In this contribution to the Great Ends of the Church series, Dr. Darrell L. Guder opens up the meaning of the sixth Great End, the exhibition of the kindom of heaven to the world. As he makes clear, it itself is the end – in the sense of telos or goal – of the other ones: the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nuture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine worship; the preservatio of the truth; and the promation of social righteousness. It is such, however, not because we ‘get there’ after having perfected the first five. Rather, exactly like the other Great Ends, the exhibition of the kingdom of heaven is a gift of grace that flows through our hearts and souls to reach out to the world to manifest or reflect Christ’s presence in the world. By grace through faith we are sent out as missional people to the world, as people whose task it is to exhibit the kingdom of heaven.
