maybe it's just me...

Thoughts about [re]thinking leadership, preaching, community and such.....I think that often times (we) I can get caught up in talking about this [way] of doing/being church for today. Conversations, articles, emails, comments, whole websites and so on about ‘house’ church vs. ‘traditional’ church. ‘Leadership’ vs. no ‘leadership’. ‘Preacher’ vs. no ‘preacher‘.

Notice the ‘vs.’....

I know that a lot of folks' blog, mine has been one of them, is used often to rant about this or that. It lets us get some frustration out. There is a problem that can occur. If a lot of my resources and conversations are on the internet and via these blogs....starting out, I can be ‘taught’ that it has to be one or the other by the same folks who are saying “we are one”.

Bill’s posted some quotes from Bonhoeffer’s "Life Together":

"The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God Himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.”

I went through a period, and I am still trying to shake it off, where I felt that the way this local ‘traditional’ church does things is completely wrong and that they should try doing it this way. I felt as though what I saw going on in the ‘emerging’, ‘simple’, ‘house’ church thing was the best possible answer to all the problems that were at FBC and any other church for that matter.

What I realized is that all these conversations, the blog posts were from people with names and faces and stories of there own who are on a journey. They sometimes will post some frustrations. They sometimes will right articles and be wrong. A lot of those in this sphere are part of church planting movements and new church plants and they are just having an honest conversation on how to do things. Asking how leadership should look in there context. Should they have a pastor. So on and on....

The problem I think has come in when persons or groups come up with answers for there specific community or culture and feel it is THE answer. They go about telling it to everyone and trying to sell their “ideal of community”. We all do this at some point. May God forgive us for missing the point.

If what I (we) are doing isn’t pointing to The One....it is pointing to ourselves probably.

In my situation, I see that a lot of people need to separate there idea and experience of ‘church’ from God. Those who do not know God are not going to be able to do this. Those of us who have a problem talking with him often enough are going to have a problem too. A lot of people’s only experience of ‘church’ has been a very impersonal ‘service’ on a Sunday morning. Maybe someone telling them what not to do and how not to live. A sermon. An organ. What needs to happen is that they need to come in regular contact with people who are going to love them. People who are going to be willing to share time and effort and meals and coffee and beer with them. People who’s lives point to the God that they follow. What ever context this happens in....that works! That is what I want to focus on. I am sorry I’ve wasted sooo much blog space missing and time missing the point.

“as above, so below”

“Keep us safe from ourselves”

“Yes. Yes. Yes.”