Three or four weeks ago, the church we attend started a new series called Consumed. We were presented with a central question...what consumes you? Christ? Money? Something else?
The opening message centered on Galatians 5: Stand free and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery...do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, serve one another in love...the acts of the sinful nature are...the fruit of the spirit is...
For me the central question became how do you position yourself before God. How I position myself before God and other people communicates my feelings towards them. Everyone tries to present themselves in a certain way, both to other people and to God(even when we know we can't). And for very few (or none) of us is that image that we portray, the image that we see when we look in the mirror. All of this is, I think, usually unconscious. So it is good to reevaluate ourselves on a regular basis, in order to understand our relationship with God. Also it is healthy to try to realign our actions with our mental priorities.
I know that the last paragraph doesn't make perfect sense...you try to compress two weeks of thought into a paragraph.
Anyway...I found the first few weeks at least mildly stimulating...then last week the theme of the sermon was Debt is Bondage. Impressive title I know. But I had some issues with it. Don't get me wrong, I thin kdebt is bondage, and I try to avoid it. I would like to not owe any money on our condo. But the sermon focused on on Credit Card Debt, and ignored everything else. This was the safe choice. In a church as rich as the one we go to lots of people have debt, and most f it isn't credit card debt. Also I have a hunch that the decision was made because the church owes a lot of money. I'm not sure of that, but I would be surprised if it wasn't true.
So that was ok...a little disappointing...but not that bad.
This week the sermon was on Stepping into generosity. Which is a worthy goal...I am not nearly as generous as I wish I was.
But the focus was on giving money to the church...which is ok...but the proposed spending really got me
Special Spending Projects: around 30,000 for a variety of missions projects...and 300,000 for a remodeled sanctuary...in addition to normal costs.
When I realized what this is all about I have to admit I felt betrayed. I felt like I had been led into this series under false pretenses. Because it seems that ultimately the idea behind this series is to use people's guilt about their own spending and materialism to fund a spiffy new sanctuary, itself a manifestation of the very materialism that makes it possible.
So instead of helping people overcome their involvement in materialism...we fuel their addiction...nice
Showing posts with label body of Christ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label body of Christ. Show all posts
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Friday, November 03, 2006
clarification
The previous may have been a little unclear...
There should be a clear distinction made between longterm relationships, and short term associations. The former are the glue that bind the church together, sutaining it and giving it vibrancy and resiliancy. They are based on a deep commitment of dedication sacrifice and mutual appreciation. The latter may be based on any number of things--circumstance, common interest, or unilateral initiative. They do not bind the church into community because of their transitory nature, however, they may have some value. They bring people together and increase the level of human interaction and they offer the chance to form long lasting relationship.
The problem I see in many programs designed to bring people into the church through relational outreach, is that in their haste to act, they fail to make the distinction, or at least they fail to teach the distinction to the participants. This leads to an emphasis on short term associations, without a clear understanding of how to build these into deeper relationships. Thus the deep relationships that bind a person to the church and sustain them are often left to chance.
So how can we build up the deep friendships that are the life of the church? Should we pick a person at random from the church and decide to cultivate that relationship? I think no. This type of relationship is an organic growth that proceeds naturally. The trick is to learn to fertillize the associations we have that have a chance of turning into a deep relationship. This is the type of relational growth that cannot occur solely at the behest of hurch leaders. It requires a commitment of the church body to build the church through relationships.
Take for example the church I currently attend.
For starters it encourages the members to spend time together by providing food after the service so that people can stay and talk to each other. This increases the level of encounter and interaction and makes the rest possible. It also encourages members to carry this practice of eating together on during the week by having others over to dinner. Because this is done independantly, it works to increase the interaction of people who are inclined to have a relationship with each other. When forced to choose how they spend their time individuals generally tend to spend time with people they enjoy. Over time this builds strong bonds that criss-cross the church. This also acts to strengthen the bonds between people and creates multiple layers of relationship. Perhaps most importantly, the church leadership consciously tries to avoid leadership on most day to day affairs. It has set itself up to play the role of encourager in most activities. This encourages the members to take an active role in creating the type of activities in which they want to participate. Bad ideas and ideas that have outlived their time are allowed to die, while good and fresh ideas are built up and encouraged. This creates a wide range of options from movie night, to men's group, to Bible study, to study group, all led by the people who are most passionate about them. This gives the members a wide range of options and tends to build stronger relationships between like minded people.
