A Christ-Centered Place to Believe, Belong, and Become
In one sentence, how would you answer the question, “What’s the purpose of the church?”
I preached on that question from Colossians 1 at Cornerstone Community Church.
Links 
Audio link forthcoming…
And here’s the introduction…
The Bowen Center
If you take Route 30 and drive 90 miles east, you’ll come to the quaint town of Warsaw, Indiana. If you make a right turn onto Main Street, you’ll find Kosciusko Community Hospital. Then, if you walk down a long hallway from the hospital ER going east, you’ll find the locked doors to the Otis R. Bowen Center for Human Services.
The Bowen Center, as it’s now called, is a five-country, government-run, psychiatric inpatient unit for individuals struggling with life issues. It’s a state-of-the art facility with the best of the best the world has to offer to hurting people. I know, because during the four years that I was earning my Th.M. at Grace Theological Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana, I worked at the Bowen Center as a Mental Health Counselor.
The Bowen Center sought to be a place to believe. The Chief Medical Officer had a clear, focused set of beliefs about emotional and mental health. He expected his philosophy of living and psychological belief system to saturate every aspect of patient care.
The Bowen Center also sought to be a place to belong. They desperately tried to replicate a family setting with a community feel. As staff and patients, we shared meals together, took walks together, played games together, laughed together, and cried together. Patients shared with us their dreams and their dash dreams, their hopes and their hurts.
The Bowen Center also sought to be a place to become—to become more healthy and mature as people faced difficult life issues. Every patient had their own primary care team focused on their individualized treatment—a psych nurse, psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker, mental health counselor, and dietician. Every patient received group therapy, individual counseling; art therapy, and activity therapy.
While the clients at the Bowen Center may not have always verbalized it, they were all seeking an answer the question every person has always asked: “Where can I find a place to believe, belong, and become?”
And while the Bowen Center would have never admitted it, they were desperately trying to replicate the Church. In attempting to be a place to believe, belong, and become, the Bowen Center was trying to fulfill the calling that Christ, the Head of the Church, has given to His Church.
But here’s the problem with the Bowen Center. Though they provided the best the world had to offer, they left something out of the equation. They left Someone out of the equation. The Bowen Center, because it was a government-run facility, was not a Christ-centered place to believe, belong, and become. By omitting Christ, by leaving Him out of the center of the picture, a huge problem resulted. The same patients returned to the Bowen Center again, and again, and again.
Their symptoms were addressed, but not their souls. People were trying to solve their problems without a Savior. They were trying to find a place to believe, belong, and become without Christ. There is a Christ-shaped hole in our soul; a Christ-shaped thirst that we all seek to quench. And no one but Christ can satisfy our soul’s thirst.
We can all agree that the world’s problem is leaving Christ out of the picture. But when Paul wrote Colossians—which is our Scripture text today—he wasn’t focused on what the world was leaving out. He was focused on the Church. The church at Colosee wasn’t leaving Christ out of the picture, but they were adding other things to the picture that pushed Christ out of the center of their focus.
Here’s what was happening in Paul’s day, and it’s exactly what is happening in our day. False teachers were saying, “Christ is fine, but to live well, you need Christ plus human wisdom. Christ is fine, but to live maturely, you need Christ plus human systems of self-help. Christ is fine, but to live wisely, you need Christ plus human rules, regulations, and legalism.”
Here’s what Paul was saying to the church at Colosse, and here’s what Paul is saying to the church today. God is not calling us simply to be a place to believe, belong, and become. The world offers that! The Bowen Center offers that! God is calling the church today to be a Christ-Centered, Christ-Shaped place to believe—in Christ, to belong—to Christ, and to become—like Christ.
If Christ is not the center of what we are doing, then we may as well close our doors and give our churches to the Bowen Center as a satellite office. But we’re not going to do that. Instead, we are going to continue to be a Christ-shaped church
The Rest of the Story
See the links above for the rest of the sermon and to see how Paul instructs us in Colossians to be a Christ-Centered place to believe in Christ, belong to Christ and the Body of Christ, and Become like Christ.
Join the Conversation
In one sentence, how would you answer the question, “What is the purpose of the church?”
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