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 names. Some of these practice 'movements" like "cell church" or "seeker sensitive" or "purpose driven". Then of course, there are the "non-denominational ministries" with all of their labels.
Will Christians ever get tired of labels?
I naively thought that when I left the "institutional church" behind I would ONLY find people who were tired of the labels. But I guess not. I have found many who are seeking something without all the trinkets of the instituional church, but it seems that just being outside of the instituional church does not mean everyone is free of the labels. I really truly just want to leave the labels behind and just BE the church that follows Christ. It does not need a name, it does not need a definition, it does not need to appeal to the new culture, or emerge from something (whatever that means). It does not need property or buildings. It does not need a 501c3 or a constitution in my opinion.
I honestly can't believe that when the church was brand new, just out of the box... that they worried much about such things. They could not have. They had no time for such foolishness! They were caught up with such issues as FEEDING themselves and their widows and orphans. They were busy finding places to live for all 3000+ out of town visitors who became the church. They were trying to comprehend this amazing thing that Jesus had told them of and that they were experiencing through His Spirit!. Yet, in the middle of all this, they seemed to find time to gather to hear of Jesus, and to pray and to tell others about Him. They found time to love one another and share and give. They didn't spend time labeling things.
When they started to get a little comfortable and maybe did try to become established, God spread them out all over the world through persecution. They started it all over again! It was like dropping a bucket of gasoline into a fire pit! Fires sprung up everywhere that the splashes of flame and fuel landed.
When Paul heard of people forming followings, and people trying to identify with other men rather than Christ, he rebuked them for it!
1 Corinthians 1:11-13
My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?
I guess I was surprised (maybe without reason), to find that even in the midst of believers who have left the rituals and programs of what most will label "churches" today, I find new labels. I find that people are still trying to build a better mouse trap and label it and copyright it and distribute it and market it!
Come on people!
The church that Jesus founded was never such a creature! It was not meant to look or act like the institutions of the world!
Jesus described it as a family, as wind, as fire... things that HE established... not things that we have made.
Can we just simply BE the church?
or are we condemned to give it a name?
ps...
read another blog article by 'unchurch'
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Program vs. Personal Ministry
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 were not intended to be.
I started thinking about this issue because of a discussion at our Sunday gathering this past week. Someone in our group was concerned about another brother who had not been around at our Sunday gatherings or in contact with anyone for a few weeks. The concerned person was thinking that the answer might be to have people call and encourage this missing brother (and others) by starting some kind of rule, agreement or procedure where we will call others who have not been around for a while. He suggested that maybe we could have a policy whereby if a ‘missing person’ had not told anyone that they will be missing for a few weeks, and we don’t see them around, someone should call them. While it might not be harmful to set some kind of general agreement among the members of the Body and maybe even have some people who feel gifted to do such a thing set this up, I think maybe this is how ‘church programs’ get started. Their purpose is noble, and their effect can be truly loving and Christian, but over time these wonderful things take on a life (or lack of life as the case may be) of their own.
Our group discussed this issue and agreed that it was not good that someone was missing contact with the group for so long and that few had called him. It is not the loving thing to left someone drift away, alone.
Some said that since we are all different, have differing personalities and different gifts, it should be those who are closer to the missing person who contact him, not to give an excuse, but just because God has gifted us all differently and not everyone is called to minister to everyone. In some ways that might be true, but really we are to feel each-others pain and rejoice in each other’s triumphs! (Rom 12:15) We are also called to grow in God’s Grace & knowledge – and learn t live a godly life submitted to God (2 pet 3: 11-18). So we are called to do things that might not feel comfortable, but we are to love one another and do what we would have done to ourselves. Therefore we must learn to take our own responsibility to do things that edify and encourage others even if we are not comfortable doing it because “we don’t know them very well” or “it might seem strange to call them” or “they might think I am just calling to get them to come back and put a guilt trip on them”. All these excuses should be tossed aside. We are called to GROW… to be loving like Christ and not be concerned with how others will perceive what we do that is loving. For this kind of love Jesus was called a drunkard and a friend of sinners.
