Our worst sin is prayerlessnss, because of what it says about who we really think is in charge of the church and the universe. God save us from the people who would renew the church and bring justice in the world without praying. Having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power, they are more dangerous than the wrongs they would set right. They will replace old evils with new evils, themselves. -- P. T. Forsyth
If things carry on like this I'll be blogging through your blog, Randall.
ReplyDeleteIMHO (I can say that because I know I don't always get things right) our worst sin is actually losing our 'first love'. This will be reflected in prayerlessness, and lives that aren't Jesus focussed. If you're in love with someone then you'll move heaven and earth to spend time with them. Otherwise God can simply become 'the under-secretary of the universe' and we will spend our efforts petitioning Him to our cause without actually catching his heart in it all.
Now, having said all that, prayer is a great way to get closer to God, but then so is reading the bible, waiting on God (not at all the same as praying) mediating and fasting.
If I catch the author's drift, his concern is with those that demand the church is put 'right' by replacing one set of structures with a different set of structures (or none at all) like the church is a corporation. His concern is quite reasonable in such cases.
Interesting aside BTW from last night's church meeting. We started about 12 years ago with just 12 adults. God said at that time "don't build church". It's been a roller coaster ride, but I don't think he's ever let us.
ReplyDeleteWhat does an "Un-church" look like?
ReplyDeleteA highly variable number of people.
ReplyDeleteSorry, on second thoughts you might be serious, and I was being a little flippant.
ReplyDeleteBeing called to not build church for us was a call to become whatever shape God wanted us. Thus rather than follow a formula (thou shalt have 3 elders, with housegroups that meet for prayer and biblestudy every Wednesday) it was very much a case of seeking him to see what he wanted to do with us. Having said that, there are certain aspects of 'traditional' church (we're talking housechurch background here) that WERE entirely suitable to use.
So we did have a housegroup, an elder was set apart, we did meet as a body on Sundays, but the emphasis was always wanting to see what the Father was doing and to be there with him. In the first 5 years we grew to around a regular 200 or so, then God turned us upside down and we grew further to a committed 65ish. God has been continuously working on our character, to shape us and change us.
Because we're relatively new we don't have a building, but meet in a school (like so many UK churches).
Or did.
We were asked to move on this summer by the school we've been using for the last 5 years because they have a new head arriving, and didn't want his facilities committed without his approval. When Ron and Mary Mclean visited Oxford, one of the key words they brought was to pause, turn (toward) and focus on God. We are therefore taking this as an opportunity to do just that. Formal, front led worship is out (that's upset some people). Wednesday nights will be set aside as times of worship and waiting on God. Sundays gathering will happen in the afternoons, probably in a nearby village hall, with a meal and informal worship together.
Now if (as some people I know do - that's not judgement, they told me) the basis of one's experience of God relies on the form of the service, and theatrics of it all (performance worship?) then this is all completely unsettling. On the other hand, if your heart is for God to be real and moving in one's life then it's a great chance to get out of the comfort zone and follow him.
Excuse me, did you see a pillar of cloud going this way........?
I like it!
ReplyDeleteWhat special outreach program did you use to move from 200 to 65??
:-)
A series entitled "enemies of the soul" adapted from a series used by a group of churches in Argentina (sorry - can't remember which ones) with associations with Salt and Light.
ReplyDeleteThis was very much a time of examining one's life, to root out 'enemies of the soul'. We worked through it in single sex groups, lead by 2 individuals - a 'teaching' leader and a 'pastoral' leader. As you'd expect, it uncovered a lot of raw feeling at times. For my sins, I was the pastoral leader of one of the groups. As with anything like this, discussions were often extended, and I was actually covering the teaching bit one night when I'd been given a 3 line whip to finish the topic that night. One of the guys in the group had been working with drug addicts quite a bit, and the discussion was touching some areas relating to the work he was doing. He wanted to discuss it further, but it was already 9.45pm and we had nowhere near finished. I tried to move things on, gently, at which point he asked if I was leading the group or just "tossing around". Being full of grace, I replied "oh, just tossing around really" so he just got up and walked out angry.
We did have reconcilliation a week or so later.
When we stand up and say that this "superficial-Sunday morning-smiles everyone" thing we call church isn't really being the church, well, a nest of hornets is better disturbed.
ReplyDeleteThis is often difficult to see, how we only grow taller and bigger, if we dig a little deeper around our roots. Get out the garbage and the cycles of brokenness. And we need one another to help with that stuff. It can be hard work, but we only being to behave like a real church when we can muck through the difficult stuff with each other, and still be brothers.
And it's equally difficult to take a large group of people and say, "Ok, today we're going deeper, into our own messes, let's go everybody!" It's a very threatening thing to do.
Interesting that that's what Jesus did. Just when the group starts to get going and you could really do something with it, he says some outrageous remarks and looses most of them.
I have so much to learn.
Or maybe so much to unlearn.