One of the slogans we have is that we are “a Christian community committed to love and serve Dublin” – it’s at the bottom of every page of our website. I’ll let you be the judge as to whether the slogan really represents us. Even if we’re failing I think it’s a good slogan and aspiration to have.
When we think of being a church to love and serve Dublin we’re predominantly thinking about two things:
- What does it mean for us to play our (small) part in making Dublin into a great city (rather than focusing on building a great church)?
- What does it mean it mean for us to do church in a way that makes sense, is relevant and attractive to the sceptical–non-church-going-spiritual-but-not-religious Dub (rather than catering for those who already go to church)?
These two things have helped steer and guide us through the first year and a bit of our church. Again, you can be the judge as to whether we have succeeded or failed.
When Leanne and I had lived in Dublin for 1 year I wrote a blog post called 10 Reasons Why Dublin Is A Great Place To Live – it ranks at number 2 on Google when you search “why live in Dublin”; it’s had over 13,000 views (and counting); and has been shared by 230 people on Facebook (and counting). Everyone in our video below mentions at least one of the 10 reasons. It’s fair to say that as a church we love Dublin and want to do whatever we can to make it into a great city.
But as much as we love Dublin, the New Testament tells us that all earthly cities will fade away and God’s people will inherit a city whose builder and architect is God (Hebrews 11:10 & 16, Revelation 21:1-2). In fact, the church is an eternal reality that will continue and outlast the city of Dublin. So our role now, as we love and serve Dublin, is to spread as much of the City of God within her as we can and fight against the city of darkness. So whilst we love Dublin and are as enthusiastic as anyone else about the great things within the city, we are also called to bring a challenge to the city and not to put our ultimate hope in the city. This was explained brilliantly by Lesslie Newbigin many years ago in his classic book Church In A Pluralistic Society.
The Church is an entity which has outlasted many states, nations, and empires, and it will outlast those that exist today. The Church is nothing other than that movement launched into the public life of the world by its sovereign Lord to continue that which he came to do until it is finished in his return in glory. It has his promise that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. In spite of the crimes, blunders, compromises, and errors by which its story has been stained and is stained to this day, the Church is the great reality in comparison with which nations and empires and civilizations are passing phenomena. The Church can never settle down to being a voluntary society concerned merely with private and domestic affairs. It is bound to challenge in the name of the one Lord all the powers, ideologies, myths, assumptions, and worldviews which do not acknowledge him as Lord. If that involves conflict, trouble, and rejection, then we have the example of Jesus before us and his reminder that a servant is not greater than his master.
So whilst we try to be a church that truly loves Dublin, we hope we’re also a provocation of what it means to love the heavenly and eternal city more. We must find a balance between not capitulating to the ways of the city (as we affirm so much of it) but also not withdrawing from it (as we challenge parts of it).
We recently did a video to try and capture who we are and why we love Dublin.