The problem with this whole personal-responsibility thing is that we assume it will be un productive because it is not a program and it is not structured and we all forget … etc. but maybe the problem is our modern-day mentality about such things. We think a production line is better than a hand crafted thing because it is cheaper to make, more can be made and there is a level of quality control procedures that can be built into it. Yet, it is often the handcrafted things, the one of a kind things made by the personal touch of an artist or skilled craftsman that are much more valuable and long lasting.
I think that what God really wants from us is to be personal craftsmen of His Love, not assembly line workers in His factory!
It occurs to me that maybe a lot of the things we have made into church programs, ministries and procedures as an organized church group really do have a corresponding personal responsibility. In other words, it is true that some of the things that are walked out as programs at most churches are truly an attempt to simply walk out a calling that God might well have placed on someone’s heart. They started that way. And many ‘programs’, ‘pastors’, and ‘parishioners’ operate in these programs out of a sincere heart for people and a love for God. I do not doubt the sincerity of most. However, have you ever considered that instead of teaching an assembly of believers to sign up to work the assembly line to call others and encourage them from the attendance list, we should be teaching and challenging people to do something uncomfortable this week, do something God has put on your heart that you have been hesitating to do. Something you think you are not equipped to do.
I’m thinking that instead of creating programs for the church as a group to follow we should be making challenges to ourselves (maybe even in the tangible form of a list) and to each other. If we can’t rely on a programmed, scheduled ‘fellowship’ time, challenge yourself to make time and call someone to have some real fellowship. If you know that you don’t have a program to teach your kids about God, and you know it is your responsibility, make time and challenge yourself to talk to your kids about God and pray with them. Not is a ritual form, but in a day-to-day form. And if you are not felling equipped to do it, train yourself! Read and pray for yourself, or with a few other believers you know.
If we all did this, if we all refused to rely on a program or someone else to do our ‘spiritual life’ and ‘ministry’ for us, we would find we have a lot of brothers and sisters to rely on and minister with. Not in a programmable fashion, but in a real-life, never easy - but always challenging, maturing and satisfying way!
I started thinking about this issue because of a discussion at our Sunday gathering this past week. Someone in our group was concerned about another brother who had not been around at our Sunday gatherings or in contact with anyone for a few weeks. The concerned person was thinking that the answer might be to have people call and encourage this missing brother (and others) by starting some kind of rule, agreement or procedure where we will call others who have not been around for a while. He suggested that maybe we could have a policy whereby if a ‘missing person’ had not told anyone that they will be missing for a few weeks, and we don’t see them around, someone should call them. While it might not be harmful to set some kind of general agreement among the members of the Body and maybe even have some people who feel gifted to do such a thing set this up, I think maybe this is how ‘church programs’ get started. Their purpose is noble, and their effect can be truly loving and Christian, but over time these wonderful things take on a life (or lack of life as the case may be) of their own.
Our group discussed this issue and agreed that it was not good that someone was missing contact with the group for so long and that few had called him. It is not the loving thing to left someone drift away, alone.
Some said that since we are all different, have differing personalities and different gifts, it should be those who are closer to the missing person who contact him, not to give an excuse, but just because God has gifted us all differently and not everyone is called to minister to everyone. In some ways that might be true, but really we are to feel each-others pain and rejoice in each other’s triumphs! (Rom 12:15) We are also called to grow in God’s Grace & knowledge – and learn t live a godly life submitted to God (2 pet 3: 11-18). So we are called to do things that might not feel comfortable, but we are to love one another and do what we would have done to ourselves. Therefore we must learn to take our own responsibility to do things that edify and encourage others even if we are not comfortable doing it because “we don’t know them very well” or “it might seem strange to call them” or “they might think I am just calling to get them to come back and put a guilt trip on them”. All these excuses should be tossed aside. We are called to GROW… to be loving like Christ and not be concerned with how others will perceive what we do that is loving. For this kind of love Jesus was called a drunkard and a friend of sinners.
