Our vision as a denomination is to be a Church reforming to reach the lost for Christ. This was adopted as our vision by Synod 2006. It’s underneath our name on our official website, and it even has it’s own page on our website: https://crca.org.au/about-the-crca/vision But what does it mean to be a church reforming to reach the lost for Christ?

The basic meaning of the word ‘reform’ is to make changes to something in order to improve it. When we use the word ‘reform’ in relation to the church, we aren’t just talking about making our churches run better, but rather making them run more biblically. This was the purpose of the Reformers in the 16^th Century, they wanted to change the church so that it would reflect Scripture. In fact, the Latin phrase ‘semper reformanda (always reforming)’, is actually part of a larger statement, ‘semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei (always reforming according to the Word of God)’.

But this isn’t a task that was completed 500 years ago, it’s one that we have to continually commit ourselves to. This is why we want to continue ‘reforming,’ so that our church today more and more reflects the truths of God’s word, the things that God values, and the purposes he has for the church. We don’t change for the sake of change, we change for the sake of aligning ourselves more and more with God’s will.

Our denominational vision sees the goal of reforming, not just for the good of the church, but for the purpose of mission, to reach the lost for Christ. We want to see changes in our church, not just so the saved will benefit, but so that the lost will be saved. That was Jesus’ mission, ‘to seek and to save the lost. (Lk 19:10)’ And that is the mission of the church, to ‘make disciples of all nations. (Mt 28:19)’

The question is what changes are we making in our churches to reach the lost for Christ? The truth is many of us don’t like change, we like things just the way they are. The real question we should be asking ourselves is: is what we are doing really a reflection of God’s word, or a reflection of our traditions, our culture, or our preferences? It’s easy to say, of course we’re biblical! It’s a lot harder to ‘examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. (2 Cor 13:5)’

So, how do we examine what we do, or what might need changing, in order to reach the lost for Christ? Firstly, and most obviously, we need to ask what the Bible teaches. Are we doing what the Bible tells us to do, not just the bits of the Bible that we like, but the whole Bible? That means, not just worshipping in a biblically correct way, but proclaiming the gospel in a biblically correct way.

But what does that look like practically? How do we live out the teaching of Scripture? The best approach is examining the life of Jesus. How did Jesus live out God’s word in his life? How did Jesus understand and emulate God’s values in his life? If Jesus’ ministry perfectly reflected God’s purposes, what does that mean for how we do church, and what our priorities ought to be? The truth is always reforming according to God’s word is the same as becoming more and more like Jesus. How is your church reflecting Jesus, his priorities, his values, his love for the lost? And what do you need to change to be more like Jesus in reaching the lost?