Tim (team member at Northern Community) has a great summary post on a number of significant and important posts about the Church that have been buzzing around the blogsphere for a while - well, worth a read!

Part 1. The People formerly knows as The Congregation - Bill Kinnon

We grew weary from your Edifice Complex pathologies -
building projects more important than the people in your
neighbourhood…or in your pews. It wasn’t God telling you to “enlarge
the place of your tent” - it was your ego. And, by the way, a
multi-million dollar, state of the art building is hardly a tent.

Our ears are still ringing from the volume, but…Jesus is not our
boyfriend - and we will no longer sing your silly love songs that
suggest He is. Happy clappy tunes bear no witness to the reality of the
world we live in, the powers and principalities we confront, or are
worthy of the one we proclaim King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Part 2. The Underlying Issues - The Penguin formerly known as the Waddle - Grace

Passivity
We are convinced that a church system which allows believers to fulfill
their weekly spiritual obligation by listening to a sermon creates a
consumerist audience who have not been encouraged to step into the
responsibility of being a disciple and discipling others.

Attractional methods
We understand from Scripture that it is our duty and mission to go to the lost rather than to expect them to come to us.

Programs
We are convinced that becoming busy with programs within the church
removes us from developing relationships with those who aren’t involved
in church. We no longer equate service in church programs with faithful
commitment and service to God.

Dualism
We no longer see a Sunday morning service as the complete expression of
our sacred lives. We have developed an understanding of our role as the
people of God that requires being the church in all that we do.

Servant leadership
Lastly, we see clearly that the hierarchical structures of leadership
that have been taught through tradition are not scriptural. We know
that the methods of leadership that are so often defended as biblical
are at odds with the type of relationships that Jesus intended for us
to have with one another.

Part 3. The Community coming to be known as Missional - Jamie Arpin-Ricci

We are community because it is the incarnational
reflection of the Triune God in whose image we are created. We are a
community that prefers walking rather than sitting, going where the
Spirit has already gone before us, be it in our neighbourhood or ends
of the earth. We are united by relationship and vision, not locations
and buildings.

For us, generosity trumps obligation, for all that we have is Gods.
We give what we have, both financial and otherwise, because we cannot
help but want to see His purposes come to fruition. We offer
hospitality, opening our homes and our lives to welcome the other. 10%
is more likely the amount that remains than what is demanded, and in
our mutual generosity, none of us goes without.

We are ruthlessly committed to people over programs,
demanding that the latter always serve the former or it will be
abandoned. We cooperate, not compete, not seeking to win the praise or
demand the submission of others. Neither do we serve buildings and
budgets, but they must serve us as we serve others. We seek our
greatness in our pursuit to becoming servants.

Part 4. The People formerly known as “The Pastor” - John Frye

There are thousands of us. You probably know many of us
now as insurance sales agents, real estate agents, or doing anything
besides “church.” We started with idealism about being voices for the
kingdom of God and soon realized we became mutated forms of USAmerican
business leaders. Even Jesus became a CEO. We traded immersion in the
Bible for hyped-up seminars and books about good management, strong
leadership and slick public relations. We learned that the size of our
church parking lot mattered more than the size of your hearts for God.
Be Thou My Vision got altered to “What is your vision statement?”

The People Formerly Known As The Pastor loved the idea of spiritual
gifts and gift inventory tools. Now we could recruit you with this
slick saying, “You will find your deepest joy when you become a Sunday
School teacher, a financial council member, an evangelistic campaign
organizer.” We loved the idea of “recruiting.” We could build our
religious empire footnoted with Bible verses. More people serving
possibly meant a bigger church. We could go to Pastors Conferences
armed and ready to shoot off our mouths about “the hand of God’s
blessing on my church.” Note that many pastors really do say,”My
church.” Our worries at night about problems and struggles in “my
church” were the signal that we truly had taken ownership of what is
God’s. When we overlooked 20 compliments and ruminated angrily over one
negative comment, we knew it was “all about us.” Some of us needed
counseling.

Part 5. The Exodus Church - A Plea from the Battle Torn and Worn who are longing for New Beginnings - Greg Laughery

Conflicts are brewing at an alarming pace between
Christians who are emerging and those who are not. Fine – let’s get at
what we have in common and where we disagree. But please, for the sake
of Christ Jesus, let’s do this with grace, love, humility, and a flair
for holiness, as we live before the watching world. There has been too
much, and it must be said with tears, spiteful innuendo, anger,
disrespect and injustice in the past. Let’s not repeat that in the
present. These battles get ugly and there is no winner. The numbers of
wounded merely increase and the love of Christ pales into obscurity. We
are torn and worn by the wars. Release us, oh Lord, and give us a new
beginning.

We believe in hospitality and a compassionate welcoming of strangers.

