I found the same mentality which makes it very difficult to find a good church.
Exactly. I should clarify that I haven't abandoned church, but am working from within to try and change it. Being a 'rebel' pastor isn't easy, but it is my calling. Knowing that church fathers like Martin Luther, biblical prophets and even Jesus himself were considered rebels to the religious authorities of their times gives me some significant comfort as I walk this path in God's story for His glory.
I totally concur and I say that being a pastor in full-time ministry. I have been four years at a congregation that historically has been known for its sectarianism and close-mindedness. It is beginning to open up a bit but there are still those suffering from STD. I feel that we have lost the headship of Christ and that is how it became more about Christianity and dogma than the Savior. Even though I am a bit disillusioned with the institutional church I don't want to give up transitioning it into the present. I told someone that it is like living in a jet ski world trying to turn an oceanliner. Both will turn just not at the same speed.
Some academics call it social Christianity, I call it sorority Christianity. I work at a large liberal congregation with solid works of feeding, healing and pursuing justice. The powers that be show that to follow Jesus is to serve and they are willing to go quite far in that call. However when it comes to the work of prayer, worship, fellowship and education the sorority house alarm system is at full tilt. All sorts of secret ways in which people are kept in and out, too much effort on comforting the squeaky wheels rather than doing justice within the congregation. Most sadly is the spirituality of 'i feel very comfortable and powerful and unchallenged, and the organ is God, istn't it?' There is a distinct divide between who we are when the doors are closed and who we are in service to the needs of the neighborhood. The hardest part is when folks are jazzed about our role in the community come to join our fellowship; and then find that thye are sidelined unless they want to be in a baby boomer sorority. Thats my std.
Really interesting article and comments. I'm one that is working through these issue here in Australia. the problem is Jesus is committed to the church even if we aren't. That's what he's building. I agree that the church doesn't contain or define the kingdom of God but she is a core part of teh NT's revelation of what it means to follow Jesus - you can't do that and not be part, visibly and relationally, of the community of faith. I do think we need a few shots of spiritual penicillin though...keep them coming
So how do we keep religiocity out of the institutional church? I get that we are called to be in community...but as an Elder of a large church, I often feel like a lone voice for Jesus. Programs, systems, traditions and self-serving mentalities consistently get in the way of being disciples and making disciples. I do believe that Jesus is committed to the church even if we aren't, but I get stuck trying to figure out how to get people out of the church and into the world. My prayer is that we serve Jesus and not the church.
I believe it takes a willingness to be as brutally honest with the religious institution of our day as Jesus was with the religious institution of his day (or Luther with his). It requires a calling from the pulpit and elders for a paradigm shift. A major problem as I've seen it this: We in the institutional church stand between God and those He desires to reach, as we imagine ourselves as shining examples to follow. Instead we need to admit and recognize our own depravity and stand beside those people in a community, humbly accepting God’s grace and recognizing that Jesus is the only example anyone needs. The result of the institutional church's error is that it may actually be blocking the light of God rather than reflecting it. We need to offend the pharisees of our day in hopes that they will stop selling the sugar of religiosity. And if they don't, we need to stay committed to the true Gospel and focus our efforts on the least, last, lost & lonely (like us) even to the point of abandoning the institutional church. See my blog - http://myspace.com/76876583 - for more on the L's (least, last, lost & lonely).
i just dont get it. This makes no sense to me. What you are saying is just not accurate!
I'm not sure what you mean by not accurate. Could you clarify? Anyway, I'm not saying that God doesn't delight in his church and use it for His glory. I'm trying to communicate that God is the King of all creation and He doesn't need us to take the director's chair in His story becuase we tend to screw it up. Further, I am saying that there is a tendency within the subconscious minds of many of todays churchgoers to think that God is a scorekeeper and we can somehow help pay our own way into heaven with morality and religiosity. It's like thinking that someone like Billy Graham will get a 'front of the line' pass in heaven because he is the best Christian. Now I'm sure that God absolutely delights in Billy Graham, and I respect him greatly, but I don't believe Billy's access to heaven has anything to do with his morality - it has to do with the One in whom he places his faith. For more on this topic, I highly recommend the Old Testament Character Series recently put on by the Nexus Church in Abbotsford Canada. You can download it at this link: http://www.nexuschurch.com/p/multimedia. It gives the background stories of the 'heroes of Faith' mentioned in Hebrews 11 and shows how God was with them and used them despite their often despicable lifestyles.
