In his book Rauschenbusch talks about how the language of ‘the Kingdom of God’ was slowly displaced by the name and idea of ‘the church’. He claims this has had a major affect on our theology and the way we view Jesus and the gospels. He says that we must get back to the language of Kingdom rather than church and gives several suggestions. These suggestions speak to so much of what has happened in the Emerging/Postmodern church, which is amazing to think about when you realize the guy lived from 1861-1918.
1. Theology must focus on the synoptic gospels and Jesus
2. Jesus left us with distinctive ethical principles for the Kingdom
3. The church is primarily a fellowship for worship, the Kingdom is a fellowship of righteousness
4. The Kingdom does not seek to be the dominating reality and take the place of God
5. The Kingdom ideal must be the test and corrective of the church
6. The Kingdom ideal contains the revolutionary force of Christianity
7. The Kingdom is a socio-political reality that affects its surroundings
8. The Kingdom recognizes all creation as sacred and calls it to be sacred
9. The Kingdom understands salvation not just as an individual experience but as a saving of the social order
10. The Kingdom of God breeds prophets and looks of into the horizons, while the church has bred priests and theologians and looks at dogma and tradition
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