stephen
05-19-2011, 09:03 PM
Interesting article here:
http://www.precipicemagazine.com/leaving-finding-church.html
Recently I read Gilbert Bilezikian's "Community 101." In his book he states that, "An increasing number of Christians are waking up to the fact that .. the church has become ineffective in fulfilling its mission because it has lost a sense of its own identity as a community. They realize that not every organization that calls itself a church represents the church as Christ conceived it." He goes on to say that he asked fifty junior and senior college students to write a one sentence definition of the church.
"Their answers varied from "people who are saved," and "places of worship" to "opportunity to put on a Sunday disguise" and "sanctified gossip centers." Not one described the church in terms of community or oneness. It occurred to me that these people had been nurtured in the church without ever understanding the nature of their experience. The church was for them a habit without definition. They had been trained to do church or play church instead of BEING the church. Is it any wonder that they, like their parents before them, perpetuate the survival of floundering, self absorbed, defensive, stagnant, if not repressive speudo-churches, thinking all along that they are doing God's work? Is it any wonder that the world should dismiss the church as irrelevant, treat it as a laughing stock, and view it as a farce instead of a force?" Zondervan, 1997, pp.48-49
This is getting onto some really heavy soul searching for us all.
Another quote from this article that I SEE clearly taking place:
The institutional church fosters dependence, passivity, and weakness among its members.
It is alarming too me to see us going down this path, and I think this is way more insidious in the relegation of the institutional church today, as being irrelevant, than the attacks of gay rights, planned parenthood, and socio-politico social-scientific experimentation with the church organization.
http://www.precipicemagazine.com/leaving-finding-church.html
Recently I read Gilbert Bilezikian's "Community 101." In his book he states that, "An increasing number of Christians are waking up to the fact that .. the church has become ineffective in fulfilling its mission because it has lost a sense of its own identity as a community. They realize that not every organization that calls itself a church represents the church as Christ conceived it." He goes on to say that he asked fifty junior and senior college students to write a one sentence definition of the church.
"Their answers varied from "people who are saved," and "places of worship" to "opportunity to put on a Sunday disguise" and "sanctified gossip centers." Not one described the church in terms of community or oneness. It occurred to me that these people had been nurtured in the church without ever understanding the nature of their experience. The church was for them a habit without definition. They had been trained to do church or play church instead of BEING the church. Is it any wonder that they, like their parents before them, perpetuate the survival of floundering, self absorbed, defensive, stagnant, if not repressive speudo-churches, thinking all along that they are doing God's work? Is it any wonder that the world should dismiss the church as irrelevant, treat it as a laughing stock, and view it as a farce instead of a force?" Zondervan, 1997, pp.48-49
This is getting onto some really heavy soul searching for us all.
Another quote from this article that I SEE clearly taking place:
The institutional church fosters dependence, passivity, and weakness among its members.
It is alarming too me to see us going down this path, and I think this is way more insidious in the relegation of the institutional church today, as being irrelevant, than the attacks of gay rights, planned parenthood, and socio-politico social-scientific experimentation with the church organization.