In just the first few pages, I am drawn into Creating a Missional Culture by J R Woodward. He’ll get to the “problems” of the church… and that’s just a big fat target.

But he starts with what the Church IS… as the Lord created us. Enough of what we think the Church is NOT… too many books and blogs on that! Let us talk of what it IS… and build it by the power of the Spirit.

The church is to be a sign of God’s coming kingdom. We are pointing people to a reality of what is right around the corner.

The church is to be a foretaste of what is truly something different. The church is the place where people can get a taste of the future in the present.

The church is to be an instrument of God’s manifold wisdom (Eph. 3:10-11). We are the instrument through which God’s will for justice, freedom and peace is done in this world.

Woodward will then dive into the evidence of what the Church is not, but for those few bright shining paragraphs… I dream. I don’t just dream… I pray. I work. I build. This is what I want out of our church… and for this we pray!