Saturday, April 02, 2005
Dear John...
Do you have any idea what it is like to go through life and get nothing but "Dear John" letters? That joke never gets any laughs....
But this post is not about laughs, it is about my firend John Gilmartin at Sheep's Crib, who, by virtue of this post, has come to occupy a very dear place in my heart. John launches on an absolute rant about what he calls "mega-barns" and the blame the leaders of his denomination put on pastors.
I share John's anger. John is very defensive of his parishoners and those like them, as well he should be. What I am about to say, is not a shot at them.
I doubt the spiritual effectiveness, as differentiated from the obvious numerical effectiveness, of the mega-barn movement for precisely the reasons John rants about. I do not think God intended the church to be something that pastors and staff do to the congregation. Rather, I think He intends it to be something that we all do together, with pastors leading the way.
John, I will take 5 genuinely transformed souls over 5000 loud singers any day of the week. Go get 'em tiger.
But this post is not about laughs, it is about my firend John Gilmartin at Sheep's Crib, who, by virtue of this post, has come to occupy a very dear place in my heart. John launches on an absolute rant about what he calls "mega-barns" and the blame the leaders of his denomination put on pastors.
I share John's anger. John is very defensive of his parishoners and those like them, as well he should be. What I am about to say, is not a shot at them.
I doubt the spiritual effectiveness, as differentiated from the obvious numerical effectiveness, of the mega-barn movement for precisely the reasons John rants about. I do not think God intended the church to be something that pastors and staff do to the congregation. Rather, I think He intends it to be something that we all do together, with pastors leading the way.
John, I will take 5 genuinely transformed souls over 5000 loud singers any day of the week. Go get 'em tiger.
