emergingBlurb

The Christ Files -

2008-02-25T15:58:00.004+11:00

Yet another controversy to stir the minds of both the curious and the sceptiks alike. It will probably validate the "bashers" and those who need an excuse, while throw the insecure into defence mode. Read more here

Meanwhile Chanel 7 will be airing what looks like a rare Christian documentary that investigates the validity of the Gospels etchings on Good Friday 2008....check your guide. See the preview at www.thechristfiles.com.au

Proof should have its evidence but perhaps we shouldn't limit ourselves to just the written facts....for fear of developing a religion that is at its core....a theory. My angle is this....there are many contributions or tools to discovering reality.....the modern age rests heavily on its books and proofs, its empirical data ......evidence of God and faith cannot be contained by these parameters alone....if so, belief in God would be either retricted to the either the intellectual or simpleton....Truth is more than our debated facts....

Truth is a reality we encounter.

The historical facts bring an important piece to the picture.....but they in themself are not the total story. So I watch these debates with casual interest.

The Chaser and silly Christian comment

2007-11-12T11:55:00.000+11:00

Archbishop Peter Jensen has labelled The Chaser’s recent stunt ‘distressing’ and ‘disrespectful’ depicting Christian religious enthusiasts flocking to a public toilet to see an image of Jesus as a stain in a toilet bowl. I admit an initial cringe myself but the humour is directed as those who believe the rather unbiblical phenomenon of apparitions of Christ today. And why not have a laugh at the rather disturbing practice by painting it in the most extremely unbelievable form....toilet stains. Surely we take ourselves too seriously if we can't laugh at the absurdities that evolve within Christian culture....then we'll never question them.

Consider this quote,

It is a universal tendency in the Christian religion, as in many other religions, to give a theological interpretation to institutions which have developed gradually through a period of time for the sake of practical usefulness, and then read that interpretation back into the earliest periods and infancy of these institutions, attaching them to an age when in fact nobody imagined that they had such a meaning.

-Richard Hanson

So have The Chaser gone too far? I don't think so. Cultural Christianity has its predictable responses that show little thought process. It is insuted too quickly and has forgotten how to laugh and continues to isolate itself from society.

The article went on to quote the Rev Fred Nile, who said "the program could have endangered lives if the Muslim figurehead, Mohammed, had been the target". Well....they could have endangered lives if they drank and drove....but they didn't....why suggest something they didn't do and smear them with the suggestion? Manipulative ...hmmmm.

emergingBook?

2007-09-13T21:12:00.000+10:00

I have had this thought in my mind for the last year or so that a blog could form the basis for a book. Why not?....there's plenty of text to begin with. A bit of editing, and expanding on other areas etc ....new thoughts....the narrative of an emergent journey re-written for a different audience. An audience that doesn't read blogs but buys books from Christian book shops....an audience that may still have little feel for doing or being church in a different way. Reaching back to my roots and bridging a gap.

I hear its difficult getting a manuscript through....but I would like to give it a go..just once. I'm taking 3 months off work soon with a new baby on the way.....maybe I'll start typing. I reckon it might be the first 'pilgrims' journal of life from an emergent culture. Sure, the theological thinkers are publishing....but what about the grass roots.....after all isn't that a characteristic of emergent mission?

cheers!

New web site

2007-07-18T18:41:00.000+10:00

Hi again

Its been a while and I am happy just living a busy life. I am running another site that has just started up. Its our refugee resettlement groups site. I am happily busy with some new friends from the Congo via an Afircan refugee camp.

Check it out here

A lesson in humour?

2007-04-13T10:34:00.000+10:00

I wonder if the central theme of this great joke has application for the church?

The Americans and the Japanese decided to engage in a competitive boat race. Both teams practiced hard and long to reach their peak performance.

On the big day they felt ready.

The Japanese won by a mile.

Afterward, the American team was discouraged by the loss. Morale sagged. Corporate management decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found, so a consulting firm was hired to investigate the problem and recommend corrective action. The consultant's finding: the Japanese team had eight people rowing and one person steering; the American team had one person rowing and eight people steering. After a year of study and millions spent analyzing the problem, the consultant firm concluded that too many people were steering and not enough were rowing on the American team.

So as race day neared again the following year, the American team's management structure was completely reorganized. The new structure: four steering managers, three area steering managers and a new performance review system for the person rowing the boat to provide work incentive.

The next year, the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American corporation laid off the rower for poor performance and gave the managers a bonus for discovering the problem.