I have often reflected on this "us versus them" mentality that is so prevelent in our Christian culture today. It is as if we are all not sinners, all not in need of the Grace of God given through Christ. In Bonheffers book "Life Together", he writes that Christian community means community through Jesus and in Jesus, and thus clarifies the goal of Christian community...to meet one another as bringers of the message of salvation.
What is this "message of salvation" that we bring each other? I belive that this "message of salvation" is Grace born out in love. And how can we give Grace but through Jesus? Yet, if we as Christian brothers and sisters struggle such with the act of showing Grace to each other, how can we expect to show Grace to those who are yet to know Christ.
This is the false witness that we have slipped into. This is the facade that those outside the church see so easily through. It is not for us in the church to judge, but for us to be judged by God. It is not for us to love by our rules, but to love through Christ. It is not for us to serve the Church, but God, the head of the Church.
And since when did we begin to define the Church as place rather than a body? Belive you me, I have seen glimses of the "body" of Christ and many times there was no steeple in sight.
i think we need a new word to replace church. i have heard "community" used as an alternative, perhaps this would be more helpful. i do agree that jesus is committed to the church. however I am not sure that this means he is committed to an organization which includes a membership and a marquis. or even anything that is easily defined or includes borders. it seems to me that he is committed to a subversive movement of collaborators. i don't think this is necessarily what we are calling "church", though there may be some overlap at times. i also think that God might be a ghost-writer, doing things for which God does not receive credit. we need to get past this rigid version, and try on something that is more loose and decentralized (liquid church/pete ward). i think that there is alot of "stuff" which comes with this word church. maybe too much "stuff" to allow us to continue to use the word in a helpful way. it is not a building, it is not an event, it is not a list of names, it is not a location. though this is my mantra, it is hard redefining what has been a persistent definition for me. i think God might be calling people to something a little more organic and unexpected.
I am a pastor of a small congregation in Straughn Indiana. In the last two years I have been preaching the liberating Gospel of Grace & Peace. This Gospel gives Jesus total and complete credit for our redemption, and yet I have been accused by christians (not of our congregation) of "not believing in anything" because I won't give a list of things one must do to be OK with God. I have seen first hand the cruel judgements of those who claim to be closest to God. I welcome and accept all regardless of their backgrounds, their sins, their spiritual traditions, or their sexual preferences. The reason I give for this is: Who am I to call unclean that which God has cleasned! I don't have to agree with every choice a person makes in life, but the same blood that cleansed me cleansed them and I will treat them with the same love that has been a gift to me. This world we live in today needs more then ever to see the awesome LOVE of JESUS. His love was pure from all STD's.
Peace,
Cliff
Kyle, Thanks for sharing your thoughts and for all of those who commented about an on-going pursuit to breakdown judgments and unite people in the love of Christ. I find it hard sometimes to articulate why relationship with God is so much more fulfilling than just religion and rules. It is nice to know that I am not alone in these thoughts.
Much Love & Many Thanks, Sheila
Thanks for the article, Kyle. I hope you will find the strength to continue to be a positive influence in churches. This reminded me of a book I read recently, written by Ed Gungor, a pastor in Tulsa Oklahoma, titled "Religiously Transmitted Diseases". You might like it! Let's pray that the Holy Spirit will come with healing.
I cannot do better than those who've already spoken. As I'm reading Spencer's "A Heretic's Guide to Eternity," I see the same arguments. God seems to be using this new approach to kick us out of the churchbuilding, and I'm all for it!
How can we continue to assemble together in accordance with Hebrews 10.25 without contracting STD? The approach in everything must be humility. We can scarcely judge an "outsider" as different from ourself if we are humble. We can scarcely revere churchbuilding leadership as inerrant holy men if we and they are humble. (Even if they aren't, we can recognize them as human as we.)
We are the Church...it's not a building! No one's benefiting from the pastor/ laity distinction. It's a top down hierarchy! We aren't to forsake the fellowship of the bretheren...So, can we carry carry the baton...pass the legacy down without thinking we need to drive to a building and assemble in front of pastor..choir...childrens this or that? You are the body or your not- I wrote a blog, if you'd care to check it out under the Worship section. It's called "Worship and the Unseen"...you can direct any comments there, thanks, Marie
Marie, you make an important point. I don't think the clergy/laity division is based in the New Testament. The church should be the body of believers. Where we'd go from the body as a whole being "a royal priesthood" to most of the body being laity?