The problem with this whole personal-responsibility thing is that we assume it will be un productive because it is not a program and it is not structured and we all forget … etc. but maybe the problem is our modern-day mentality about such things. We think a production line is better than a hand crafted thing because it is cheaper to make, more can be made and there is a level of quality control procedures that can be built into it. Yet, it is often the handcrafted things, the one of a kind things made by the personal touch of an artist or skilled craftsman that are much more valuable and long lasting.
I think that what God really wants from us is to be personal craftsmen of His Love, not assembly line workers in His factory!
It occurs to me that maybe a lot of the things we have made into church programs, ministries and procedures as an organized church group really do have a corresponding personal responsibility. In other words, it is true that some of the things that are walked out as programs at most churches are truly an attempt to simply walk out a calling that God might well have placed on someone’s heart. They started that way. And many ‘programs’, ‘pastors’, and ‘parishioners’ operate in these programs out of a sincere heart for people and a love for God. I do not doubt the sincerity of most. However, have you ever considered that instead of teaching an assembly of believers to sign up to work the assembly line to call others and encourage them from the attendance list, we should be teaching and challenging people to do something uncomfortable this week, do something God has put on your heart that you have been hesitating to do. Something you think you are not equipped to do.
I’m thinking that instead of creating programs for the church as a group to follow we should be making challenges to ourselves (maybe even in the tangible form of a list) and to each other. If we can’t rely on a programmed, scheduled ‘fellowship’ time, challenge yourself to make time and call someone to have some real fellowship. If you know that you don’t have a program to teach your kids about God, and you know it is your responsibility, make time and challenge yourself to talk to your kids about God and pray with them. Not is a ritual form, but in a day-to-day form. And if you are not felling equipped to do it, train yourself! Read and pray for yourself, or with a few other believers you know.
If we all did this, if we all refused to rely on a program or someone else to do our ‘spiritual life’ and ‘ministry’ for us, we would find we have a lot of brothers and sisters to rely on and minister with. Not in a programmable fashion, but in a real-life, never easy - but always challenging, maturing and satisfying way!
Friday, October 15, 2004
I just want to know...
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 salvation through a lady from an organization that taught 'religious instruction' for public school kids in elementary school. Then I knew I was being drawn to Him. I was about ten or eleven. I grew up in a household that was Christian in one sense, but there was little in the way of seeing it. We had stopped 'attending' church, and maybe that was good, maybe not. but I can remember laying awake early Sunday morning listening to the radio preachers because I hungered to know and understand the Lord.
I eventually started attending a church where my Grandparents went... in spite of the fact my parents did not attend. I grew in understanding and I formed a world-view on the foundation of the Bible which would sustain me through the temptations of Highschool and College. I became more involved in ministering to others and even took on 'leadership' roles in the church as I got older. I started to see the 'humanness' of the organized church at this point and the clean simple beauty of what I had pictured as the church started to be clouded. Yet, I think this was God's plan to bring back this hungar.
I began attending a smaller church that really wanted to walk out a 'New Testiment' model of the church. It was about this time that I was married and we began to seek the Lord together. However, as the years went by, many of the things I desired to see and know in a church that was seeking to be like those seen in the pages of Acts stated to seem to fall away. The 'church' began to take on elements of those other churches around us. "Look at what they are doing to minister!, Let's do that too!" seemed to be the battle cry of that church. I had put aside my hungar and desire to see a true New Testiment church and had sucumed to the 'reality' that this is just how church is... there is no more.
Thank God that He sent new people into my life that reminded me of my hungar! I began to re-read things in the Bible that I had let fall from memory. I relalized I had once again put out the fire, the desire that God had placed in my heart to know HIm better and see Him work amoung His people... His Church... in ways that would be miraculous!
I just want to know what it looks like to see these things in person... To know what Jesus really means when he describes his Church...
John 3: 7-8 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
I want to see that it does not require 'seeker sesitive' or 'target marketing' to reach unbelievers. To be a part of a gathering of believers where unbelievers see the presence of God rather than a ceremony or a well presented moral teaching...
