prophetic church

Love God.
Love others.
That’s pretty-much it.

It would be prophetic if we just really did that… ‘cause nobody does that.

(Names in parenthesis are names I associate with this realization.)

How are we different (prophetic)?

The church is arguably “prophetic” in a number of ways. It calls itself, its own House, back to faithfulness to God and being a fairer demonstration in the world of His Kingdom of righteousness, peace (shalom) and joy in the Spirit (Romans 14:17). This suggests more than the call to mimic certain behaviors of Jesus or Paul or others, but the call to live out of the fullness found in God and the Body of Christ as participants in the missio Dei (God’s mission to the world). In another sense the church is prophetic; it calls all people and human systems and organizations into harmony with God’s now and not-yet Kingdom (acting as a sign and a foretaste of the coming Kingdom which has broken into this “present evil age”, as Paul labels it, and will one day be experienced in fullness). These two ways of being prophetic are of course directly linked to one another, with the first call to the church itself being of foundational importance to the church’s effectiveness in carrying out the second (to the world). And because the church is made up of imperfect people (like myself) who only see in a mirror dimly, it will continually tend to stray or capitulate to ways of being and operating that reflect the entrapments of its host culture – not to mention sin within its own ranks. Much of time these entrapments and/or sin will not be clearly seen (the proverbial fish who cannot see the water in which it swims); but some are adopted perpetrated knowingly by church leadership. Hence, the prophetic call to return will need to be regularly heard and embraced (in the latter case, repentance too). To the extent that this happens, the church’s prophetic witness to culture will be strengthened.

There are two ways to answer this question. The first follows the normal biblical usage of prophecy and its cognates. When the Bible speaks of people who are prophets and others who prophesy, the Bible is unequivocal about the nature of the prophecy. The Lord has given words (and occasionally actions) to someone to speak (or act) on His behalf. The majority of these prophecies were given at one particular moment. They are not Spirit inspired thoughts that develop and take root overtime. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians explaining the usage of prophesy in the church, it is clear that he was writing about words given “in the moment” and was not talking about a carefully developed exegetical sermonette, even if such was Spirit led. There is a clear distinction between teachings and prophecies.

The word ‘prophetic’ has an individual and a corporate sense to it. Individually, the prophet is the man or woman of God who gives fresh truth from God to the believing community. Corporately, the prophetic church likewise reveals God’s truth and intentions to the world.

By Steve Ganz

Moses was having a bad day. The whole nation was complaining that they wanted meat, and God was ticked off. People were dying and crying and Moses was tired of carrying the whole weight. So Moses told the LORD, “If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now — if I have found favor in your eyes — and do not let me face my own ruin.”

By Nathan Willard

In the city of Portland, Oregon there is a square. It is a brick-paved depression in the center of downtown surrounded by tall buildings, which block out much of the fickle autumn sunlight. This square has been named Pioneer Square. There is another Pioneer Square in Seattle. A young man I know was drinking heavily one night in Portland, he asked strangers for a ride to Pioneer Square and ended up in Seattle. The one in Portland has been nicknamed “Portland’s Living Room”. However, it takes a very special event to entice the upstanding citizens of Portland to linger. Instead they briskly skirt by it, shopping at Nordstrom’s, grabbing a latte from the Starbucks placed in its Northwestern corner, or hopping on The Max, the light rail train. If you walk past the square, a fundamentalist screamer may harangue you. This could be a man with a picket sign declaring his belief that the holocaust is a Jewish conspiracy.  Or a group verbally attacking a tuba band playing Christmas carols may aim their righteous anger at you. “Christmas is a pagan holiday,” they say. “Jesus hates Christmas.” But, everyone knows Jesus loves, he doesn’t hate. Isn’t that what the Church tells us? These day war protestors congregate there and they bang pots and pans for peace.

There are the gentle religious folk, the happy-glad-handers, who sit with the home bums and street kids, who may attempt a conversation with a gutter punk – those are the wealthy kids from Beaverton who look homeless. They usually sit on a stone wall in front the old courthouse – I think that’s what that building is. These do-gooders pass out socks, food, toiletries, condoms, etc. But, there isn’t as much of all that these days. The city didn’t appreciate the few Portlandites who used the square as their living room and has successful driven them off to spots that only the street people know. Now people from the suburbs can pass by the square without being inconvenienced by Portland’s parasitical population. No, the undesirables are conveniently removed from view, unless you happen to wander north of Burnside, or into Waterfront Park. That’s outside the safe confines of the Saturday market, for now.