More U.S. Church Commentary
I'll have more Sudan material soon.
Bill Kinnon has articulated and expressed what so many "feel" and "think" in the church. While I don't agree with everything he has written, he's dead on for the majority. He calls his post, The People Formerly Known as the Congregation. The comments are important to read as well because they enlarge the context and a few provide a nice critique. I excerpt and elaborate on that below.
Excerpt.
Let me introduce you to The People formerly known as The Congregation. There are millions of us.We are people - flesh and blood - image bearers of the Creator - eikons, if you will. We are not numbers.
We are the eikons who once sat in the uncomfortable pews or plush theatre seating of your preaching venues. We sat passively while you proof-texted your way through 3, 4, 5 or no point sermons - attempting to tell us how you and your reading of The Bible had a plan for our lives. Perhaps God does have a plan for us - it just doesn't seem to jive with yours.
In the comments, Pastor M. writes a nice critique and asks a valid question,
"As I'm usually the contrarian in any bunch ... What I'd like to know is what the opposite of your polemic looks like. I'm not disagreeing with you. What I've found is that every criticism that someone has is really an affirmation of something. I'd like to know what you are affirming. While someone probably needs to say what you've said, it isn't a healthy place to stay. What's your ideal church community?Today, Kinnon links to Ed Brenegar's response, and elaboration. Spot on as well. Thank God for these men who are able to write what jumbles around in our brains.
Excerpt:
Many churches are simply institutions. They are all program and process. Other churches are nothing more than fellowship centers. Others exist as a gathering place for the discussion and debate of theological and social ideas.What I've found is that every church, every person, every relationship, every organization, family or community needs to have all three dimensions functioning for them to be healthy. This does not mean that the three are equal in weight. From my perspective, relationships trump everything else. It is where the action is.
Ideas don't have to be living. Structure doesn't have to be purposeful or effective. Both of these dimensions can exist as externals that are held as possessions like pews in the sanctuary. This is why I say that for many people Christianity is an abstraction. It exists as an external object that we can hold and reflect upon, just like we can our favorite basketball team. Just because you feel emotions for some ideas or some program doesn't mean that you have internalized those things.
...
The internalization of ideas happens in relationship. It is where we learn how to apply these ideas so that they make a difference in the relationship. In other words, our relationships with one another should change us. If we have not had a transformational experience in relationship with someone, we, quite possibly, have been treating relationships as abstraction as well. It is just another thing to focus my intellectual and physical energy upon. In this case, people are things we use to get the things we want in life.
5 Comments:
Hi Mike!
I got into your blog through the Svendsens. I thought it is very interesting because I come from Paphos. I lived in Cyprus all my life and now I am studying at Wheaton College (finishing up). Check out my blog if you like, i have plenty of Paphos pics there. Bless you,
Myrto
Well now I've come full circle! How cool is this? I have a honest-to-goodness Paphosite(?) commenting on my blog. Who'd a thunk it?
I will check out your blog and pics. I hope one day to actually see the real Paphos.
God bless you in your studies,
Mike
Mike -- I read this on Steve Sensenig's blog as well, and thought I would cross-post my comment from there to here...
"Steve,
Sorry I haven’t commented in a while — I have been very busy… but I still lurk and read… ;-)
As always, I feel somewhat like a fish out of water (or at least in the shallow end, with gills exposed), being a pastor in an IC-type environment.
However, I agree with much, if not most of what Bill says. I am as weary as TPFKATC (I love the acronym), with all of the ‘leadership’ that is coming out of the church.
I especially enjoyed the part where he said — “We have not forsaken the gathering of the Saints, we simply don’t do it there” (a paraphrase).. One of the things that I love about our church is that we spend at a minimum, three or four nights a week gathered together SOMEWHERE — at a home, at the Pagan Shrine of Starbuck’s (j/k), or sometimes just on a motorcycle ride.
I also like the freedom of not getting paid to be the pastor, that way I can be ‘one of the folks’ and not worry about all of the ’stuff’ that is so much a part of ‘church’ in today’s society. I don’t say that proudly, we simply cannot afford to pay a pastor; but there are some unique benefits, such as — I know what it is like to have a bad day at work, and I am not bound by a financial leash to create and/or sustain an ORGANIZATION, but rather can allow the church to be what it always has been, a living, breathing community.
Sorry to run on, but I would also like to say that I find it appalling that people/pastors/organizations build edifices to THEIR success, while the community around them may be drowning in poverty, drug-abuse, or unemployment. That is unconscionable to me!
Sorry for the length, and maybe even a bit off topic… Just elicited that from me…"
Sorry, I normally don't do that, but wanted to comment over here just to say hi, and yes, i still read your blog! :-)
Thanks for the link, Mike. Check out Emerging Grace's post, which seems like Part Two of TPFKATC to me.
Ciao
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Elisa
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Elisa
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