The Church: Membership and Hospitality in an Economy of Grace

Lately, I have been asking a lot of “why” questions. I have been asking all types of “why” questions from basic questions like, “Why does Utah have such strange liquor laws?” and “Why have so many coffee shops emerged in Salt Lake City since the last time we were living here in 2005?” I have also asked some more substantial questions like, “Why move back to Salt Lake City after spending most of my adult life in the Midwest?” and “Why become a Presbyterian Pastor?” Then there are the “why” questions that we all ask and that we are often perplexed by or even haunted by. These questions include “Why does evil exist in the world?” and “Why do really bad things happy to good people?” Some of you right now may be asking some of these tougher questions as you go through some of life's toughest struggles.


As I wrestle with “why” questions I have been really encouraged by our current sermon series at New Song. The series is addressing such questions like the question of evil's existence and questions like “Why is there suffering in the world?” and “Why Believe in Jesus Christ?” Last Sunday's message addressed a question that seems today to be controversial, but nevertheless vitally important question, “Why the church?” Recently, there has been a strong movement (even among Christians) to leave the institutional Church, to flee organized religion. What is behind this? I believe there are many things including the failure of the Church to live out it's mission in the world with love and care (See the book Unchristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons for detailed statistics), The identity of the people of God is that of members of God's household even through all of its dysfunction in an economy of grace. ("Economy of grace" is a phrase my friend Danny uses in his context and explains here)

C.S. Lewis points out,

“The New Testament knows nothing of solitary religion. We are forbidden to neglect the assembling of ourselves together. Christianity is already institutional in the earliest of its documents. The Church is the Bride of Christ. We are members of one another.” (From an essay entitled “Membership” in The Weight of Glory, pg. 15)

Lewis goes on to say,

“The Christian is called not to individualism but to membership in the mystical body...The very word membership is of Christian origin, but has been taken over by the world and emptied of all meaning. In any book on logic you may see the expression “members of a class.” It must be most emphatically stated that the items or particulars included in a homogeneous class are almost the reverse of what St. Paul meant by members. By members ([Greek]) he meant what we should call organs, things essentially different from, and complementary to, one another, things differing not only in structure and function but also in dignity.” (Lewis, pg. 163-164)

As a Pastor, the question of “Why the church” has been important for me to wrestle with. But not only as a Pastor, as a Christian, this question has been vitally important to me. Why is this question important to me? Even with all of it's failure and faults, the church as an institution has a significant role in the unfolding story the Bible tells of the recreation and the renewal of the entire world. The biblical story from its beginning has looked forward to an internationalized people of God where it's members are unified and diverse and where each individual sees themselves as an important part of the whole corporate entity. God's mission to gather and redeem a multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-generational people is the story of the Bible. The story moves forward from God's claiming of an Israelite community to God's claiming of people of every nation (Rev. 7:9).

This unified and diverse body is to reflect the very nature of God and is called to reflect the hospitable God of the bible who is the host of his people, graciously welcoming them into his presence. Here on earth God has instituted the church as his vehicle to display God's hospitality in the world. The gathered people of God belong to the household of God that functions in an economy of Grace.

Christine Pohl states,

“Understanding the church as God's household has significant implication for hospitality. More than anywhere else, when we gather as church ourpractice of hospitality should reflect God's gracious welcome. God is host, and we are all guests of God's grace.” (Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition, Pg. 57)

It is among the household of God where we encounter the clearest picture of the host, Jesus Christ. Not only is the church the place where we hear the biblical story of God redeeming his people regularly through the preaching of God's word, and not only is the church the place where we see and experience the grace of God as the gathered people share bread and wine together, but the church is the place where the economy of grace is displayed in unity and diversity through hospitality. When the church functions like the church, there is no better place for us to run to with our most difficult and haunting questions. But this happens only when the church is being the church, that is, a place that welcomes the alienated, the stranger, the sojourner, and not simply the coolest, smartest, or most honest. Neither is a homogeneous gathering a place that replaces the church. To be the church is to welcome people of all walks of life offering hospitality in the economy of grace.

As Danny puts it in communicating his philosophy of hospitality,

“the economy of grace demands that such hospitality be, at the very least, risk free for the recipient.”

The church is the place where we ought to go risk free when it comes to asking the most difficult questions of life. The church is the place to with our most perplexing questions and our most haunting questions knowing that the church consists of a messy, a broken people, but nevertheless a people to whom God has descended to and welcomed in. Our most perplexing and haunting questions only get more perplexing and haunting in isolation. Christianity knows nothing of solitary religion and so we bring our questions to the Host and to his guests in this economy of grace, the church.

To check out the "Why" series on itunes go here.