The Church has left the building

2007-04-10T08:21:00.000+10:00

The Age newspaper calls it "Refugees in faith" which seems rather appropriate for those of us who have left the building to experiment with new possibilities in expressing and living out the gospel.

I'm alive and kick'in

2007-03-07T19:28:00.000+11:00

Its been a few months since I've posted. I haven't decided the future of emergingBlurb as yet but in case you were wondering, I am still alive and may post something at some stage. It was a big enough task remembering my password!

Emergent Catholic mindsets - a legacy of Thomas Merton

2006-11-17T14:54:00.000+11:00

It seems that exciting question and realisation continues to pull at the church. What an intellectual upheaval its quietly going through around its edges. And the wonderful thing is that it seems that so many from different persuasions are being led out of dogma and into mystery. Realising new possiblitiesoutside of the learned culture and embracing the realities of Truth.

Listen to the ABC radio interview here

I couldn't help agree with the idea that the church can't communicate its meesage with the worldwhile its empiralistic in worldview, that the Gospel is not supportive of empires.

I was refreshed with the idea that secularism is the child of Christianity because of incarnation, and that God hides and is revealed in the secular world. The implication is that the material world is good but you can get lost in it and miss spiritual transcendencce.

I was challenged by the thought that Catholics only ever pronounce Saints but not sinners. They have certainty of heaven but the suggestion is that there is a grace embedded in their minds that doesn't allow them to specifically right anyone off to Hell. Interesting.

I sympathised with the comment that many scientists are more humbled by mystery than clergy who are more concerned withself maintenance and sel protection.

And finally the concept of dualistic thinking vs contmplative thinking. Where the dualist mind rates everything by differentiation, distinction and separation. Its a process of affirmation and denial which is great for maths and logic, but hopeless for mystery. With experience comes a loss of control......but I will stop.

your thoughts?

Blurbs in recess

2006-11-03T09:25:00.000+11:00

EmergingBlurb is in recess...who knows for how long. I can still be contacted via email.....all the best for now.

Garth

We made the papers

2006-10-27T11:45:00.000+10:00

Up til now I haven't felt it right to publish photos of our first refugee family, but now that the press release has been successful I think that's OK. I have only blacked out phone #'s at the end of the article.

Earlier blogs here and here.

The sensitivity of a 4 yr old

2006-10-26T20:42:00.000+10:00

When my middle daughter was about 4 years old I would take her and her sister to bed and grab the guitar and play a song or two with bed time stories. Keith Green's "Create in me a clean heart" was her favourite. And at 4yrs of age she would tell me the song made her feel like crying although she didn't. She'd say it with a coyness and then we would pray together having shared a moment.

Admitedly I made a more melow arrangement but I was touched to see that at least she was moved by music. She's now 10 and we just spent 15 mins listening to emotionally evocative music with the message of "Make us one" from the album 'Exodus'. She goes to Hillsong with my ex-wife annually and I am keen that her 'faith' becomes more than emotion....so I have been explaining that the function of this sort of Christian music isn't to make us feel good but to move us to a realisation through lyrics and then to an action. I don't mean to slur Hillsong but the idea of a 'fix' through Christian music is well documented, and contested.

We played that song tonight about half a dozen times together, .........loud .....and sang the words together after having explained them. I hope she picks up on the treasures....its often such a missing character in the church to have unity, yet Jesus spent the whole of John 17 (from memory) praying for it....I explained that music is something that stirs us but if we just feel good without understanding the message the whole thing is lost on us. Ultimately we must have passion with a purpose....and music helps stir that message within.

My eldest is nearly 14 and these are the years that seem to matter ....whether they take ownership of their faith or not. Is it real or just nice theory. Part of me hopes that the 4 yr old not only felt the emotion of the song, but connected spiritually with something she didn't yet understand. She still reminds me of those days now she is 10.

As a father my strongest hopes are that my 4 kids will not just 'believe' per se, but know for themselves and find a passion and purpose in their lives that is infused from the fathers heart....and be difference makers!

Brian McLaren speaks on Steve Irwin - an unlikely connection?

2006-10-05T13:56:00.000+10:00

I received an email from a mate in the army who had received an email from an army 'Padre'. the aricle was written by Brian McLaren. Now this was an unlikely coincidence given that my mate wouldn't have realised my emergent connection with 'all things McLaren', so it was a bit of a buzz. You can read McLarens tribute to Steve Irwin here.

It's a good read and Brian picks up some interesting lessons from Steve's approach to fighting his good fight...