I love the passion of the writer. I'm reminded of Luther's comments on the Lord's Prayer. God's kingdom will come whether we pray for it or not. We're currently working with James in my community and we're giving a lot of attention to the almost unconscious subcultural divisions in the church. At the same time, Israel was and is a subculture in the world, and there is ample NT evidence that the community of the baptized were also marked as separate from the dominant culture, a body composed of diversely-gifted members. My issue is that the markers of our separateness are very poor ones. I dream of a koinonia that is, for example, radically generous to the poor.
call it a cell group, a community, a flock, a herd of cows for call i care. The word church means eklesia, ..."called out ones" The true church is not a building but a universal group of people that have been called out of this mundane selfish existance and called to a selfless spiritual one. Spiritual as in of the Holy Spirit, not a create your own spirituality. A Christian "community" is not a community because we like the same music style or pastor, we are community in what we have in COMMON that binds us all together despite differences in teaching/worship/gathering styles. Something that powerful that can cross age, race, or occupation can only be one thing : One Lord, one Spirit, one Faith in one Christ who died once for all. God gets it right the first time all the time. He didnt make the perfect church, but rather "His grace is made perfect in our weakness". Its us as the imperfect creation that will make mistakes till the day he makes us perfect. changing the name of what we call our local church is like cleaning the outside of a garbage can to make it like new. Our hearts and attitudes toward God have to have humility and patience with those who fall into religiosity just as much as for those who dont know God altogether. The religiosity mindset is bondage of pride, anybody ever suggest fasting n praying for change, from your local circle on out, instead of making screwfaces? If not you can call yourself the Cell Group flock of the Holy Herd of Cows Community Church and nothing has changed, a new sense of religiosty has been born, and back where you started. Koinonia is True Fellowship, unconditional love and bond with your fellow man that can only happen through Spirit filled life that doesnt allow, as the last comment, "for poor markers of seperation." More penecillin please.
oh yea....props on the article, and for His lavish love that is unending!!
I have enjoyed reading everyone's comments. So, I will add my two cents' worth. First, in many ways what those posting here are saying is nothing new. The struggle to be authentic followers of Christ is documented throughout the history of "the church" (both with indivduals and with Christian "movements"). Second, as much as we desire and preach to have some kind of "free form" body or community of believers, it is the natural tendancy of humans to "organize" as they grow, to become to some degree institutionalized. Many younger believers seem to have disdain for anything too "organized," yet we cannot overlook this orderliness as often a good and necessary thing. Reread the book of Numbers and you see God "organizing" the Jews into groups, etc. so that they can accomplish their goals of their journey through the wilderness. I do think we need to be more readily led by the heart, by the Spirit of God - all the things others have said. But don't be too quick to throw out "organization" as some kind of evil - God is a creator of order and design, both in the natural creation and in the way he created mankind to think and accomplish things. Thirdly, I would urge each person who has been part of this discussion to just BE who you feel called to be. If you feel the "church" should be more honest and involved in our community, then YOU volunteer at the soup kitchen, YOU invite that wayward teen to your home, YOU listen to the unwed mother and her problems and help, YOU participate in civic politics if that's your calling. Don't worry about what the "other" church people are doing or if they jump on the "emergent" band wagon; even the little old lady knitting baby blankets for the poor is doing God's will in her own way - don't you overlook the graciousness she has to teach you. Yes, it's about the heart, but some of us can spend too much time on rhetoric instead of living the heart of Jesus. That's all I have to say...
I totally agree that the church is bound in a lot of tradition and attitudes that turns unchurched people off. However, I don't think we can just abandon the church, we need to work to change it from within. There are still a lot of good things about the formal church structure, it just needs to be reworked.
