The Supremacy of Christ

This morning I read an interesting manifesto from Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola, two prominent voices in the missional movement on the supremacy of Christ.  Their premise is that the church is quickly losing sight of the centrality of Christ to the Christian message and replacing it with things like values, virtues and gifts.  That the church is increasingly replacing Jesus with the language of justice, the kingdom of God, values and leadership principles.

Wow.

Quite a swing if I do say so myself.  After reading through the manifesto though I found myself with that surge of energy and passion one feels at the end of a resounding speech (“yes we can”).  Are we losing the supremacy of Christ in our conversation?  This summer I have been doing a lot of personal study in the area of Christ.  Learning about him, his life, his teachings and I find myself more renewed and energized than in the many books on leadership and church management I’ve read recently, and I love leadership.  There’s something beyond the physical when it comes to Christ and I agree with Sweet and Viola that Jesus is life.  You cannot separate Jesus from his teachings so to study his teachings is to study him.

I loved their thoughts on how being a follower of Jesus “does not involve imitation so much as it does implantation and impartation.”  The incarnational reality that God connects to us should confuse and excite all of us.  It’s a radical idea and demands an evaluation of religion and religiosity.  How does our current ecclesiology truly reflect the supremacy of Christ?

Christ dwells within us and through Christ “we share in the life of Jesus’ own relationship with the Father.”

Very challenging thoughts indeed and a reminder that Christ is the centre.