Eschatological Church?

A professor recently remarked in class that true growing churches (i.e. those making conversions) are eschatological churches. If you don't know what that word means, it is a theological word that means end times or study of last things.

He did not mean that growing churches spend all their time reading the "Left Behind" series or obsessing about the antichrist. He meant that churches on the move are churches who really believe they are going somewhere. They are not just churches who offer the latest financial management or marriage enrichment seminar. They are not just sending a message that says,"Hey, we know life is miserable, so come and be a little less miserable with us!" He meant these churches have a sense of purpose and resolve which betrays an authentic belief that the people of God are moving towards a "new heaven and a new earth."

For the record, I am not premillenial, and nor do I believe that a specific antichrist (don't we have a lot of those in the world already?) has to come before the end of time. Jesus could bring time to an end before I finish writing this blog or before you finish reading it! But I do believe in the final consummation of the kingdom of God and the ushering in of the new heave an new earth. I believe every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord (cf. Phil. 2:5ff).

Yet, I was convicted by the professor's words. I am a preacher and I couldn't conclude that my preaching reflected this eschatological urgency he was addressing. Shouldn't every sermon and every lesson at least hint of this final conclusion of history and express confidence in the victory of the Lamb and the people of God?

What a powerful message in a world torn apart by war, poverty, disease, sin, and death! Are we just inviting people along on a journey to nowhere? Or are we offering something utterly transcendent to this world of sin and death? "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away...and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain..." (Rev. 21:1-4).