Lil’ bit of this, lil’ bit of that
“We’ve been offered many explanations. From one religious camp we’re told that what God wants is obedience, or sacrifice, or adherence to the right doctrines, or morality. Those are the answers offered by conservative churches. The more therapeutic churches suggest that no, God is after our contentment, or happiness, or self-actualization, or something else along those lines. He is concerned about all these things, of course, but they are not his primary concern. What he is after is us —our laughter, our tears, our dreams, our fears, our heart of hearts. How few of us truly believe this. We’ve never been wanted for our heart, our truest self, not really, not for long. The thought that God wants our heart seems too good to be true.” from (The Sacred Romance by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge)
I’m realizing I’m a reformed charismatic post modern emerging calvinist. When did following Christ get so complicated? My hunch is when the church started focusing on too many things other than Christ. Sometimes churches put so much focus on trying to define who they are, that they lose focus on who He is. A church may say, “this is our ‘thing,’ all of our energy is going to be focused on this area.” I’m a firm believer in narrowing focus, but question narrow mindedness. What do I mean? A secular example might be a doctor who is specialized in a certain kind of practice; let’s say it’s spinal injuries/problems. You would not go to a doctor who gave the same prognosis/treatment to everyone. You would trust the doctor more if you realized he knew a lot about the different causes of spinal injuries and treatments. You might even be relieved knowing the doctor emphasizes physical healing but aknowledges a certain spiritual/supernatural influence as well. For these reasons, I’ve found comfort in New Life.
Over the last couple of months or so, I’ve been doing some research on church websites and have come across some cool people and ideas. One article in particular I’ve found very relevant has to do with multi perspective churches.
Check it out: The Error of Uniperspectival Ecclesiology
drkmstr Said:
on July 31, 2007 at 12:45 pm
I’m a follower of Jesus….
I agree sometimes the human institutions we created naturally start focusing on other stuff, and forget the simplicity of the early church in Acts. Where the church acted more like a family not an institution.
I think this tension will always be present as it is natural for humanity to want to control stuff…