tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83846172011-07-28T13:23:24.490-07:00What is all this about attending church? Is that what it is all about? First of all, you can't attend church. Church is not a place. It is not really even an organization. It is an organism. It is something whose members are described as being like the wind by Jesus. (John 3) So am I saying you should not attend church? No. I am saying you can't! Because it is not about attending. You can no more attend church than I can attend myself. The Church is His people. His Body.DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.comBlogger251100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-29883556559714008142008-04-19T12:36:00.000-07:002008-04-19T13:27:45.714-07:00

I found out about and read The Shack before it was for sale on Amazon and every Christian book store on the face of the planet. I happened to find out about it simply because I subscribed to the God Journey podcast which is hosted by the two guys (Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings) who helped the author William P. Young edit and bring the book into its final form. When I read the Shack, I read it

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-57499075088236693822007-08-23T20:18:00.000-07:002008-04-19T19:10:21.241-07:00

Don't be too discouraged if you are tired of the institution and just want to walk away from it and walk with just Him. What will become of you if you seek Father out is one who learns to listen to Him, be content (or overjoyed might be a better way of saying it) in Him. I have not got it figured out. I have been outside the "Sunday club" for almost 3 years. There is life out here! I have not

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-15666802401095488632007-07-27T09:27:00.000-07:002007-07-27T18:12:47.684-07:00

Nothing gets the clergy ticked off more than telling them that their religious organization is not the holder of the legitimate title of "church". It is like telling them that their religion is worthless.A few weeks ago the Pope issued a letter that riled up Protestant and other Christian denominations because it said they were not true churches but merely ecclesiastical communities and

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-56215889547947914412007-06-22T13:41:00.000-07:002007-07-27T18:24:26.617-07:00

Well, I finished reading The Shack a while ago... finally got around to writing up something else about it.I think the biggest thing I got out of the book was about my (mis) percetions and other people's (mis) perceptions about God as we consider him in our understandings of Father Son and Spirit. I didn't really consider how I separate those and forget the unity of them when I paste my

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-87083968082886009582007-05-21T11:15:00.000-07:002007-07-27T18:25:08.249-07:00

I have been reading this new book recently... The Shack. I am not finished with it yet (I am up to chapter 14), but I am zooming through it!This is a great book. It tells the (fictional) story of a man whose young daughter is kidnapped and assumed murdered, and how he deals with his anger and pain... and how he is invited, years later, to the "scene of the crime" by God (as crazy as that sounds

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1164988820804700952006-12-01T07:59:00.000-08:002006-12-01T08:00:20.813-08:00

I think one of the things that we need to be reminded of is that inside the religious institutions there are people just as starving for grace as those who are not anywhere near God. Some of them are there because religion and it's practice are their God. Some are there because they know no other place to try and find Him, and get sold a bill of goods they were not shopping for.When I stopped

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1160933668775467132006-10-15T10:24:00.000-07:002006-10-15T10:39:33.606-07:00

The following is is a compiled exerpt of a few emails I wrote to a friend who did not know we had been outside of the traditional "church attendance" for some time. I thought it covered a lot of my current thoughts of the topic, so I edited it and placed it here on my blog:------------------------We stopped doing the "attend church" thing about two and a half years ago.I've come to see that we

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1129707722848305372005-10-19T00:22:00.000-07:002005-10-20T21:15:19.630-07:00

I've seen these bumper stickers and t-shirts for several years now. I really don't know much about them except that I assume they are some modern band. They say in bold white (usually on a black background) "Bad Religion"... something that I suspect the owners of the t-shirts and the bumper stickers see as a rebellion against authority and the stupidity of their church experience. (I wonder

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1121893051562127942005-07-20T13:34:00.000-07:002005-07-20T13:57:31.590-07:00

Last weekend my family and I drove up to visit some friends whom we have not spent time with for a long time. They moved to a city about 2-3 hours away from us 4 or 5 years ago and to our fault this is the first time we have gone to visit them in their new town.Because they had left the area, they stopped attending the local "church" we attended at the time with them. While they were there, we

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1121213728228128432005-07-12T17:07:00.000-07:002006-09-12T08:21:03.636-07:00

I find little to no justification for a weekly "service" as defined today by whatever denomination (or non-denomination) you can find. It seems to me that so many have chosen to play out a New Testament flavored version of the Old Testament temple rituals. We have come up with our own rules and our own religious culture and imposed it upon ourview of New Testament. It distorts and colors the way

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1110184577770400762005-03-06T23:52:00.000-08:002005-03-07T00:43:43.316-08:00

I visited a 'Christian Book Store' this weekend and found on the 'top sellers' bookshelf more than one book about how to plan out your life and your church ministry and set your goals, how to make it all purposeful and in Gods will, how to over come your difficulties and all that sort of stuff. I kind of shook my head and chuckled a bit (trying not to make it too obvious to anyone there that I

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1109572759626384752005-02-27T22:06:00.000-08:002005-02-28T10:00:57.183-08:00

Did you know that there are words used by Christians, which seem to have a "yeah, I know" meaning, as well as a "Well You know..." meaning?Take, for example, the word "Church" as the most common of these kinds of words. If someone is using this word to describe their local religious organization, or a building in the city, and you remind them that the "church" is really the people, the Christians