1 Cor 14:24-25
But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!"
I want to know what it is like to have my mind spirit and strength focused on Him and not be distracted by all the artificial practices that men have added to the church.
Mark 12:29-34
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
I just want to see His church being different... being alive... being something that people will stop calling religion and see only as living loving people directed by the Creator.
I just want to know what that is like.
I think that if we do not give up and settle for man's best interpretation of what the church is supposed to be... and simply live it out. We can BE the church and never again want to settle for anything less than the amazing thing that God has called His Church to be.
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 salvation through a lady from an organization that taught 'religious instruction' for public school kids in elementary school. Then I knew I was being drawn to Him. I was about ten or eleven. I grew up in a household that was Christian in one sense, but there was little in the way of seeing it. We had stopped 'attending' church, and maybe that was good, maybe not. but I can remember laying awake early Sunday morning listening to the radio preachers because I hungered to know and understand the Lord.
I eventually started attending a church where my Grandparents went... in spite of the fact my parents did not attend. I grew in understanding and I formed a world-view on the foundation of the Bible which would sustain me through the temptations of Highschool and College. I became more involved in ministering to others and even took on 'leadership' roles in the church as I got older. I started to see the 'humanness' of the organized church at this point and the clean simple beauty of what I had pictured as the church started to be clouded. Yet, I think this was God's plan to bring back this hungar.
I began attending a smaller church that really wanted to walk out a 'New Testiment' model of the church. It was about this time that I was married and we began to seek the Lord together. However, as the years went by, many of the things I desired to see and know in a church that was seeking to be like those seen in the pages of Acts stated to seem to fall away. The 'church' began to take on elements of those other churches around us. "Look at what they are doing to minister!, Let's do that too!" seemed to be the battle cry of that church. I had put aside my hungar and desire to see a true New Testiment church and had sucumed to the 'reality' that this is just how church is... there is no more.
Thank God that He sent new people into my life that reminded me of my hungar! I began to re-read things in the Bible that I had let fall from memory. I relalized I had once again put out the fire, the desire that God had placed in my heart to know HIm better and see Him work amoung His people... His Church... in ways that would be miraculous!
I just want to know what it looks like to see these things in person... To know what Jesus really means when he describes his Church...
John 3: 7-8 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
I want to see that it does not require 'seeker sesitive' or 'target marketing' to reach unbelievers. To be a part of a gathering of believers where unbelievers see the presence of God rather than a ceremony or a well presented moral teaching...
1 Cor 14:24-25
But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!"
I want to know what it is like to have my mind spirit and strength focused on Him and not be distracted by all the artificial practices that men have added to the church.
Mark 12:29-34
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
I just want to see His church being different... being alive... being something that people will stop calling religion and see only as living loving people directed by the Creator.
I just want to know what that is like.
I think that if we do not give up and settle for man's best interpretation of what the church is supposed to be... and simply live it out. We can BE the church and never again want to settle for anything less than the amazing thing that God has called His Church to be.
Thursday, October 07, 2004
So, should we just NOT gather at all?
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 they met. Maybe it is not the gathering that needs to go... it is just the way we gather and the ritualized things that need to go.
Today's concept of 'worship service' is a ceremonialized acting out in my view. The church of the Bible met to allow everyone to contribute their giftings... They gathered to encourage, to share a meal, to show love for each other, to pray together... not to be led in singing by a band or a 'worship pastor' and be preached at every week by one man who is professionally trained, not to pretend to fellowship on a superficial level, not to give money to a fund that simply constructs bigger buildings and pays salaries to perpetuate the 'services' of the church, and not to volunteer your service to programs rather than people. In fact, if you take the exact opposite of all these things you would be pretty close to what the Church is talking about in gathering and living as the church.