The result is a messy unkempt organic growth. A web of connections of various strengths that intertwine and sustain each other. This gives the church a unique strength and appeal. It works naturally to build relationships at every level, and it provides a slow steady growth in committed membership. And it is slow--this is not the model for a megachurch. It is like the qrowth of an oak--slow, but well-rooted, strong, and lasting.
There should be a clear distinction made between longterm relationships, and short term associations. The former are the glue that bind the church together, sutaining it and giving it vibrancy and resiliancy. They are based on a deep commitment of dedication sacrifice and mutual appreciation. The latter may be based on any number of things--circumstance, common interest, or unilateral initiative. They do not bind the church into community because of their transitory nature, however, they may have some value. They bring people together and increase the level of human interaction and they offer the chance to form long lasting relationship.
The problem I see in many programs designed to bring people into the church through relational outreach, is that in their haste to act, they fail to make the distinction, or at least they fail to teach the distinction to the participants. This leads to an emphasis on short term associations, without a clear understanding of how to build these into deeper relationships. Thus the deep relationships that bind a person to the church and sustain them are often left to chance.
So how can we build up the deep friendships that are the life of the church? Should we pick a person at random from the church and decide to cultivate that relationship? I think no. This type of relationship is an organic growth that proceeds naturally. The trick is to learn to fertillize the associations we have that have a chance of turning into a deep relationship. This is the type of relational growth that cannot occur solely at the behest of hurch leaders. It requires a commitment of the church body to build the church through relationships.
Take for example the church I currently attend.
For starters it encourages the members to spend time together by providing food after the service so that people can stay and talk to each other. This increases the level of encounter and interaction and makes the rest possible. It also encourages members to carry this practice of eating together on during the week by having others over to dinner. Because this is done independantly, it works to increase the interaction of people who are inclined to have a relationship with each other. When forced to choose how they spend their time individuals generally tend to spend time with people they enjoy. Over time this builds strong bonds that criss-cross the church. This also acts to strengthen the bonds between people and creates multiple layers of relationship. Perhaps most importantly, the church leadership consciously tries to avoid leadership on most day to day affairs. It has set itself up to play the role of encourager in most activities. This encourages the members to take an active role in creating the type of activities in which they want to participate. Bad ideas and ideas that have outlived their time are allowed to die, while good and fresh ideas are built up and encouraged. This creates a wide range of options from movie night, to men's group, to Bible study, to study group, all led by the people who are most passionate about them. This gives the members a wide range of options and tends to build stronger relationships between like minded people.
The result is a messy unkempt organic growth. A web of connections of various strengths that intertwine and sustain each other. This gives the church a unique strength and appeal. It works naturally to build relationships at every level, and it provides a slow steady growth in committed membership. And it is slow--this is not the model for a megachurch. It is like the qrowth of an oak--slow, but well-rooted, strong, and lasting.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
A house divided will not stand
The church is the body of Christ. If this is true, can we segregate it into distinct units and hope to achieve growth? It seems that the answer should be no, so why do we do it? If you don't believe we do look around. Step into many churches and ask yourself if the youth are connected to the body. Do highschool and college ministries give the same message that the rest hear? Are they connected to the rest of the church? How many only attend youth programs and eschew the general gathering? How many organizations are there dedicted to a particular age group? Are they connecting the youth of the church into the body through the bond of relationship?
A phenomenon has swept the church in the past few decades. Around the age of twenty a suprisingly large number of people stop going to church. Why? Why does the church seem powerless to hold them? What pulls them away? Is it a lack of training? Are we not bringing up our children in the way they should go? How are we failing the youth of the church? We have sought to dam the breach with programs designed to appeal to youth. And yet the hole tears itself wider. Why?