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1107334515613466362005-02-02T01:48:00.000-08:002005-02-02T00:55:15.613-08:00

I admit it... I used to be one of those people who called people outside of a local church organization a 'lone ranger Christian'. I used to consider them as a branch separated from the body that will wither and die. (little did I notice that the vine they were connected to was the Lord... Not the 'church'). Funny thing is now, I guess the Father's sense of humor comes out... I used to call

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1107104748787476232005-01-30T08:59:00.000-08:002005-01-30T09:45:32.030-08:00

Anyone who has walked with the Lord for any length of time knows that things are not always easy and comfortable. There are seasons in our lives where it seems everything has gone wrong. We try to comfort ourselves as much as we can in the fact that Job, Abraham, David, Paul, even Jesus experienced difficult times, and yet this was the Lords will for them to go through this time and come out with

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1106431482288672872005-01-22T14:02:00.000-08:002005-01-22T14:04:57.906-08:00

Dear Editor, I read a recent blog entry ( http://weblogs.oxegen.us/lifestream/archive/2005/01/21/6161.aspx ) that reflected my thoughts about your recent article "The Church—Why Bother" by Tim Stafford ( http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/001/26.42.html). I wanted you to know that I am one of those believers Wayne Jacobsen mentioned in this blog article who have discovered an incredible

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1106026952560699292005-01-17T21:02:00.000-08:002006-10-15T07:49:56.243-07:00

Sometime last year my family and other family were sitting around in their living room discussing the "rules" imposed on people who "go to church" -- rules we had all experienced. One issue that came up was the idea of attendance and calling people who had not 'been to church' in weeks. My wife was relating a conversation she had with another person in our former religious institution (some

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1101201586986349492004-11-23T01:38:00.000-08:002004-11-23T01:27:10.780-08:00

Granted, over the years I have learned many lessons from God. (and by the way, they are almost always through experience rather than head knowledge.) This is not the first, or most profound, but it is one of the most recent. It is interesting that we learn lessons better in situations we might not care for too much. So, why do we sometimes look at these situations as places we want to leave,

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1100317700737804882004-11-12T19:44:00.000-08:002004-11-16T20:01:40.730-08:00

I had the "pastor" of the church I used to attend (we still communicate) ask me the other day, "so, how is that house church going?". It got me to sit down and write a response... so I thought I would put it here too... I have come to think less about "how to DO church" and more about how to "BE the church". Which makes even the label "house church" sound funny to me now. So, I am not sure how

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1099619712472628052004-11-04T17:34:00.000-08:002004-11-05T10:36:07.080-08:00

It is interesting to me that the press was so "surprised" to discover that the voting of people in this year's presidential election was primarily swayed by character, morality and religious standards. They seem to be astonished that these issues trumped the issues of foreign policy, economics, and other more "practical" issues. I am pleasantly surprised that things turned out as they did. I

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1098861921406215242004-10-26T23:55:00.000-07:002004-10-27T20:52:03.150-07:00

Sigh... I've been reading up on this whole "emergent church", and "postmodern" church stuff tonight. A few months back I left the attendance of a "institutional church" or as some call it an 'organizational church" (at least those terms actually describe something). Within the "institutional church" there are Denominations with more labels... within denominations there are individual church

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1098774086965132352004-10-26T01:00:00.000-07:002004-10-26T00:01:26.966-07:00

Tonight I have been thinking about all the things that people do in most church organizations to foster various kinds of ministry, unity, fellowship and other things that we as Christians are called to do. On the whole I really do think most programs are started with a sincere love or calling that God places on certain people, but I am afraid most programs go from there and become something they

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1097830204104345742004-10-15T01:14:00.000-07:002004-10-15T01:55:00.406-07:00

I look at my experiences 'attending church' over my life, and I read about the church in the Bible and keep saying to myself, "There has just got to me something more that I am missing!" I was very young when God put a hunger in my heart. I don't know exactly when He put it there. My family attended church when I was very young, but stopped some time while I was still small. I learned of

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1097213779714409952004-10-07T22:19:00.000-07:002004-10-15T01:56:02.946-07:00

Some who are fed up with church attendance and "church services" feel we should just go be Lone Ranger Christians... but, we ARE called and commanded to gather together for many reasons. It is a command of scripture that we gather together... I just think that the current modern concept of a 'service' is totally off track. It looks little to nothing like what the church in the Bible did when

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1095577073376192652004-09-18T23:26:00.000-07:002006-10-15T10:41:57.696-07:00

First of all, I would like to know where the TERM 'Worship Service" came from. I have never really understood what that really means. Is it that we are performing a service to God? Or proving a "service" to the people who come to the meeting? Or what? It smacks so much of the 15th century clergy/laity thing to me... Like the common fold coming to get a 'service' of blessing from their

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8384617.post-1095573680985655462004-09-18T22:59:00.000-07:002004-10-15T01:57:28.910-07:00

Our culture has misunderstood what the church is. The idea most of us have when we hear the word 'church' is that it is a building, an organization, a corporate entity with a constitution, membership roles and a corporate structure of leadership. However, if you read your Bible you will find that in reality, the church is simply the believers in Christ who make up his Body. Some will say, "well

DregerClock.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15022168524885257834noreply@blogger.com2