If our local churches are really mission-equipping-agents, then our identity as participants in God’s in-breaking kingdom will define how we see ourselves as participants in the Spirit of Jesus’ mission. Paul used the metaphor of the human body for the Corinthian believers, to illustrate how every organ’s function needs to contribute to each other organs life so that the body might function well. It is unified by the Spirit of Christ, so that he as its Lord might unite each part to serve God and others in a harmonious manner. This image of the body of Christ was not of a stationary statue like figure, but rather of a mobile living organism. The body of Christ is mobile. It is a missional body, sent by the Spirit of Christ to participate in making disciples of others. The body of Christ is mobilized by the Spirit to model to those we interact with what it looks like when Christ is part of our lives. Each person as a member of it is to be like an Auto-Theo-Biography (ATB). This kind ATB it is a kind of story each of us live by as a kind of narrative of how God is at work among us. Ward uses the concept of ATB (in Mediation and Participation in the Liquid Church) to represent how Scripture and the presence of the Spirit in our lives means that God helps us to develop our Christian identities with reference to the Christian story. Paul described the lifestyles of those who had Christ in them to be like a sweet fragrance that others could smell and appreciate, or a living letter that communicated Christ’s presence to others. It is alluring and compelling to those whose spiritual senses are livened and inspired by God’s Spirit.
Andy Hardy
Undergraduate Programme Director