grabbed this quote from alan hirsch, who ripped it off of Antoine de Saint Extupery. it helps me understand the difference of "doing" church and "being" church.
"If you want to build a ship, don't summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs, and organize the work—rather, teach people the yearning for the wide, boundless ocean."
it is tough to begin grampling with new and creative ways of being church. i find it starts with my life, my family's life, before it can ever bleed over into my "church" activity. my questions is "how can i (and my family) recover a vision for church? i have moved past the "how can i fix church?" so, do i and my family follow god's calling to be sent people? do we attempt to indoctrinate people, or call and invite them to "wide, boundless ocean" that is the gospel, a reconciled relationship with the living god?
the following was hirsch's response to the question - "how you think adopting a distinctly missional-incarnation approach will find a faith community emerging from mission, rather than mission emerging from a particular expression of church?"
Quite simply because when you adopt an missional-incarnational approach to engaging our world, then you are forced to a go-to-them, hang-out-with-them approach to mission before you ever get to ask the question, “What is church for this people group?” The problem is that we usually frontload our idea of church into the missional equation. And while the reality of the Church as God’s community is a vital, non-negotiable, part of the Christian faith, the forms that the church must take are almost entirely to be guided by the cultural context of the church. If this were not the case, the Paul’s argument in Galatians is flawed and we all should be adopting Jewish forms of church, including circumcision! Ouch! The church follows mission and not the other way around.
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3 comments:
The beauty of this Adam is that Christ has already given all of this to you.
I spent many years either trying to find better church or make church better. The lovely and humbling irony is that God was preparing me for what I had already been given. In fact, I am still learning to receive it.
Now that I have thought a bit...
I would add to "receiving" also learning to live in it.
It is helpful to look at it through the lens of idolitry. When I say, "all I need is Jesus." What else are you tempted to add to the list? My wife, my career, my kids, my hobbies, my brother(s), baptism, the Bible, church buildings, communion, Sunday, Sunday school, preachers, a program, a mission, a mission statement, tangible results, life's work, position in the fellowship, a fellowship, new religious thought, praise music, frustrated/modernist/work-based deists calling me heathen...my list used to go on and on.
allen - i know (intellectually) i have received everything i need for life and godliness in christ. it is transferring that information to the heart which is often my struggle. thanks for the encouragment. i am no longer on a quest for the "perfect church" or to even "fix church," but to allow god's mission to become my mission and see the world through the eyes of jesus. i am also attempting to see the "imperfect" church through those eyes as well.
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