What does it look like to be the church? Last night Em and I went over to Paul and Karen's house to hang out. The food was amazing and even better was the community felt. One of Paul and Karen's friends, who is also a mutual friend of Em and I, had texted to Karen a prayer need. Right then and there the four of us prayed for her. Up until this point, the last two blogs have been about Pagan Christianity and my own reflections on church life. Paul was the one who initially introduced me to this book so he is the one to thank/blame for all this stuff going on in my head. We ate, prayed, talked, and then we all watched Lost together. It was an awesome time that we had reflecting and sharing our lives together. After Em and I got home, I took the dog out for my own time of reflection and prayer (And waiting for the dog to poop). I was thinking and wondering what is the criteria for the label church. That is to say, if the church is intentional community, sharing lives, praying together, and professing our Lord; then did we meet together as church? When does the church stop being the church? One of the things that Paul and I talked about was the idea of the gathering on Sunday morning as an "Event". What if the event was designed in such a way that it pushed people to be priests every day, looking for churches to be cultivated? If this sounds crazy, I am sorry. I heard it said before that we are all missionaries every day, but I think the truth is that we are all priests every day. If we as priests were to function as church planters, building communities that are intentional upon the foundation of God's love, inviting others to join the conversation, and investing in each other then we truly are a revolution of hope. The amazing thing about this work is that we can virtually start a church anywhere. I started thinking Last night as Em and I were in bed I had this realization that I will probably remember Pagan Christianity and the content there within more than some of my favorite books simply because I have really had to deal with the content and maul it over.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Pagan Christianity part 3 or the Sacred Fellowship of Lost
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2 comments:
I read this book last summer and would love to talk to you about it some time.
i really resonate with a lot of the points it makes...but more because I wanted to send it to all my fundy and anti-catholic friends to show them how similar they are to the papacy!
one thing I think I disagree with frank on is that he seems to be saying that just because something isn't "biblical" then it isn't Christian.
i would point out that many of the "liturgical" traditions in the writings of Moses were borrowed from pagan culture of that day...
two simple thoughts on that:
just because its "pagan" doesnt make it "bad".
and
a house church is usually just a much smaller version of a mega church, except the house church has more baggage and can be more self consumed.
i really agree with Mclaren on this one when he says that the house church folks need to recognize the validity of the high-church and understand that it can accomplish goals for the kingdom that a few people meeting in their living room could never accomplish. And vice versa, other forms of church need to stop looking down on the house churches and realize that they can do things that a larger group of christians can never do.
just some thoughts.
of course, I haven't been to a church gathering in a month so what does that say about these opinions???
This being a "priest' 24/7 or as I would put it, being the hands and feet of Christ or a little Christ as the word Christian means, is something that has been in my constant dialogue with God lately. I have found myself talking to grocery store clerks, post office workers, the guy waiting at the sprint store with me - pretty much anyone that crosses my path. I have started to see people as hurting and every encounter as divine. It makes walking out your front door pretty exciting(: OK God, who are we going to love on today?
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