The Church and Reconciliation: 2014-2015 Calendar of Events

Evangelicals have long recognized reconciliation with God as the fruit of divine forgiveness. We have sometimes been less articulate about the social implications of Christ’s reconciling death.

Life in the world daily witnesses to the fact of world injustice and unimaginable evil. Closer to home, family conflict, broken relationships, and interpersonal strife punctuate our lives in varying degrees. Anger, resentment, jealousy, and in extreme cases violence and murder, are too familiar for most of us. Should we expect anything less from a people whose first family witnessed murder? As Christians, members of the household of God, we must expect more, both here and in the life to come. “Christians in community must again show the world the bond of the love of Christ,” Edmond Clowney wrote nearly 20 years ago. “Increasingly the ordered fellowship of the church becomes the sign of grace for the warring factions of a disordered world.”

In this year-long look at the issue of “The Church and Reconciliation,” we will consider the double-fruit of forgiveness – reconciliation with God and with others – focusing on the resources within the church and for the church not only to promote its fellowship in unity and holiness, but also to demonstrate the transforming power of the gospel in community to a watching world.