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I found the same mentality which makes it very difficult to find a good church. Posted by Dagney T | Posted at 08/14/2006 6:27 PM
Exactly. I should clarify that I haven't abandoned church, but am working from within to try and change it. Being a 'rebel' pastor isn't easy, but it is my calling. Knowing that church fathers like Martin Luther, biblical prophets and even Jesus himself were considered rebels to the religious authorities of their times gives me some significant comfort as I walk this path in God's story for His glory. Posted by kyle oram | Posted at 08/15/2006 10:36 AM
I totally concur and I say that being a pastor in full-time ministry. I have been four years at a congregation that historically has been known for its sectarianism and close-mindedness. It is beginning to open up a bit but there are still those suffering from STD. I feel that we have lost the headship of Christ and that is how it became more about Christianity and dogma than the Savior. Even though I am a bit disillusioned with the institutional church I don't want to give up transitioning it into the present. I told someone that it is like living in a jet ski world trying to turn an oceanliner. Both will turn just not at the same speed. Posted by Beetle | Posted at 08/15/2006 12:06 PM
Some academics call it social Christianity, I call it sorority Christianity. I work at a large liberal congregation with solid works of feeding, healing and pursuing justice. The powers that be show that to follow Jesus is to serve and they are willing to go quite far in that call. However when it comes to the work of prayer, worship, fellowship and education the sorority house alarm system is at full tilt. All sorts of secret ways in which people are kept in and out, too much effort on comforting the squeaky wheels rather than doing justice within the congregation. Most sadly is the spirituality of 'i feel very comfortable and powerful and unchallenged, and the organ is God, istn't it?' There is a distinct divide between who we are when the doors are closed and who we are in service to the needs of the neighborhood. The hardest part is when folks are jazzed about our role in the community come to join our fellowship; and then find that thye are sidelined unless they want to be in a baby boomer sorority. Thats my std. Posted by thecla | Posted at 08/15/2006 2:29 PM
Really interesting article and comments. I'm one that is working through these issue here in Australia. the problem is Jesus is committed to the church even if we aren't. That's what he's building. I agree that the church doesn't contain or define the kingdom of God but she is a core part of teh NT's revelation of what it means to follow Jesus - you can't do that and not be part, visibly and relationally, of the community of faith. I do think we need a few shots of spiritual penicillin though...keep them coming Posted by CraigAus | Posted at 08/17/2006 8:44 PM
So how do we keep religiocity out of the institutional church? I get that we are called to be in community...but as an Elder of a large church, I often feel like a lone voice for Jesus. Programs, systems, traditions and self-serving mentalities consistently get in the way of being disciples and making disciples. I do believe that Jesus is committed to the church even if we aren't, but I get stuck trying to figure out how to get people out of the church and into the world. My prayer is that we serve Jesus and not the church. Posted by Smeds | Posted at 08/19/2006 8:06 AM
I believe it takes a willingness to be as brutally honest with the religious institution of our day as Jesus was with the religious institution of his day (or Luther with his). It requires a calling from the pulpit and elders for a paradigm shift. A major problem as I've seen it this: We in the institutional church stand between God and those He desires to reach, as we imagine ourselves as shining examples to follow. Instead we need to admit and recognize our own depravity and stand beside those people in a community, humbly accepting God’s grace and recognizing that Jesus is the only example anyone needs. The result of the institutional church's error is that it may actually be blocking the light of God rather than reflecting it. We need to offend the pharisees of our day in hopes that they will stop selling the sugar of religiosity. And if they don't, we need to stay committed to the true Gospel and focus our efforts on the least, last, lost & lonely (like us) even to the point of abandoning the institutional church. See my blog - http://myspace.com/76876583 - for more on the L's (least, last, lost & lonely). Posted by kyle oram | Posted at 08/19/2006 9:47 AM
i just dont get it. This makes no sense to me. What you are saying is just not accurate! Posted by bloggena | Posted at 08/19/2006 8:36 PM
I'm not sure what you mean by not accurate. Could you clarify? Anyway, I'm not saying that God doesn't delight in his church and use it for His glory. I'm trying to communicate that God is the King of all creation and He doesn't need us to take the director's chair in His story becuase we tend to screw it up. Further, I am saying that there is a tendency within the subconscious minds of many of todays churchgoers to think that God is a scorekeeper and we can somehow help pay our own way into heaven with morality and religiosity. It's like thinking that someone like Billy Graham will get a 'front of the line' pass in heaven because he is the best Christian. Now I'm sure that God absolutely delights in Billy Graham, and I respect him greatly, but I don't believe Billy's access to heaven has anything to do with his morality - it has to do with the One in whom he places his faith. For more on this topic, I highly recommend the Old Testament Character Series recently put on by the Nexus Church in Abbotsford Canada. You can download it at this link: http://www.nexuschurch.com/p/multimedia. It gives the background stories of the 'heroes of Faith' mentioned in Hebrews 11 and shows how God was with them and used them despite their often despicable lifestyles. Posted by kyle oram | Posted at 08/20/2006 9:42 AM
I have often reflected on this "us versus them" mentality that is so prevelent in our Christian culture today. It is as if we are all not sinners, all not in need of the Grace of God given through Christ. In Bonheffers book "Life Together", he writes that Christian community means community through Jesus and in Jesus, and thus clarifies the goal of Christian community...to meet one another as bringers of the message of salvation.
