God’s bride is the Church evident in a local expression, period. It is the only example we have in the New Testament. The church might “go-show/tell” from the “come-gather” base of a building, house, restaurant, or something even more abstract but it is a local expression of the Kingdom of God.
If the Church is the bride of Christ why do para-church organizations exist?
Para-churches are the “spiritual belt” used to gracefully discipline the Church for its lack of focus or deficiencies in certain areas. The Church was deficient in men’s ministry so Promise Keepers sprang up. Because of PK, many churches took notice of their deficiency and focused their energy on raising up men. For all practical purposes, the PK idea was absorbed into the local church and PK disappeared as a viable movement.
The tension for the local church arises when para-church organizations forget they are “para.” No organization wants to die and so it is difficult for the para-church to realize that attention to their cause has been finally been adopted by the local Church. Para-churches sometimes make stronger verbal accolades to be pro-local church than reality would reflect. I remember in the 1994 when many men would be so busy going to PK huddles that they couldn’t serve the Body-Bride of Christ. If you were to have asked the huddles to reform grouping around men in the same church together, many would have told you no as they did to me when I requested it. The same type thing often happens today.
So to my para-church friends I say:
1. Recognize that you are to exist for a corrective season, not forever.
2. Strive to see how you can “gracefully whip” the local churches into giving focus to the reason God raised you up be it missional, discipleship, evangelism, or whatever. Of course, if you have a ridiculous focus, it will not matter. Be intentional about building the value into the local church. You should be trying to work your organization out of existence as strange as it sounds.
3. Serve Christ knowing you are the maid of honor and not the Bride. Submit your schedule and programming to the local church whenever it is possible. I mean submit in the biblical sense, not just hand them in to them saying, “Here, deal with it.”
To the local church I say:
1. When the maid of honor speaks, listen bride. There is a reason they have a passion about something and if their para-church organization is large, so do many others.
2. Address the holes and blindspots in you ministry that the para-church is filling. At the same time, don’t get sucked into being all things for all people. If a para-church is ultra-niched, be careful. You might not need to start a whole ministry for Circus Clowns about to be Retired. But if you do, do!