Editorial: The church of, the church for

A video shown during this year’s Tulsa Workshop in Oklahoma reminds us of the power and importance of those words of Paul, recorded in Romans 16:16.

Brute Wolf, a member of the Park Plaza Church of Christ in Tulsa, produced the video, incorporating footage of church signs across the area, dropping out the word “Christ.” He asks how others see us — as the Church of Sound Theology? The Church of Cakes and Casseroles? The Church of the Cool Web Site?
What Christ wants others to see, he counters, is the Church for the Poor, for the Abused, for the Prisoners, for the Lonely.
The Church for Anyone.
“We are the church for the labeled,” he says. “These buildings hold a family of misfits where everyone’s welcome.”
We pray that these words describe us. We appreciate the visual reminder of the type of believers we’re called to be — rooted in truth, showing love and mercy to the helpless and hurting.We must be the people from whom the love and compassion of God flows — not people who enjoy the gift of God only for themselves. We repent of the sins that cause others to see us as unwelcoming and cold. We repent of the petty arguments that have divided us.
Christ should be in our heart and in our soul, just as he’s in our name. We recognize the responsibility — and the mercy — that comes with being “of Christ.”
There simply is no greater name to be for — or of.