Proclaimer Blog
The Great Ministry of Reconciliation
How do we make sure that the church lives out its calling, as a sign of God's plan to bring a broken world back together? That was the subject of Vaughan Robert's (our president!) Bible Exposition, of Ephesians 4:1-16, at the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation . It is a compelling message, showing us how unity isn't a vague, hand-waving, affair but a reality worked out by word gifts that feed every-member ministry and builds our churches to maturity.
Rather nicely for us, Vaughan's message manages to really convey all that we at PT are about, without ever mentioning it or doing anything but a clear exposition of Paul's words. Here's a taster:
‘but this is the great ministry of reconciliation by which God brings people to Christ and matures people in Christ. And as the word of God goes out by the spirit we will find our churches growing, our unity deepening, and more and more, God willing, people will say ‘look how those Christians love one another’, and they will see a foretaste of the great unity of all things: when God is all in all, Christ brings everything together in him, and when at last the world will truly be as one.’
And here's the real thing, at least for those who can put up with Vaughan's luminous background: