Reconciliation

I'm finishing a paper up for my class this quarter. It asks the question of how the writings of Paul and the book of Acts can be used to help lead our churches. The aspect I think I'm going to key in on is the idea of reconciliation.

As I read throughout Paul and in Acts, it seems that the mission of the church was to live out the story of God--a story that began with the Creator seeking to reconcile his people to himself. How does this happen? How is this story told?

I think that the most clear way of "telling" the story is through lives that are modeling this reconciliation. It's been said that the single largest cause of atheism is Christians... "who acknowledge Jesus with their lips but deny him by their lifestyle." In thinking about the CHURCH... where can we begin to model the reconciliation that God longs to bring to life in the lives of those far from him? Where does this take place?

I think it stretches from an individual to a global and cosmic level. What if we began ACTIVELY restoring relationships in the church we each attend? What if we refused to allow disunity? What if we carried this into our communities, toward people we've offended both individually and as church bodies? What if we sought reconciliation at political levels, racial levels, socioeconomic levels, family levels, and on and on and on?

Perhaps it's too idealistic, but I think this is the mission we have as storytellers of God's reconciling plan for the universe.

Any thoughts?

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