While the 'typical service' might not be necessarily 'wrong' (as in: we should not allow anyone to do it), it is not something that is necessarily strengthening to individual believers, or the church in general. It is an environment that seems to leave it to the individual if they are going to grow or not. If the person is hungry for God, he will seek something more than this 'service' will offer, and soon the 'service' will seem like candy and not anything nourishing to them (Maybe their head knowledge will be challenged a little, and maybe their feelings tickled by 'worship music' but any exercise of their gifts or understanding or involvement is not being nurtured).
Sadly, those who are comfortable with just sitting, listening... These find it comfortable in a 'service' because they don't have to exercise at all... And thus they are fooled into thinking this is about all that their faith can do. The 'service' becomes only a social event that they think is mandated by scripture, and they think they are being 'fed' by it, when in fact, they are being lulled by it, and at best becoming fat on it for lack of exercise.
I say this not to tear anything down, but because I have experienced it myself. I have been a believer for over 25 years, and I have benefited from the teaching and even the experiences of 'services' no doubt, but I can also say that I should be much further along in the living out of my faith than I am. I think I was one who was taught by 'services' to become fat spiritually and rarely exercise.
The 'Attend worship service and-then-go-serve-outside of the service' model does not work (at least no for me). The church is really to be an 'on the job training' sort of thing in my opinion... Participate in the building up of the church (not the building, the people) as you grow and learn... But today's 'service driven' concept is modeled after the 'go to school first -- become knowledgeable -- then go get practical work experience'.
The modern day concept of 'worship service' just trains people to be sitters and listeners. Even if they hunger for something more, the tendency is toward the path of least resistance... Sit and listen. When I say "Modern concept" I don't mean just this past century (although the last century of Americanized Christianity has taken the 'service' to new places that continue to get further and further from the Bible)...
I mean "modern" in contrast to what we see in the NT.
You could say that the "modern" concept of a 'church service' began the moment the 'church service' was conceived by Constantine in the 300s. I am not arguing for a "better church service"... I am saying that I don't know what a "church service" is because it does not look or sound like what we see in scripture.
How does one Go To Church?
How does one Attend Church?
We ARE the church. You don't GO there!
Taking away the easy-to-use 'worship service' from people and making the gathering just a simple gathering of believers -- open to what the Lord wants to do in their midst -- can be a threatening thing to most Christians. They don't know what to do with that. I think there is actually a bit of "detox" that has to take place in weaning people off of their 'worship service addiction'.
Some say that more private and personal disciplines are necessary rather than gathering, but they say this only because we have over-emphasized the 'gathering' aspect in the institutional church in the form of the 'worship service'. I think there should be a balance of these things. Attendance is not "the thing" and no one should assume that lack of attendance with a group means they are less spiritual.
On the other hand, we are the church only as a GROUP (whether that is a physical gathering or a more long-distance relationship/contact kind of thing)... Not as individuals... And because the gifts God distributed to the individuals of the church are given out to each of us as He sees fit... And because they are intended to edify the body of believers (often in a face to face kind of way)... Gathering of some kind is necessary so that these gifts can be worked and shared with others.
Now... As to whether that means one can be making these contacts and gatherings with various groups, in various locations, and not 'primarily sticking to any one group' ... That might be possible... But given the nature of humans to be social... Having a deep relationship with a few individuals in a group as your constant circle of believers/friends is often the more practical way to walk this out.
All that to say that I agree that the church needs to learn the 'personal responsibility' aspects of being the church... But I also think it is possible to over do that and forget that the church is the believers TOGETHER... One being a hand, one an eye, one a muscle...
End of the story... we do need to gather and be in relationship with other believers, and we need to take on personal responsibility for our faith and growth and life, but sitting in a "church service" is not the gathering we are talking about.
Be the Church.
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 they met. Maybe it is not the gathering that needs to go... it is just the way we gather and the ritualized things that need to go.
Today's concept of 'worship service' is a ceremonialized acting out in my view. The church of the Bible met to allow everyone to contribute their giftings... They gathered to encourage, to share a meal, to show love for each other, to pray together... not to be led in singing by a band or a 'worship pastor' and be preached at every week by one man who is professionally trained, not to pretend to fellowship on a superficial level, not to give money to a fund that simply constructs bigger buildings and pays salaries to perpetuate the 'services' of the church, and not to volunteer your service to programs rather than people. In fact, if you take the exact opposite of all these things you would be pretty close to what the Church is talking about in gathering and living as the church.
