Rebranding the ChurchSample

Looking Back to Look Ahead

What do you think of when you hear the word church? Even those who reject Jesus should recognize the church for qualities that would garner respect in most settings: love, generosity, philanthropy, patience, and a sense of justice. Yet many today think of the church as full of hypocritical, self-righteous, out-of-touch, unloving, judgmental, and self­ish people.

Even many in the church are struggling to discover who they are again. Others are trying to restore the church back to the way she was before the pandemic and recent political divides, but she will never be the same.

The church today is in an identity crisis and the way forward begins with looking backward. We need to recapture the essence of what the church is biblically meant to be. To make Christ, not personal preferences, center stage again. To bring back the church’s saltiness in the world. Though the truth of God’s Word never changes, we must change. We must ask ourselves how we can live more faithfully for Jesus in the unique context in which God has placed us.

In 1 Peter 2:11-12, Peter exhorted believers to be intentional about cultivating their reputation in a non believing world: “Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul. Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits” (CSB). God has placed the responsibility for the reputa­tion of the church on the shoulders of every believer. When we trust Jesus, we are automatically drafted into representing our team.

The early church that Jesus gave birth to was remarkable. Members loved each other and sought to live out Jesus’s teaching (see Acts 2:42–47). I believe many communities of believers are still striving to live this way. Even so, there have always been seasons of pruning in the church—times when God allows the church to suffer so she can grow to be more like Jesus. Though we may be in one of those seasons right now, by remembering the church’s past, we can look to God to lead us toward a brighter future.

What would you say is the most effective way to communicate God’s love and truth to an unbelieving world?