A day before this week’s Table Talk, Christian journalist Andy Crouch gave an excellent talk on the Church as an institution. In the Bible’s New Testament, a man named Paul stated that while Jesus ascended into heaven after being raised from the dead, he gave gifts to certain people, particularly prophets and teachers, so that they could benefit the Church.

(The capital “C” Church refers to all Christians in the world who are born again, who know and believe that Jesus the Son of God took on all their wrongdoings, took the punishment for that by dying, and came back to life so that they also have a new life, have a peaceful relationship with God the Father who now forgives all their wrongs forever, and they have the choice not to turn back to their old bad ways to show their love for God and Jesus who is also God. This is called “The Gospel.”)

Based on the model in the New Testament, some Christians believe that the gifts that they have are for the benefit for the Church. They ignore calls to “pursue your passion” because it is God who is working through them to do what he desires, which is mainly creating a place where everything is good. I am currently waiting on Him as he slowly unveils what he would like me to do. In the Table Talk, Andy Crouch and his wife pointed out a huge need in the Church: to know that the “Science and Religion” debate has already been solved in the research field. God is known to be the Orchestrator of scientific phenomenon; it’s just that the general public hasn’t caught on for 100 years.

What could benefit the Church is bridging the gap between scientific knowledge and general public knowledge since, as Andy’s wife Catherine pointed out, knowing about creation helps know more about God and gives even more cause to praise him. Moreover, this is extremely important for the Church, specifically for bridging the gap in between God and everything else in the world (such as homework and studies) in the Christian mind. God has so much to say about how the world began but also about how we manage our money, how we eat, and our career journeys.

Christians need to know how he thinks about these things not only to know their First Love more and “walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received (the new heaven and new earth)” but also to share his mind with other Christians. This leads to benefiting the whole Church with Truth and leads to unity (Ephesians 4:1).

“We [together] will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, [Jesus]” (Ephesians 4:15).