Monday, March 24, 2008
Next Meeting
Just a reminder that our next meeting is Monday, March 31 at 7 PM at Grace Point. Same place.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Organic Church?
The author of Pagan Christianity is taking the position that the New Testament church, (organic and small) was the model that God designed and the one that provides the greatest opportunity for everyone to be involved and to use their spiritual gifts. Would the church we see in Acts be as effective today in our culture in the U.S.? Would a totally organic church reach and disciple people to a greater degree than the church we see today in the U.S.?
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Where does it come from...God or ....?
Ikki, your visual aid of the ex-girlfriend is as disturbing as the book. I have found myself saying yes... but, over and over as I read the book Pagan Christianity. I encourage all of you to read and as you do so please comment about what disturbs you, what you agree with and what you don't.
I think most believers just assume many of our traditions and practices in the church are God ordained. It is the story of the wife who cuts the ends off the ham every time she cooks. When asked why, she doesn't know so she asks her mother, who doesn't know either. So her mother asks the grandmother on down the line until they found out that great great grandmother didn't have a pan big enough for a full-sized ham.
When you remove the God ordained lens and see things historically you see that some of our sacred cows are far from sacred. And many are not even practical anymore but we continue to practice them because they are "sacred" when in reality they have no foundation of Godliness at all.
We can laugh at some. Like the tradition of having the "pastor's chair" on the platform. Many traditional churches, including my former church, have chairs where all the staff sit on the platform during services but the pastor's is the biggest and fanciest. That was a tradition passed on by Constantine copied from the Roman basilica for the Roman magistrates and judge. The Catholic church adopted the "Bishop's chair" or "throne" surrounded by the rows of chairs reserved for the elders. The Protestants kept that tradition also and so we have the "elite" clergy sitting apart from the "ordinary" worshippers.
I was shocked last year when flying British Airways to find that they actually referred to their Business class seats as "upper class" seats. They still have that caste mentality in their culture. And we still have it in our churches also. I don't think we have fully embraced the concept of the priesthood of the believer.
When Pastor Jeff and I were in Africa speaking to a large group of pastors a few years ago, the African leader who helped organize the conference asked for all the Bishops to come sit up on the platform area. He then had the elders come sit on the front rows, then the laymen and finally the women could sit in the back. When Jeff got up to speak, he reversed the seating arrangement saying my Bible says the least of these will be first. I don't think I'll ever forget the expressions on the faces of the pastors and the leader.
I think most believers just assume many of our traditions and practices in the church are God ordained. It is the story of the wife who cuts the ends off the ham every time she cooks. When asked why, she doesn't know so she asks her mother, who doesn't know either. So her mother asks the grandmother on down the line until they found out that great great grandmother didn't have a pan big enough for a full-sized ham.
When you remove the God ordained lens and see things historically you see that some of our sacred cows are far from sacred. And many are not even practical anymore but we continue to practice them because they are "sacred" when in reality they have no foundation of Godliness at all.
We can laugh at some. Like the tradition of having the "pastor's chair" on the platform. Many traditional churches, including my former church, have chairs where all the staff sit on the platform during services but the pastor's is the biggest and fanciest. That was a tradition passed on by Constantine copied from the Roman basilica for the Roman magistrates and judge. The Catholic church adopted the "Bishop's chair" or "throne" surrounded by the rows of chairs reserved for the elders. The Protestants kept that tradition also and so we have the "elite" clergy sitting apart from the "ordinary" worshippers.
I was shocked last year when flying British Airways to find that they actually referred to their Business class seats as "upper class" seats. They still have that caste mentality in their culture. And we still have it in our churches also. I don't think we have fully embraced the concept of the priesthood of the believer.
When Pastor Jeff and I were in Africa speaking to a large group of pastors a few years ago, the African leader who helped organize the conference asked for all the Bishops to come sit up on the platform area. He then had the elders come sit on the front rows, then the laymen and finally the women could sit in the back. When Jeff got up to speak, he reversed the seating arrangement saying my Bible says the least of these will be first. I don't think I'll ever forget the expressions on the faces of the pastors and the leader.
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