The Prophetic Church

Ancient Hebrew prophesy was not as much about foretelling future events as it was about inviting the people to embrace a new vision for the world, a vision of hope that incites justice and a passion for God (the two things that really seem to piss God off in the Old Testament are injustice and idolatry). The prophets displayed this vision in both word and deed in order to draw the people to repentance and to being true transformation for the sake of healing the world. It wasn't about escaping post-mortem judgement but it was about truly being the holy people that God had called them to be, the people through whom God would ultimately bless all nations.

Now, what if we thought in terms of prophesy... the ancient kind... when we thought about ecclesiology and/evangelism? What if we truly embraced the church as a prophetic people? Our mission would be much more holistic and our words would be much more than mere rhetoric. We would actually enact the vision which God has for the world and as a people we would put the kingdom of God on display, not for the purpose of getting people to think like us and not only to keep folks out of Hell but for the sake of true restoration and for the mending of all things. Ours would be a call to repentance, a call to transformation, and a reminder that God is One and that God is just.

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