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| The DNA of the Church: What Color Is Your Mission? I’d like to talk about DNA. And I’m not referring to the National Association of Dyslexics. We’ve known about DNA for more than 50 years now — since Crick and Watson first announced their discovery in 1953. This double-helix biological contraption has often been used as a metaphor to discuss the nature of the church. Nothing new there. What’s renewed my interest in DNA is the announcement that DNA testing kits are now available for use in the privacy of one’s home. No need to go to a clinic to have your mouth swabbed and the data sent to a lab in an undisclosed location. With these kits, you can swab your own mouth to test for biological relationships between parent-child, siblings, or even establish ancestral connections. And it’s becoming possible now to test for genetic markers of certain diseases or hereditary conditions. This has nothing to do with the church, unless we want to use the metaphor. It does remind us, however, that we can do some figurative DNA testing right in the privacy of our own church. But it can be tricky. First, I’d step back and ask whether this is really a useful metaphor for the Christian. If DNA can be used to establish paternity, or to confirm parent-child relationships, then I’d preach a sermon about confirming God as our “heavenly Father” or “Parent” — to use a more clinical term. This, however, works only if you already have the DNA of one party so it can be compared to that of the other party to see if there’s a match. If I want to test my spiritual DNA for a relationship with God, I need to know God’s DNA. Two possible sources exist for this information. Foremost is Scripture. What does the Bible say about God’s genetic markers? (Traditionally, these have been called “attributes.”) Clearly, like humans and chimpanzees, whose genetic material is 99 percent identical, I do not share all the attributes ascribed to the Deity — as much as I’d like to share in them, i.e., omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence and so on. But some aspects of the divine nature, I do share — if there’s a “genetic” relationship. And it’d make a good sermon to delve into these possibilities. What does the Bible say about how I have a share in the very nature of God? In what ways do I, or should I, bear a likeness to my “heavenly Parent”? On the other hand, what tendencies, traits or behaviors do I exhibit that manifestly declare that no relationship with God the Father could possibly exist? The second source for a DNA swab to establish some “DNA” data on God is people whose lives abundantly demonstrate or incarnate all that we know about God. We find a person who lives a Christlike life, and we say, “There’s a person whose life I should emulate.” Paul invited the Philippians to imitate him. So I’d first step back to explore how this metaphor is useful for the Christian. Then I’d look at the church. This is more complicated because there’s the Church and there’s the church. Big “C” Church and little “c” church. You have to ask, “What ‘genetic’ markers are found in the Church universal?” These markers, once identified, should also, then, be found in all local expressions of the universal Church. You could argue for at least five such markers: 1) love, 2) evangelism, 3) social activism, 4) sound doctrine and 5) worship. Those are five essential attributes of the Church universal. Make a genome map of the Church, and all these aspects or qualities will be found in all churches anywhere and everywhere, from the very inception of the Church. This is true in the same way that human beings are endowed with a mind (rationality), emotive capacity, creative intelligence and physiological systems to ensure survival (organs, vital systems, skeletal structure, arms, legs, hands and so on). If the church is lacking in any of these five qualities, it’s clearly disabled in the same way a human being might be disabled due to the failure of a system to function properly, or the absence of a limb, or considered “slow” because of low mental functioning. So I would develop a sermon that would attempt to establish the DNA markers for the church. I have suggested five. Perhaps your list would be different. But here’s the deal: Just as all humans are alike in that we all have brains, emotions, creativity, lungs, heart, arms and legs, we do not have them in the same way. Cranial capacity from person to person is different. Some people are right-brained while others are left-brained. Some have a high degree of emotional intelligence; some not. Some people have blue eyes; others brown. Some are tall; others short. We all grow into our lives with our genetic material and the nurture we receive to become musicians or teachers or doctors or laborers or singers or actors — or something else. Although we share our essential qualities as humans, everyone’s humanness is expressed differently. So it is in the church. Thus, it’s not enough to say that the DNA of the Church is love, evangelism, social activism, sound doctrine and worship. Fine. What about OUR congregation? How tall are we? What’s the color of our skin? The color of our eyes? The color of our mission? Just how do we express and channel love? How do we — not some other congregation — become involved in social activism? How do we do evangelism? (Or do we?) How do we promote sound doctrine? How do we worship God? Frankly, some churches, perhaps more than we’d like to admit, are disabled. No shame for a human being to be disabled. That’s a whole ’nother discussion. No shame at all. But a church that’s not acting like the Church — perhaps is not a church at all. It’s a club. Or it’s a special-interest group. But not a church. If we claim to be the church, what sort of DNA testing can we apply to prove it? We need a testing kit. That’s Scripture. Don’t send me any oral swabs.
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