We Don't Exist to Promote Moral Values

We've had some demographic data pulled for the southwest corner of Houston's inner loop (where Redemption Church is located), and I think some of it is very compelling regarding why we are in the process of starting a new church. The bottom line from all this demographic data is that there are many good churches in our area, but the area desperately needs more good churches. Perhaps the most telling statistic we've unearthed is this:

80% of the people in Redemption Church's area agreed that "the role of churches is to help form and support moral values."

Notice that this doesn't say "a role" but "the role." In other words, the purpose for which churches exist is morality. Maybe this doesn't seem so problematic to you, but here's why it is hugely problematic in my mind:

The church actually exists because of the grace of God for the purpose of being transformed by the grace of God and making the grace of God as widely known as possible.

To think that the church exists for the sake of morality is to think that the church is all about what we do, all about our actions, all about us cleaning ourselves up somehow so that we might not earn punishment from God. But God says we've already earned punishment from Him--every one of us. So if the church exists only for morality's sake, it might as well not exist.

However, the church is not ultimately all about what we do--it's all about what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. It's all about the eternally divine Son of God becoming human for our sake, to do for humanity what humanity could not do for itself. The church was created by grace. More than that, the church continues to exist by grace, and its primary responsibility in the world is to make known God's amazing grace--the free, God-initiated blessing that gives us all better than we deserve in Christ.

This should not surprise us because God is a God of grace, and that's one of the primary things He wants us to know about Him.

Even way back in the Old Testament when God was first making Himself known to humanity, one of the first things He tells us about Himself is that He is full of grace. Way back in the Book of Exodus, shortly after Moses had led Israel out of slavery in Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, and received the Ten Commandments, Moses had asked God to show him more of Himself. God responded by descending in a cloud of darkness around Moses, standing there with him, and proclaiming His own name (in other words, explaining who He really is). Here's the very first part of what God proclaimed: 

YHWH, YHWH, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (Exodus 34:6)

He could have identified Himself as the God of morality or the God who approves of human morality or any number of other things. But instead, God chose to identify Himself as the God of grace. And so we exist to revel in and proclaim the good news of His grace. 

With such misunderstanding all around us, Redemption Church has a fantastic opportunity to share hope and turn people's worlds upside down through the good news of the grace of God.

It's sometimes easy to act like Eeyore in the face of these kinds of statistics because there is an immense amount of confusion about Christ and His church all around us. (If 80% agreed with the statement that churches exist for morality's sake, who knows how many of the other 20% understand anything about grace.) However, this means that we have great opportunity to share surprisingly great news with people about God's love for them in Jesus Christ.

If you want to see Houston and the world transformed grace like we do, won't you join us?