George Barna of The Barna Group thinks that there is a Revolution happening and that North American Christianity is in for or in the midst of a change...church without church as we know it.
I became familiar with the emergent (emerging, or however it is referred to now) movement and the organic church whileserving employed working as Student Ministries Director at a church, spring 2003. One of my compatriots had been reading a lot of emergent literature from many of the well known authors of late. He expressed many of the same frustrations I had through years of growing up in the church, Christian college, and into professional life as a Christian and eventually into professional ministry at a church.
Truly most frustrating are the obstacles to discipleship and increasing faith within the church. That is to say, it is exceptional to find a conventional church set-up that disciples Christians to be more like Christ than they are like the world. Perhaps, then, the rule might be that conventional church set-ups are designed to make nominal disciples. (What do you think?) The obstacles I encountered as a church employee included counter-factual accusations about (perennially) shirking responsibilities listed in the job description and (once) mismanagement of budget accounts, committees, lack of assistance (usually in the form of volunteers), squelching attempts to follow biblical imperatives, seeking a particular type of parishioner ("Those are the kind of people we want at our church; it's your job to follow up with that doctor and his wife."), marginalizing people who are "not like we are", prioritizing events over relationships, lack of love for one another, divisive votes on different superficial yet all important decisions, shrinking participation with increasing ideas for ministry teams, the stress of performing on Sunday morning, and I could go on.
After about a year of prayer, thoughtful reflection, and seeking guidance from others, I decided to leave the position. During my transition from SM Director to whatever it was God was calling me to (I didn't know what was next really), a friend approached me about giving home church a try.
That's one way to begin my story relating to home church...What's yours?
Feel free to comment and add similar stories or links to other sites and blogs here.
Link: "Simple/House Church Revolution:" Introduction
Next time: The first in a series of posts on the ever more popular, revised and updated Pagan Christianity? by Frank Viola and George Barna.
I became familiar with the emergent (emerging, or however it is referred to now) movement and the organic church while
Truly most frustrating are the obstacles to discipleship and increasing faith within the church. That is to say, it is exceptional to find a conventional church set-up that disciples Christians to be more like Christ than they are like the world. Perhaps, then, the rule might be that conventional church set-ups are designed to make nominal disciples. (What do you think?) The obstacles I encountered as a church employee included counter-factual accusations about (perennially) shirking responsibilities listed in the job description and (once) mismanagement of budget accounts, committees, lack of assistance (usually in the form of volunteers), squelching attempts to follow biblical imperatives, seeking a particular type of parishioner ("Those are the kind of people we want at our church; it's your job to follow up with that doctor and his wife."), marginalizing people who are "not like we are", prioritizing events over relationships, lack of love for one another, divisive votes on different superficial yet all important decisions, shrinking participation with increasing ideas for ministry teams, the stress of performing on Sunday morning, and I could go on.
After about a year of prayer, thoughtful reflection, and seeking guidance from others, I decided to leave the position. During my transition from SM Director to whatever it was God was calling me to (I didn't know what was next really), a friend approached me about giving home church a try.
That's one way to begin my story relating to home church...What's yours?
Feel free to comment and add similar stories or links to other sites and blogs here.
Link: "Simple/House Church Revolution:" Introduction
Next time: The first in a series of posts on the ever more popular, revised and updated Pagan Christianity? by Frank Viola and George Barna.
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