Get Your Pretense On!

Chapter 3: ”There’s Plenty Good Room” • 75

seminary, or vote, or participate in the body politic. They still experienced the life of the Kingdom.

The first president of World Impact, the parent ministry of TUMI, summed up the importance of the church in the life of poor people when he stated this: Planting churches is the only way to transform alienation into hope, and chaos into peace. It was true in the first century and it is true today. If ever there were people who deserved the nurture, love, protection, and affirmation of the Church, it is the urban poor. The Church is one institution that the poor can run themselves – without government, or monied and influential people calling the shots. The Church empowers the poor. 12 The Church Is Central in the Consummation of God’s SalvationWork Finally, let me argue that the Church will be central in the consummation of God’s salvific work. The church is God’s agent of the Gospel, the pillar and ground of the truth of the Gospel, the vehicle through which God’s reconciliation through Jesus is testified of throughout the world. The church is called to proclaim the Gospel to the nations (Mark 13.10; Matt. 24.14), and must fulfill this mission before the consummation of the age. Of all the nations, institutions, and entities, on earth, we can be confident of the Church’s integrity and place in both time and eternity! Jesus made it plain that his intent was to leave and prepare a place for his people, and once completed, he would return and gather them to himself (John 14.1-6). By the grace of God, it will be the Church that Jesus returns for on that Great Day of consummation, and she will be caught up together to be with the Lord forever (1 Thess. 4.13-18). According to the will of God, the Church will be judged by our risen Lord and receive