While the 'typical service' might not be necessarily 'wrong' (as in: we should not allow anyone to do it), it is not something that is necessarily strengthening to individual believers, or the church in general. It is an environment that seems to leave it to the individual if they are going to grow or not. If the person is hungry for God, he will seek something more than this 'service' will offer, and soon the 'service' will seem like candy and not anything nourishing to them (Maybe their head knowledge will be challenged a little, and maybe their feelings tickled by 'worship music' but any exercise of their gifts or understanding or involvement is not being nurtured).
Sadly, those who are comfortable with just sitting, listening... These find it comfortable in a 'service' because they don't have to exercise at all... And thus they are fooled into thinking this is about all that their faith can do. The 'service' becomes only a social event that they think is mandated by scripture, and they think they are being 'fed' by it, when in fact, they are being lulled by it, and at best becoming fat on it for lack of exercise.
I say this not to tear anything down, but because I have experienced it myself. I have been a believer for over 25 years, and I have benefited from the teaching and even the experiences of 'services' no doubt, but I can also say that I should be much further along in the living out of my faith than I am. I think I was one who was taught by 'services' to become fat spiritually and rarely exercise.
The 'Attend worship service and-then-go-serve-outside of the service' model does not work (at least no for me). The church is really to be an 'on the job training' sort of thing in my opinion... Participate in the building up of the church (not the building, the people) as you grow and learn... But today's 'service driven' concept is modeled after the 'go to school first -- become knowledgeable -- then go get practical work experience'.
The modern day concept of 'worship service' just trains people to be sitters and listeners. Even if they hunger for something more, the tendency is toward the path of least resistance... Sit and listen. When I say "Modern concept" I don't mean just this past century (although the last century of Americanized Christianity has taken the 'service' to new places that continue to get further and further from the Bible)...
I mean "modern" in contrast to what we see in the NT.
You could say that the "modern" concept of a 'church service' began the moment the 'church service' was conceived by Constantine in the 300s. I am not arguing for a "better church service"... I am saying that I don't know what a "church service" is because it does not look or sound like what we see in scripture.
How does one Go To Church?
How does one Attend Church?
We ARE the church. You don't GO there!
Taking away the easy-to-use 'worship service' from people and making the gathering just a simple gathering of believers -- open to what the Lord wants to do in their midst -- can be a threatening thing to most Christians. They don't know what to do with that. I think there is actually a bit of "detox" that has to take place in weaning people off of their 'worship service addiction'.
Some say that more private and personal disciplines are necessary rather than gathering, but they say this only because we have over-emphasized the 'gathering' aspect in the institutional church in the form of the 'worship service'. I think there should be a balance of these things. Attendance is not "the thing" and no one should assume that lack of attendance with a group means they are less spiritual.
On the other hand, we are the church only as a GROUP (whether that is a physical gathering or a more long-distance relationship/contact kind of thing)... Not as individuals... And because the gifts God distributed to the individuals of the church are given out to each of us as He sees fit... And because they are intended to edify the body of believers (often in a face to face kind of way)... Gathering of some kind is necessary so that these gifts can be worked and shared with others.
Now... As to whether that means one can be making these contacts and gatherings with various groups, in various locations, and not 'primarily sticking to any one group' ... That might be possible... But given the nature of humans to be social... Having a deep relationship with a few individuals in a group as your constant circle of believers/friends is often the more practical way to walk this out.
All that to say that I agree that the church needs to learn the 'personal responsibility' aspects of being the church... But I also think it is possible to over do that and forget that the church is the believers TOGETHER... One being a hand, one an eye, one a muscle...
End of the story... we do need to gather and be in relationship with other believers, and we need to take on personal responsibility for our faith and growth and life, but sitting in a "church service" is not the gathering we are talking about.
Be the Church.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
