Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Church And/Or Community
Tod Bolsinger has reposted something from last year that is really, really good.
Those with a vested interest in the church will tell us that we should stick it out no matter how bad things get - but frankly, I have seen some legitimately intoelerable situations.
The marriage analogy is overused, and underappreciated. Marriage fails when both parties quit trying, yes one or the other may quit trying first, but the collapse of the marriage comes when both stop.
You know all those two-sided Pauline admonitions - "Wives, submit to your husband, Husbands, love your wives" -- "Slaves obey your master, Masters, treat your slaves with humanity." I think that's the tone that needs to be taken here.
Not all Christians that are abandoning the institutions are doing so because the institutions are lost, but a lot are. Not all institutions are driving away the community of faith in a misguided efforts to survive, thrive,...but a lot are.
That's where Tod's vision is so good. For that vision to be realized, the church needs to recommit to it's members, and vice versa.
Related Tags: Christianity, church, Barna, Revolution, Tod Bolsinger, Jollyblogger
What this means is the church in its essence is not an organization, even a helpful, divinely mandated one. Contrary to what many of us have been taught, the church is not just a means of grace; and the church is not just here to help you in your individual journey of faith.Tod is in the middle of series loooking at George Barna's highly controversial new book - Revolution. Barna, as usual, studies current trends in church and in this case he sees the trend towards Christians becoming more or less "a church of one." Lots of people have tackled Barna lately, Jollyblogger being one of my favs. In all the discussion, most of it good, I haven't heard anyone ask the chicken and egg question. Are people moving in the directions Barna describes because the church is falling down on the job or is people leaving the reason the church has lost its way?
Further, Christian Community is not just a shared experience. It?s not people who sit together in pews or a movie theater or a football stadium (even if they are the audience for a Christian event!). It?s not polite conversation at a potluck or a great weekend together at a Christian camp. Christian Community is an ontologically irreducible organism. It is a living reality that is imbued with the Spirit of God. And most dramatically, it is the very life of the Triune God drawing people into a covenantal relationship with God and each other. It is God?s own being on earth lived in and through believers for the single end-result of seeing each person become like Jesus Christ.
Those with a vested interest in the church will tell us that we should stick it out no matter how bad things get - but frankly, I have seen some legitimately intoelerable situations.
The marriage analogy is overused, and underappreciated. Marriage fails when both parties quit trying, yes one or the other may quit trying first, but the collapse of the marriage comes when both stop.
You know all those two-sided Pauline admonitions - "Wives, submit to your husband, Husbands, love your wives" -- "Slaves obey your master, Masters, treat your slaves with humanity." I think that's the tone that needs to be taken here.
Not all Christians that are abandoning the institutions are doing so because the institutions are lost, but a lot are. Not all institutions are driving away the community of faith in a misguided efforts to survive, thrive,...but a lot are.
That's where Tod's vision is so good. For that vision to be realized, the church needs to recommit to it's members, and vice versa.
Related Tags: Christianity, church, Barna, Revolution, Tod Bolsinger, Jollyblogger
