Thursday, December 13, 2007
Morning Rant
This morning I was thinking, man, what would it be like if I never had to step into a church building again. What would it be like if there were no actual church building and believers would gather to just pray or worship or something and there was no real structure and no real organization-- just pure life and worship of God. I was starting to get excited by the idea. But then as I kept envisioning this scenario, some "visionary" would rise up and try to take the lead, name himself or herself "pastor" and then start a church organization from it, and we'd be back to square one with the need to break out of the church structure again.
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4 comments:
Hmmm. You been reading a little George Barna this morning Roy? Some Gene Edwards??
I believe that Romans 12 does talk about the spiritual gift of leadership, and there is a need for some kind of direction from gifted folk, but I don't think it's mutually exclusive to still get excited to maybe see a paradigm shift from the whole church structure thing as some of us experience and see it.
There are a million different church models out there for all kinds of people. Finding the one that God has placed you in can be a bit of a challenge and trial though...
Being one of those guys that was charged to lead church for awhile, I can assure you it is no easy feat. It is kind of a nightmare sometimes actually. Finding the balance between leading well and not over leading is a gift that I'm not sure I ever came close to connecting with. You either impede and handicap people with too much of "me" or you can see them twist into unhealthy lifestyle and thinking about God. Maybe a better word would be "caring for"...
All that to say my thinking of church and the money and politics that surround it have become a thorn in my side over the last year that requires me to constantly say "You grace is sufficient for me, you power is made strong in my weakness Lord"
All that to say I sympathize with you Roy, I really do.
Roy, you pointed out a very important fact in your rant. It would happen again. We get all caught up in recognizing symptoms but not the problem. The problem is that people aren't perfect, they are born with sin and because of that, their output is going to be flawed. I'm tired of wishing for the perfect church because, without trying to sound too pessimistic, it will fall again. What we need is God's grace. We need to let God into the depths of our very being...all the places that we don't want to let him, and live in that grace. Grace will transform us and grace will take those inequities and bring them into the light where they belong, which will, in turn, make Church good again...because it is good. It's not perfect, it's good.
Reminds me of The Matrix (part one, not the other red-headed bastard ones.) Remember when the Agent is explaining to Morpheus about how their first trial at The Matrix was a total disaster and tons of crops were lost because they created it to be perfect? Kind of makes you wonder if by anything other than God, we can reach it. I don't think so. I think that until we learn to rely on him in his entirety...until he is enough in our eyes, we are living the eternal curse of man.
amen, terrance. Jason, I am sensing some trauma in your words so i shall pray for thee my brother
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