (i.e. not a rocket), control systems and surfaces, landing gear (skis, floats or wheels), etc.
Which of those three definitions are apparent in the above image?
I don’t think we can use a compositional definition as many parts are missing. Both of those planes should have 8 engines each; out of 16 possible, there are precisely zero in the picture! One plane is even missing its entire nose and cockpit. Both of them are missing significant portions of their wings – paneling, control surfaces, etc. By virtue of their parts, their components, they aren’t planes.
Functionally, they’re lacking as well. Neither of those agglomerations of metal can function like a plane in their current state.
Though their composition and function are both lacking, we know their design hasn’t changed. They were conceived and originally built as heavier-than-air transports of airmen and bombs (they’re US Air Force B-52s).
Design, composition and function don’t always go hand-in-glove.
Therein lies the church parallel.
As a gathering of Jesus’s followers, we’re united (John 17.20-21). We’re “one body” with many parts (1 Cor. 12). We don’t show favoritism (James 2.1-7). We carry each other’s burdens and deal with each other patiently (Gal. 6.2 and Eph. 4.2). There’s a measure of financial equality among us and no needy people (2 Cor 8.13 and Acts 4.34).
Or...
How often do we fall short of each and every one of those expectations, examples, commands?
Our King “came to destroy the work of the devil” (1 John 3.8). What does our enemy do? He kills, steals and destroys (John 10.10). He ends lives. He takes away whatever he can. He breaks apart whatever he can lay his hands on.
“Church” should be where our enemy’s work is hardest to find in people’s lives.
Jesus ensures that “church” is where sent ones, truth tellers, good news sharers, spiritual shepherds and teachers “equip God’s people to do his work and build up the Church, the body of [the Anointed One]” (paraphrase and quote of Ephesians 4.11-12). It’s where God’s people are prepared, setup and sent out to be His mouth, hands and feet to a world that so desperately needs Him. Every person who’s ever lived is God’s child (Malachi 2.10), but a great many of His kids live their entire lives and go to their graves estranged from Him.
So is “church,” your home congregation and mine, where people are both meeting their heavenly Father, being “called out of darkness and into his wonderful light” (1 Pet. 2.9), and then growing in relationship to full maturity in Him (Eph. 4.13), seeing less and less spiritual darkness in their lives (1 John 2.6 & 3.8)?
If not, is your gathering still “church?” If a wad of metal can’t takeoff and take me from Indy to a city far away, is that hunk of metal still a plane? If a church doesn’t do what’s described of churches in the New Testament, is it still a “church?” Only Jesus has the right and capacity to answer that definitively, though in my arrogance I certainly have thoughts.
If a church struggles to see people coming to faith, growing in relationship with God, and pushing back the enemy’s work, there’s still hope. Only Jesus knows when a lampstand has been removed (Rev. 2.5).
While no metaphor is perfect, today’s word picture from aviation lends itself well to our purposes...
https://www.dm.af.mil/Media/Article-View/Article/666379/resurrection-of-the-ghost-rider/ Air Force website af.mil; public domain; airframe 61-0007 taking off from Davis-Monthan (AZ) to Barksdale (LA) for refurbishment
US defense officials have decided to upgrade dozens of 60+-year old planes to a new standard and keep them flying for about 3 more decades. Pictured above is “Ghost Rider,” which was taken out of the very boneyard pictured early in this piece! It was given a couple hundred man-hours of TLC, then flown off to another base to be upgraded. It arrived at Barksdale Air Force Base (Louisiana) as a B-52H and will be reworked into a B-52J; new engines, new radar, new wiring, and more.
Some deliberate effort “resurrected” an old air frame to keep it functioning ... with all the right components ... to fulfill its original design.
No metaphor is perfect, but at e2, we have been privileged to see multiple churches “take flight” again, seeking, saving, and maturing people more into Jesus’s character after seasons of intense struggle, seasons when their one remaining elder called us and literally said “we don’t know if we’ll still be open next month.” In those situations, Jesus did the remarkable and we had front-row seats to see it!
Our purpose is our King’s purpose: to seek, save and mature people into Jesus’s image by His Spirit’s work, destroying the fiendish influence of our enemy and accuser in the lives of people who are worth the infinite price tag of our Savior’s blood.
