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A Cross-Shaped Church
A Cross-Shaped Church
The Cross-shaped Church is a method of allowing the Holy Spirit to shape ourselves and our congregations into the likeness of Jesus. It consists of 3 steps, with the last one having 4 points.
1. Cross as Metonymy – The cross stands for the gospel. Every thing begins with Jesus. For this to effective, we all need a deeper understanding and appreciation of the good news concerning Jesus’s spiritual warfare, victory, and sovereignty.
2. Cross as Metaphor – Jesus said to carry a cross daily. This shapes us personally, internally, and by actions externally. This is the effect the gospel has on us. The deeper our knowledge and application of the gospel, the deeper our conversion.
3. Cross as Mnemonic Device – Once the gospel shapes us we are ready to serve in the 4 Purposes of a local congregation:
• Reaching UP to God in worship;
• Reaching DOWN to help needy saints as a congregation and needy unbelievers as individuals;
• Reaching IN to build up one another spiritually;
• Reaching OUT to spread the gospel. This last purpose allows others to go through this 3 step process culminating in these 4 purposes.
Although an oversimplification, let me show how all this fits together and flows sequentially.
1. Cross as Metonymy (TEACH IT) – The gospel is Jesus giving up himself including His rights, so that he can give himself to others. Because this is the order Jesus followed, it is the order we must imitate. This is giving up and giving to. Don’t think of giving up as negative because it is ultimately giving up, as in vertically, to God. This then leads to Jesus giving to, as in horizontally, to others. Sacrifice is related to sacred.
2. Cross as Metaphor (LIVE IT) – This is us practicing the gospel by giving up ourselves, denying self by giving ourselves to God. Sacrificial giving is a sacred and holy giving.
3. Cross as Mnemonic Device (SHARE IT) – This is us practicing the gospel by giving ourselves to others and to God. Only after sacrificing ourselves to God are we enabled by the Holy Spirit to be sacrificial towards others. That is the process of Jesus and therefore our process.
This is a cross-shaped church. Are we ready to be shaped by the cross? It is a never-ending process of being remade by Jesus’s cross.
* Scriptures will be supplied in the sermon(s). For the purpose of shortening this introduction, just the outline is listed. Hopefully you recognize the ideas to be scriptural.
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