I was a part of a church for several years that for some reason didn't lose its youth to this phenomenon. They continued to play a vibrant role in the church through highschool, college, and beyond. Contrary to popular reason there were no youth programs to speak of. The high school had its own Sunday school, and occasionally met on Saturday nights, but that was it. In fact, young people were drawn into this church. Many of their families did not attend any church. Why? What was the source of its success? Where is a large part of the church failing?
A Hypothesis
What is the purpose of the church? Why don't the followers of Christ each have a solitary direct line to God? What function does the church serve? Community. The church is to be an example of what God intended for human beings--to show what true relationship in community can look like. It provides a support system for Christians that allows them to face reality--we live in a broken world. We live with an emptiness that cannot be completely fulfilled in this life. We sin and yet are declared holy in the eyes of God. These are tough issues to grapple withand it is only through community that we can do so. The church also helps us to grow spiritually as others speak into our lives.
So what happens when we segregate the church into distinct age groups? This denies the reality of the fullness of the community of God and cuts out a large part of the community. This denies the unescapeable reality that relationships formed accross age lines are not only possible, but essential to the vibrancy of the church. This denies that Older Christians carry a treasure trove of wisdom and experience that can and should be mined by the youth in the church and segregates the two so they don't interact.
Can relationships form across age lines? Yes. We pander to popular culture when we deny this. The church has a responsibility to encourage relationship. This is the tie that binds us to the church, gives us strength when we falter, and makes it possible for us to live as God's children in a fallen world. God has given us the church as a means of butressing our faith, how can we deny this?
The model of the church I spoke of was that of a family. About a third of the church was from one large extended family. But the astonishing thing about this church was its openness. They had taken the kind of relationship you expect in a family and extended it to everyone who walked in the church. Church was not an event, but a way of life. They ate together, spent time with each other, and they extended to bond of family to everyone who came. The youth continued to take an interest in the church because they had the bond of relationship with everyone in the church. It was their life, their support system and the place they came to speak and to listen.
A phenomenon has swept the church in the past few decades. Around the age of twenty a suprisingly large number of people stop going to church. Why? Why does the church seem powerless to hold them? What pulls them away? Is it a lack of training? Are we not bringing up our children in the way they should go? How are we failing the youth of the church? We have sought to dam the breach with programs designed to appeal to youth. And yet the hole tears itself wider. Why?
I was a part of a church for several years that for some reason didn't lose its youth to this phenomenon. They continued to play a vibrant role in the church through highschool, college, and beyond. Contrary to popular reason there were no youth programs to speak of. The high school had its own Sunday school, and occasionally met on Saturday nights, but that was it. In fact, young people were drawn into this church. Many of their families did not attend any church. Why? What was the source of its success? Where is a large part of the church failing?
A Hypothesis
What is the purpose of the church? Why don't the followers of Christ each have a solitary direct line to God? What function does the church serve? Community. The church is to be an example of what God intended for human beings--to show what true relationship in community can look like. It provides a support system for Christians that allows them to face reality--we live in a broken world. We live with an emptiness that cannot be completely fulfilled in this life. We sin and yet are declared holy in the eyes of God. These are tough issues to grapple withand it is only through community that we can do so. The church also helps us to grow spiritually as others speak into our lives.
So what happens when we segregate the church into distinct age groups? This denies the reality of the fullness of the community of God and cuts out a large part of the community. This denies the unescapeable reality that relationships formed accross age lines are not only possible, but essential to the vibrancy of the church. This denies that Older Christians carry a treasure trove of wisdom and experience that can and should be mined by the youth in the church and segregates the two so they don't interact.
Can relationships form across age lines? Yes. We pander to popular culture when we deny this. The church has a responsibility to encourage relationship. This is the tie that binds us to the church, gives us strength when we falter, and makes it possible for us to live as God's children in a fallen world. God has given us the church as a means of butressing our faith, how can we deny this?
The model of the church I spoke of was that of a family. About a third of the church was from one large extended family. But the astonishing thing about this church was its openness. They had taken the kind of relationship you expect in a family and extended it to everyone who walked in the church. Church was not an event, but a way of life. They ate together, spent time with each other, and they extended to bond of family to everyone who came. The youth continued to take an interest in the church because they had the bond of relationship with everyone in the church. It was their life, their support system and the place they came to speak and to listen.
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