Topic > Theories of a servant Church - 1536

This method can be called “secular-dialogical”: secular, because the Church takes the world as a properly theological place, and tries to discern the signs of the times; dialogic, because it seeks to operate on the frontier between the contemporary world and the Christian tradition (including the Bible), rather than applying the latter simply as a measure of the former (McBrien 1970). A Servant Church is designed to help all people wherever they are, it does not care about recruiting people. The term "servant", in fact, contains some ambiguities. It connotes three things: work done not freely but to order; work directed towards the good of others rather than the worker's own advantage; and menial and humiliating (“servile”) work (Dulles 1974). The first point is not the image the Church seeks. Jesus was not a servant of the world, but a servant of God, obedient to the Father. The second point is more relevant to Christ, his work was out of love and for the true good of others. Thirdly, humble and humbling work, like Jesus we are called to wash the feet of others. We are called to help each other, to suffer for each other and to be available for each other. The Church does not exist for itself, only this model shows that it exists for others. It puts the people of the church on the same level, where they work together and for each other towards the same goal. It gives us the opportunity to reconcile with God and humanity. This model gives the Church a strong mission identity. Servant ecclesiology reflects an awareness of these needs of both the Church and the world. It seeks to give the Church a new relevance, a new vitality, a new modernity and a new sense of mission. The Church's effort to overcome its pride, its corporate selfishness and its insensitivity to human misery