Part 6. The Girl formerly know as a “normal Christian” - Heidi Daniels

You may have noticed that I don’t attend a church
building anymore and worried about me, maybe thinking that I have
really fallen off the deep end theologically. Maybe you haven’t talked
to me in a long time because you are convinced of this. Maybe you’ve
thought I’m turning away from God, or away from the Bible, or at least
away from the Body of Christ.

I am the girl who was promised the world by church leaders and
famous authors, if only I would read my Bible and pray every day and
submit myself to Christ. If I listened closely to the voices of
“authority” in Christendom, I’d hear messages about how to secure God’s
blessing - how to avoid being hurt in romantic relationships - how to
live a victorious or successful or wealthy life. When suffering was
talked about, no one ever mentioned how dark it could be, how sometimes
it felt as if God had left you all alone. Somehow even suffering was
victorious, if you could be cheerful and stoic through it.

I am the girl formerly known as a normal Christian. I’m not normal
anymore, I certainly don’t stick with the status quo, I don’t have much
reverence for sacred cows, and I’m not afraid to disagree with the
majority. But I haven’t stopped loving the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, and I’m passionate about loving his body - the church. I might
not agree with you about how best to do that, but I haven’t forsaken
fellowship. I meet with the body of Christ in my home and the homes of
others, in coffee shops, across fried rice at Thai restuarants,
participating in redemptive conversations and living, loving, crying,
and praying together. This, I believe, is Church - and it is something
I will love and serve until my dying day.

Part 7. The Women who have been known as “The Pastors Wife” - Lyn Hallewell

We are the women who have been known as the pastors
wife. There are thousands of us all over the world. This was not a role
we sought to have in life, we simply fell in love with a man who was
called into ministry. Initially we were excited with our new “role”,
and, along with our husband, we could see all of the potential there
was in the Kingdom of God. We wanted to serve God well; we wanted to
sow into the Kingdom; we wanted to live the adventure; we wanted to
make God proud. Faithfully we went where God led us.

We were expected to be the perfect mothers and never to raise our
voice. We were not perceived to have any parenting struggles, and were
expected to mentor parents around us. Really though, we were working it
all out alone, and thinking that we were making a mess of it. We hoped
the latest christian parenting handbook would give us some advice,
which we could then pass on to you. Our children were expected to be
seen and not heard, always following the ways of the Lord. When our
children fell away, many of you just tut-tutted, and raised your eye
brows.

Along with our husbands we saw so much potential in the church. Over
the years we came to realize that we were being turned into people
pleasers, not necessarily God pleasers. Church had become a corporate
business, which was gradually becoming corrupted from within. The
adventurers in us started to die. We realized over time that the
potential in the Kingdom of God is outside of the four walls, in the
community. We are still trying to work out exactly how that will look,
but we are on a journey again, at the beginning of another adventure
with God. Sadly, we have realized, that many of you will not be coming
on this journey with us. But we have to shake the dust off our feet.

Part 8. A Former Footsoldier of the “Christian Right” - Mike

I am a recovering hypocrite.

By all appearances, it seems that those who desire to live from a
logically consistent worldview tread a lonely path. Everywhere one
turns, another church, politician or interest group is touting the
right to free speech - while attempting to stifle an opposing point of
view. Once upon a time I believed this activity to be strictly on the
part of “the liberal left.” Those who saw the same tendency from the
other side decried a “vast right wing conspiracy.”

We were both wrong.

Power corrupts, whether one is republican, democrat, conservative,
liberal, Christian or athiest. Double-standards do not respect
religious or partisan boundaries.

We are tired of hearing that abortion and homosexuality are “God’s
topics,” while poverty and racism are not. We believe that God cares
just as much about a family struggling to find its next meal as he does
about an unborn baby.

Part 9. A Tribe Formerly Called Quest - We are the prodigals - Jim Lehmer

We don’t have your long background in the traditions of
the church, so we are more likely to question, “Why?”, and more likely
to not understand your tried-and-true answers. We search through your
responses for the biblical and sometimes come up wanting, yet we dare
not ask again because we were given “the” answer. Because we were
graciously led to faith instead of growing up feeling as if it is a
birthright, we think everything is new! Wonderful! Exciting!
Interesting! We don’t want our boundless enthusiasm, hope, joy and love
shoved into nice pat one-size-fits-all answers that have kept you in
your box you call “church” all these years.

We are the prodigals.

We’ve come home to find the Bride’s house in disarray. Full of
infighting and politics. Worldliness and competitiveness. Taking up
what is Caesar’s at the expense of what is God’s. You are dabbling in
politics. You are suing each other over bitter schisms and who will get
the Bride’s belongings in the ensuing divorce settlements. You put down
other denominations with a venom that drips from your lips as foul as
any prejudiced slur. We shrink from all that and wonder where is our
Lord in His house?

We are not just new numbers to add to your “church
growth” statistics. In fact, we did not come because of anything you
did. We came because the Spirit led us to you. We are a gift to you as
much as you are to us, and yet you leave us unopened, unwrapped,
unloved.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 at 3:04 pm by phil and is filed under challenges for the church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.