The Community of the Church: A Reflection on Stanley Grenz's Perspective

The Community of the Church: A Reflection on Stanley Grenz's Perspective

SUN Yi

This essay deals with the question of whether the identities of individual regenerated Christians of a church or the communal nature of the Church takes precedence in defining the nature of the Church. The answer we give depends on how we understand the nature of the Church.

This paper argues for the communal foundation of the Church by means of the three perspectives proposed by Stanley Grenz. First of all, the Church consists of members who are both a people in covenant with God and, at the same time, bear the sign of God's kingdom. Second, the Church is to testify to God's future kingdom, that is, God's activity in history, including the consummation of God's plan in his eschatological reign, when God's purposes for the world will ultimately be fulfilled. Third, the Church community should reflect the life of the triune God, which is in a constant relationship of love among the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The paper concludes that, as a community, the Church's structure is not mainly based on some special characteristics of her individual members but rather on the nature of her head, that is, Christ Jesus.