What is this "message of salvation" that we bring each other? I belive that this "message of salvation" is Grace born out in love. And how can we give Grace but through Jesus? Yet, if we as Christian brothers and sisters struggle such with the act of showing Grace to each other, how can we expect to show Grace to those who are yet to know Christ.
This is the false witness that we have slipped into. This is the facade that those outside the church see so easily through. It is not for us in the church to judge, but for us to be judged by God. It is not for us to love by our rules, but to love through Christ. It is not for us to serve the Church, but God, the head of the Church.
And since when did we begin to define the Church as place rather than a body? Belive you me, I have seen glimses of the "body" of Christ and many times there was no steeple in sight.
Posted by M. Norman | Posted at 08/23/2006 6:00 AMi think we need a new word to replace church. i have heard "community" used as an alternative, perhaps this would be more helpful. i do agree that jesus is committed to the church. however I am not sure that this means he is committed to an organization which includes a membership and a marquis. or even anything that is easily defined or includes borders. it seems to me that he is committed to a subversive movement of collaborators. i don't think this is necessarily what we are calling "church", though there may be some overlap at times. i also think that God might be a ghost-writer, doing things for which God does not receive credit. we need to get past this rigid version, and try on something that is more loose and decentralized (liquid church/pete ward). i think that there is alot of "stuff" which comes with this word church. maybe too much "stuff" to allow us to continue to use the word in a helpful way. it is not a building, it is not an event, it is not a list of names, it is not a location. though this is my mantra, it is hard redefining what has been a persistent definition for me. i think God might be calling people to something a little more organic and unexpected. Posted by m@ | Posted at 08/24/2006 2:02 PM
I am a pastor of a small congregation in Straughn Indiana. In the last two years I have been preaching the liberating Gospel of Grace & Peace. This Gospel gives Jesus total and complete credit for our redemption, and yet I have been accused by christians (not of our congregation) of "not believing in anything" because I won't give a list of things one must do to be OK with God. I have seen first hand the cruel judgements of those who claim to be closest to God. I welcome and accept all regardless of their backgrounds, their sins, their spiritual traditions, or their sexual preferences. The reason I give for this is: Who am I to call unclean that which God has cleasned! I don't have to agree with every choice a person makes in life, but the same blood that cleansed me cleansed them and I will treat them with the same love that has been a gift to me. This world we live in today needs more then ever to see the awesome LOVE of JESUS. His love was pure from all STD's.
Peace,
Cliff
Posted by Cliff | Posted at 08/24/2006 6:25 PMKyle, Thanks for sharing your thoughts and for all of those who commented about an on-going pursuit to breakdown judgments and unite people in the love of Christ. I find it hard sometimes to articulate why relationship with God is so much more fulfilling than just religion and rules. It is nice to know that I am not alone in these thoughts.
Much Love & Many Thanks, Sheila
Posted by Sheila Mercer | Posted at 08/25/2006 2:12 PMThanks for the article, Kyle. I hope you will find the strength to continue to be a positive influence in churches. This reminded me of a book I read recently, written by Ed Gungor, a pastor in Tulsa Oklahoma, titled "Religiously Transmitted Diseases". You might like it! Let's pray that the Holy Spirit will come with healing. Posted by Hugh Anglin | Posted at 09/02/2006 9:12 AM
I cannot do better than those who've already spoken. As I'm reading Spencer's "A Heretic's Guide to Eternity," I see the same arguments. God seems to be using this new approach to kick us out of the churchbuilding, and I'm all for it!
How can we continue to assemble together in accordance with Hebrews 10.25 without contracting STD? The approach in everything must be humility. We can scarcely judge an "outsider" as different from ourself if we are humble. We can scarcely revere churchbuilding leadership as inerrant holy men if we and they are humble. (Even if they aren't, we can recognize them as human as we.)
