“The purpose of the church is not to prove Christianity is true, but to demonstrate what the world is like if it is.”

The essential function of missional life is a demonstrative one. The story of faith is meeting Jesus, whenever or however you do, and leaving changed. A pastor I know says often that everything changes because Christ becomes your life. Our call once we have experienced grace is to extend that same grace “to the ends of the earth.”

I do not see that grace in most of Western culture’s church. I think a large part of this is the fact that we’ve forgotten whom we ought to demonstrate to. Many or most of the church’s resources are spent on programs and opportunities for people who are already believers. I do not want to negate the importance of growth and discipleship for current believers, indeed, a large part of my faith was grown by a church youth group that I grew up in. However, if the quote mentioned above is true, we have to remind ourselves that we are the proof for Christianity, and we don’t need to be proof for people who are already Christians.

The question becomes, then, what are we to demonstrate? When posed with that question, I often find myself resorting to theological and theoretical answers; but abstract concepts are not going to communicate to the people of the world that Jesus loves them. We forget that it is Jesus who first changed us, not the theology. By it we discount our own experience. Most Christians I know did not themselves come to believe because of a theology. Why do we expect the world to? Our stories are beautiful and valuable, and if we take them for the truth that they are, we will behave differently, and that is what the world sees. When we tell our stories truthfully, the world sees Christ’s love, and longs for him to be a part of their stories as well.