I just started reading Craig Van Gelder’s The Essence of the Church: A Community Created by the Spirit, and I must say I’m really enjoying it so far. Unfortunately, I’m going to put it down for a few weeks as I try and get some reading done for a class coming up in June, but I hope to pick it up again as soon as possible. He really lines up with my view of the church, something I call a “robust ecclesiology” which sees the church as ontologically, at its essence, a Spirit-indwelt community of mission. We are not just a support group for individuals who happen to love Jesus. As Van Gelder says,

Understanding the church as being missionary by nature represents a more holistic way of thinking about mission. In this view, the Spirit-created church lives as the very body of Christ in the world. Its existence declares that the full power of God’s redemptive work is already active in the world through the Spirit. It lives as a demonstration that heaven has already begun for God’s people. This Spirit-led community possesses all the power of God’s presence, even while it awaits the final judgment of evil that will lead to the creation of the new heaven and new earth. (32)