Simply put, Christians interact with the Kingdom of God through the Holy Spirit. When Jesus came to earth, He initiated the way in which all believers could actively participate in the Kingdom of God. While Jesus was here, He showed us how we need to behave when we are in the Kingdom of God. Jesus demonstrated how to interact with other humans as well as how to interact with God in order to be representatives of God’s Kingdom. Jesus then gave us the Holy Spirit in order to facilitate our participation in God’s Kingdom. Jesus intended for us to play a part in the Kingdom while we are here on earth. There is an element of eternal life to this Kingdom which will intensify for us over time and become complete when Christ returns.
This is the basic Christian message in a nutshell, and over and over I have seen churches get some of it right and some of it wrong. Mainline churches will tell you that Christ initiated a way of living, but will usually downplay any sort of activity by the Holy Spirit. Evangelical churches emphasize the initial ‘decision’ to become a Christian and the fact that we are ‘born again’ through the Holy Spirit, but most Evangelical churches don’t teach that we are active in the Kingdom today, but more likely that we will participate in the Kingdom once these earthly bodies have died.
While both views hold some of the elements of the intended Kingdom, I don’t think that either viewpoint is quite as fulfilling as it is intended to be. In the New Testament, the idea of being ‘In Christ’ is one of the most common phrases. I think that one of the challenges of the church has always been to attempt to describe the reality of being ‘In Christ’ which is the participation in the Kingdom.
I think that the issue here may be the contextualization of the story of Christ. Specifically, I think that there must have been a time when the mainline churches needed to emphasize the compassion element of the message because the congregations were not getting that part and the reverse must have happened in Evangelical churches. Now, each tradition overemphasizes a specific element but seems to not quite understand the whole picture. I think that the time has come for pastors to bring the entire experience of being ‘In Christ’ back to the congregations and to be teaching both compassion and Spirit.
Being in the Kingdom is being an active part of a community that God has established in order to improve the general wellbeing of people as well as the planet which God created. Being involved in the Kingdom is not simply ‘turn or burn,’ but it is a way of life that transforms us into the human beings that God has intended for us to be.
I think that a good portion of the problem lies in the way that Christians describe this transformation. They tend to focus on an individual experience rather than the fact that the community transforms the person. In the New Testament there was much talk about redemption of humans through Christ. Today’s secular American does not see any need for redemption because they do not see that they are involved with activities that pull them away from God. In fact, they believe that all people are entitled to believe in whatever type of God that they choose. Without a perceived need for redemption, the message is lost on the secular American. So, I think that this might be a question of how the message of the Kingdom is presented. Perhaps we need to change the description to being one of transformation or even ‘self-improvement’ in and because of community. I think that this perception of the Kingdom would be helpful for the post-modern audience.
Also the idea that the Kingdom is a way of life rather than a place could be helpful for the post-modern person. The Kingdom is about the relationships that we have with each other and with God. In other words, it is the Triune lifestyle. Of course when we talk in Christian phrases, the post-modern doesn’t listen to Christians. We need to describe this lifestyle in one in which we can personally connect with God and with each other. Because it is a three-way relationship, God is able to improve both of us while we are interacting with each other. As more people enter the community, the more we are improved.
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