Release Date: February 4th, 2026Called to Be a Church Like Christ's Letter of Recommendation
- by Stephen Reist
Many churches are seeking to understand their calling in these times. In 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 Paul offers a striking image for the church: not an institution or building, but a letter—written by Christ, read by the world.
You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all, and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are human hearts.
Jesus is personally invested in the work and witness of the church.
The church - my church - is a letter of recommendation written by Jesus. It authorizes both the message of the gospel and those who share it. What a calling!
I’ve learned that ancient letters of recommendation were not only professionally motivated like our reference letters today but were socially motivated – not merely ‘this person has the ability to do this job’ but ‘I vouch for this person for whatever needs they may have.’ A great example is Paul’s letter to Philemon in the New Testament where Paul asks Philemon to welcome back his runaway slave Onesimus “as if you were welcoming me” and “as a dearly loved brother.”
If we are to apply this image to our church today, it suggests to me that Jesus is personally invested in the work and witness of the church. We represent Christ, and the work of his Spirit in our lives is God’s letter to the world, the authorization for our ministry.
This does not excuse the church’s failures. But it may mean that repentance, forgiveness and perseverance are part of what the world is meant to read.
You would think, to be such a ‘letter,’ our lives and churches would need to be spectacular. Yet, we know from Paul’s letters that the Corinthian church had a lot of issues: deep divisions around leaders, sexual immorality, public lawsuits among believers, chaotic worship, drunkenness at communion and theological confusion. The post-Christiandom church today doesn’t have a great reputation either. Perhaps Paul knew that the mess of the Corinthian church was part of the letter. Jesus said, “I did not come to call the righteous, but the sinful” (Mark 2:17). This does not excuse the church’s failures. But it may mean that repentance, forgiveness and perseverance are part of what the world is meant to read.
We do not go into the world with polished resumes, but with lives being rewritten by grace.
It’s a profound idea for me that when I speak about my faith to others, I can do so with confidence because of my church, the evidence of God at work in their lives, their faithfulness and the forgiveness that is needed in a community of broken people. The church is my letter of reference. My experience in the church gives me the right to speak about the love of God and the peace of Christ to a world so desperate for good news. We do not go into the world with polished resumes, but with lives being rewritten by grace. We go as Christ’s letter—still being written, still deeply flawed, for all the world to read.
- Stephen Reist is pastor at Pioneer Park Christian Fellowship