The document outlines four key movements in the Christ event - Advent, Passion, Restoration, and Exaltation - that provide a framework for understanding the form and nature of the Church according to Scripture. It argues that the Church is authorized by the Holy Spirit to represent and participate in these four movements: 1) as a gathering community, 2) as a suffering community, 3) in restoring creation, and 4) in speaking God's words. When the Church loses sight of being rooted in Christ's kingship through these four movements, it risks being ruled by other powers instead of by Christ.

1. The form of Church in scripture
“The Desire of Nations” - Oliver O’Donovan
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2. Introduction
Can we trace/delineate from OT and NT, and church history the
nature of Church?
In contrast to hydroponic ecclesiologies
Or Social Movements setting imagination for Church
How does bible and church history imagine/conceptualize church?
Is there a giveness to church?
We start with the history of Israel
Suggest that it is in Israel, all categories for church are to be made
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3. God’s Kingship
Yhwh Malak - God is King
1) Geophysically, 2) Control of other nations 3) Justice for the poor
Not just religious but for a way of life
That life for Israel is to extend to others
3 Kingly Affirmations: 1) Israel Victory 2) Israel Judgment 3)
Possession (Land) as immediacy
Gathering: acclaim of the King, and identity, worship
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4. Mediation
Land: presence of God his immediacy with Israel
King: pro and anti monarch in OT
King: enforced God’s laws, but did not posses, only God did
Law: as extension of possession, ordering, and immediacy
Law: in face of pluralism, and rise of other empires, not of God
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5. The individual in OT
In OT community is prior to individual unlike in the west
Concern for individual in OT, call on God for
...1) Ill Health 2) suffering 3) Guilt
Wisdom individuals: Solomon, Joseph, for direction of
communities
Prophet: God’s complaint to the people and the people’s
complaint to God
Exile: faithful individual in exile
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6. Fulfilling of Time
Jesus miracles: disclosure of God’s authority
Jesus directed power at the forces that stop Israel living as
community of God’s people
Jesus did not disempower Rome
He empowered God’s people
Jesus made the law a possession for all
By making it internal, vs Pharisees external
Jesus: 12 disciples (tribes), 70 (elders), authority of Israel
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7. Triumph of the Kingdom
Church: the place where the rule of God is realized and proclaimed
Two roles meet in Jesus: David King, and Suffering servant
Death: overthrow of rebellious Israel
Resurrection: God’s new triumph
Possession of the Land, fulfilled in possession of the Law, is
fulfilled in Christ the end of the Law
Christ event: 3 elements of 1) power 2) judgment 3) possession
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8. 4 Acts of the Christ Event
1) Advent 2) Passion 3) Restoration 4) Exaltation
Advent: appearing of Jesus, kenosis into humanity, Kingdom
Passion: Judgment of this world in it’s falleness
Restoration: Second Adam, New Humanity, recreation
Exaltation: Ascension, veiled, public vindication of Jesus
Roman Empire ( & we) exist between ascension and parousia
Governments: thrust back by Christ’s victory, or try to overwhelm
the church
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9. Authorisation of the Church
The future age has a social presence, a community under the
authority of the Ancient of days, the Church
Dual Israel identity: exilic (side by side), post-exilic (alien in foreign
land)
Citizenship is in Heaven: political ordering, vs sociological direction
Church is authorized by the spirit, it is the public of the Holy Spirit
Pentecost: Church by Spirit represents and participates in the
Christ event!
Churches too often are isolated from all movements of Christ
event...(pto)
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10. Structure of the Church
Losing site of Church rooted in Kingship of Christ event means
being ruled by another king
What systems are ruling our lives and are we forming church
around?
Church has identity independent of it’s ministries
Ecclesiology is not completely flexible around Christian identity
Church structure always play catch up with mission of the Spirit
Should be some signs/structuring to those 4 movements
Lots of arguments over that in church history :-) (Sacraments)
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11. 4 Movements in action
1. Advent: Church is a gathering community
Church is not one of many decisions, but the ultimate decision (by
baptism)
A new social order and identity
Incorporation into body of Jesus, and mission with others
Compare to church and supporting my own identity from others?
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12. 4 Movements in action
2. Passion: A suffering community
Sharing in the suffering of Jesus, the cruciform life
In western world, unmasking the alienation of consumerism
Living our faith in public
What does it mean to suffer today as the body?
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13. 4 Movements in action
3. Restoration: The church joins in the restoration of creation
It enters into new way of living
Household codes, of 1 Peter, Ephesians, and Colossians
Our week, our time, our space, our family
How does that look in a consumer and secular society?
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14. 4 Movements in action
4. Exaltation: The church speaks the words of God
Prophecy: God to us
Prayer: Us to God
Prophecy by church: in admin, art, music, work
Prayer: Manifestation of God’s rule, invoking spirit for impossible
tasks of Kingdom living, ill health, death and suffering faith
What happens when we don’t recapitulate the 4 movements of the
Christ event?
Evangelical = mission, Liberal = Social Justice, Romantic Church =
suffering, Charismatic = triumph
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15. Conclusion
In medieval times the church turned sacraments into self
development
Baptism for birth, confirmation for growth, Eucharist for
nourishment regularly, ordination for socialisation, marriage for
propagation of society, penance for healing, extreme unction for
death...
What approaches are your and our churches taking today to the
Christ event?
Churches fail when they look to external narratives for their
formation (new social movements etc)
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