Posted by Chris Smith | Posted at 09/03/2006 4:20 PMWe are the Church...it's not a building! No one's benefiting from the pastor/ laity distinction. It's a top down hierarchy! We aren't to forsake the fellowship of the bretheren...So, can we carry carry the baton...pass the legacy down without thinking we need to drive to a building and assemble in front of pastor..choir...childrens this or that? You are the body or your not- I wrote a blog, if you'd care to check it out under the Worship section. It's called "Worship and the Unseen"...you can direct any comments there, thanks, Marie Posted by marie | Posted at 09/07/2006 12:26 PM
Marie, you make an important point. I don't think the clergy/laity division is based in the New Testament. The church should be the body of believers. Where we'd go from the body as a whole being "a royal priesthood" to most of the body being laity? Posted by Bill Samuel | Posted at 09/19/2006 4:10 PM
I love the passion of the writer. I'm reminded of Luther's comments on the Lord's Prayer. God's kingdom will come whether we pray for it or not. We're currently working with James in my community and we're giving a lot of attention to the almost unconscious subcultural divisions in the church. At the same time, Israel was and is a subculture in the world, and there is ample NT evidence that the community of the baptized were also marked as separate from the dominant culture, a body composed of diversely-gifted members. My issue is that the markers of our separateness are very poor ones. I dream of a koinonia that is, for example, radically generous to the poor. Posted by Mike Cook | Posted at 09/20/2006 5:55 AM
call it a cell group, a community, a flock, a herd of cows for call i care. The word church means eklesia, ..."called out ones" The true church is not a building but a universal group of people that have been called out of this mundane selfish existance and called to a selfless spiritual one. Spiritual as in of the Holy Spirit, not a create your own spirituality. A Christian "community" is not a community because we like the same music style or pastor, we are community in what we have in COMMON that binds us all together despite differences in teaching/worship/gathering styles. Something that powerful that can cross age, race, or occupation can only be one thing : One Lord, one Spirit, one Faith in one Christ who died once for all. God gets it right the first time all the time. He didnt make the perfect church, but rather "His grace is made perfect in our weakness". Its us as the imperfect creation that will make mistakes till the day he makes us perfect. changing the name of what we call our local church is like cleaning the outside of a garbage can to make it like new. Our hearts and attitudes toward God have to have humility and patience with those who fall into religiosity just as much as for those who dont know God altogether. The religiosity mindset is bondage of pride, anybody ever suggest fasting n praying for change, from your local circle on out, instead of making screwfaces? If not you can call yourself the Cell Group flock of the Holy Herd of Cows Community Church and nothing has changed, a new sense of religiosty has been born, and back where you started. Koinonia is True Fellowship, unconditional love and bond with your fellow man that can only happen through Spirit filled life that doesnt allow, as the last comment, "for poor markers of seperation." More penecillin please. Posted by Justin | Posted at 09/20/2006 8:19 AM
oh yea....props on the article, and for His lavish love that is unending!! Posted by Justi | Posted at 09/20/2006 8:23 AM
I have enjoyed reading everyone's comments. So, I will add my two cents' worth. First, in many ways what those posting here are saying is nothing new. The struggle to be authentic followers of Christ is documented throughout the history of "the church" (both with indivduals and with Christian "movements"). Second, as much as we desire and preach to have some kind of "free form" body or community of believers, it is the natural tendancy of humans to "organize" as they grow, to become to some degree institutionalized. Many younger believers seem to have disdain for anything too "organized," yet we cannot overlook this orderliness as often a good and necessary thing. Reread the book of Numbers and you see God "organizing" the Jews into groups, etc. so that they can accomplish their goals of their journey through the wilderness. I do think we need to be more readily led by the heart, by the Spirit of God - all the things others have said. But don't be too quick to throw out "organization" as some kind of evil - God is a creator of order and design, both in the natural creation and in the way he created mankind to think and accomplish things. Thirdly, I would urge each person who has been part of this discussion to just BE who you feel called to be. If you feel the "church" should be more honest and involved in our community, then YOU volunteer at the soup kitchen, YOU invite that wayward teen to your home, YOU listen to the unwed mother and her problems and help, YOU participate in civic politics if that's your calling. Don't worry about what the "other" church people are doing or if they jump on the "emergent" band wagon; even the little old lady knitting baby blankets for the poor is doing God's will in her own way - don't you overlook the graciousness she has to teach you. Yes, it's about the heart, but some of us can spend too much time on rhetoric instead of living the heart of Jesus. That's all I have to say... Posted by Lizzie | Posted at 09/20/2006 9:09 AM
I totally agree that the church is bound in a lot of tradition and attitudes that turns unchurched people off. However, I don't think we can just abandon the church, we need to work to change it from within. There are still a lot of good things about the formal church structure, it just needs to be reworked. Posted by Gerry S | Posted at 09/22/2006 10:59 AM