Thoughts on Church

As my heart, life, issues and understanding evolves over time on what God is doing in and through me and our family I also begin to always look and listen for what Church should, can and may be in the future. I love the the work of God, the Holy Spirit's power and the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. I have to admit I do struggle with the church as we know it today and have read about it throughout history. I still go, think about it, pray for it and dream on how it can be a better representation of the Kingdom work of God. Lately I have been thinking and reflecting on Jesus' and Paul's use of Kingdom through out the Bible. I don't have many concrete thoughts yet but I did read an article out of the Roots magazine that Calvary Bible Church's (Boulder, Colorado) pastor Tom Shirk wrote that I thought was a good thought on the church outside it's four walls. Christine and I have many friends who go there as we attended there for 13 years. Here is the article in full:

Grace at the Crossroad
Serving Our Community in Love

by Pastor Tom Shirk

THE NAME OF THE LORD IS a strong tower; the righteous run into it and are safe. The Lord is the tower, unmovable, unchanging, always faithful, and mighty to save.

A mighty fortress is our God! A bulwark never failing!

While God Himself is unchanging, the Church is not! His Church is not a fortress. It is more of a lighthouse, or a hospital, or a treatment center – a gracious outpost for spiritual and physical help. The Church is a living and dynamic organism, comprised of transformed but flawed people.

Sometimes churches can begin to think of themselves as the fortress: established ministries into which members can run to find safe and unchanging traditions that were good enough for their parents’ parents. Some people want a church in which you’ll always find things the same – the same hymns, same liturgy, same everything. One of the dangerous realities of an established church is its tendency to expend too much time and too many resources just keeping the organization operating as it always has. It’s natural for large organizations to inevitably tend toward maintenance and institutional preservation. But, when that becomes the focus, a church will lose its distinctiveness as an effective source of grace to the world.

This is not to suggest, of course, that the message or mission of the church must change. Only that the approach to fulfilling our mission must sometimes become more effective. Calvary Bible Church’s mission remains: we’re building a Christ-centered community of people fully devoted to loving God and loving others. Loving others motivates us to look outside of ourselves, not at ourselves. We must become better at having an internal fortitude of spiritual strength and vitality, but also an external focus on extending the grace of Jesus Christ to the world.

One of my good friends, Alan Kraft, who pastors Christ Community Church in Greeley, Colorado recently said to me, “The best metaphor for understanding the role of the church in the world is not as a force, nor as a fortress, but as a fragrance.” I like that! The apostle Paul put it this way, “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” We don’t seek to become a force which takes over the world. We don’t want to become a fortress to hide away from the world. We seek to be a fragrance, spilled out in the presence of the world so they may enjoy the sweet aroma of our gracious Savior.

As an externally focused church, we set our gaze outside the four walls of our buildings to find appropriate intersections between the needs of our community and the gifts, resources, and grace within our church family. Calvary seeks the welfare of our community, moving outside our four walls to extend good deeds and good news for local and global kingdom impact. We measure the effectiveness of these good deeds not by the number of people who attend, but by the transformational impact they are making in the world.

In May, Calvary was recognized at the inaugural Kingdom Assignment Awards in Aliso Viejo, California. The Kingdom Assignment Foundation honored Calvary for our on-going dedication to service in our community. I was so proud to represent your commitment to loving others through tangible acts of service.

Calvary continually looks for opportunities to extend grace through effective service. We are convinced of these spiritual realities:

• Christians who do not serve other people are not mature, no matter how much Biblical knowledge they have. Serving others is one of the greatest catalysts to spiritual growth.


• The threshold of service does not have to be very high in order for people to make an impact. Working together for one weekend during Sharefest, 750 members of Calvary radically improved the welfare of local schools and social service organizations.


• Servants can go anywhere. Once you are prepared to serve the least, God opens opportunities you never dreamed of before.


• Partnership with other organizations creates greater effectiveness. As we have worked with other organizations within Boulder and Weld Counties we have become friends with people we didn’t even know five years ago. And they love us! They consider us trusted partners.

Categories: Church, Kingdom