"He didn’t spend a lot of time attacking multinational corporations and the way they plunder the environment .....Instead of damning the sinful ugliness of humans who lack saving love, he chose a different strategy, a better one, I think: he simply, consistently, passionately, and naively demonstrated saving love by praising the beauty of God’s creatures – confident that he could inspire that saving love in others if they could just see the beauty too. "

It's too easy to get caught in the ruts of criticism...I know I can.... but it achieves little but make you look spiritually ugly. Just jumping in boots and all to the solutions, goes beyond talking the talk or wearing a bracelet with a "Make Poverty History" slogan etc. You know what I mean. To actually engage with your own message I think causes the transformation from complacent criticisms to becoming the energy in your mission. I think the book of James sums it up well when he speaks of faith without works being dead. In fact the "Message" bible translates it something like this...."Faith without works ends up as a corpse" (can't find my copy in at the moment...Mrs Blurb has probably knicked it again).

In going on Brian says "in Steve’s consuming passion, his heart was resonating with God’s own". My other thought here was a reminder that some corners of the church will react to that statement. They can't get past the fact that God works through anyone He chooses. The church does not have the monopoly on the work of God, nor are we the only people who can hear His voice. The apostle Paul was once name Saul and you might remember God spoke to him prior to any conversion experience. We should see this as normal! Only this week we sat through the trilogy of the Lord of the Rings (extended version) and its only given Mrs Blurb and I more spiritual discussion showing us how God continues to move speak through popular culture, for those who would listen.

Its a bit like the parables with some who will listen, but not hear. Steve's heart was resounding with God's.

Enjoy...

2006-10-02T12:00:00.000+10:00

This is a very interesting and emotional animation. Very melancholic.

Its scathing I know! ...emergent?

2006-09-19T19:31:00.000+10:00

Now I gonna have to show my wonder at the new course which urges Christians to 're-imagine' the church . Maybe I'm wrong, but why do I get the idea that the mainstream, traditional church has missed the point of what is 'emergent'? I think its an important step for the church to start realising that its presence in society is not what it once was....that its membership is declining rather rapidily etc etc. For some churches it has reacted by building more boutique Christian schools in an attempt to address the declines. One thing the Baby Boomer church does well though is copy.

Take this rather hefty appraisal :

The Baby boomers, in their narcissism, prefer a touchy-feely, emotional, entertaining, self-aggrandizing approach to everything from education to the workplace, including church…. Most churches today have been taken over by the Baby Boomer mentality, exhibiting the values of mass-market commercialism, the rejection of the past and hedonistic individualism.

This mentality, this characteristic for gimmicks which birthed TV marketing gimmicks such as the 30 min abdomen machine commercials is very much part of the church. If they see something work, they will copy....it will be their model, because they work with 'models'. The success of Hillsong has encouraged many churches to follow try to look like Hillsong, because its seen to work.

This is my worry with attempts at cafe churches etc when they are simply a disguised program of the church to renew their numbers. The ‘Crucible’ course is only an example but it looks at the principles and practicalities of starting new churches in contemporary cultures...so far so good. My thoughts aren't necessarily directed at the Crucible, rather its comments have precipitated long lived convictions so my apologies if it doesn't apply to them specifically. Its just this programmed attempt at re-creating what emergents seem to be doing already. For emergents it is creating something out of who we already are and you simply can't program an emergent approach. Its not something you intellectually learn from a course (modernist), its something you intuitively create (post-modernist). The first job for the church (should they want a spiffy cafe church) would be to become a cafe person themself. Its like saying "I'll fly that plane, ...never done it before, ....know nothing about it, but I'll get the hang of it"!

They speak of designing churches for the socially excluded, obviously seeing themselves as being mainstream in society. I would argue the opposite, that church and Christians are living lives socially excluded from the secular world and this being one of the primary reasons for its decline. The course would then better be directed at showing Christians simply how to live in their time and culture, in their world. Christians could do better with a challenge to their modernist worldview. Its all about communication, and to be an effective communicator in the post-Christendom environment, a change is required. I do retain a worry that traditional church attempts remain 'attractional' in mode, and ultimately encourage and expect people they encounter to 'become like us'. Maybe to live in this world more effectively, Christians need to become more like 'them'. The call then is not to become worldly, but certainly less churchy...."to be in the world but not of it". And once in the world we will communicate without the need for programs. It will simply be what Christians do....how they live their lives.

What's the emerging fuss all about?

2006-09-11T15:22:00.000+10:00

There seems to be a difference between emerging churches (emergent) and what is becoming known as emerging church leaders (reformed), both of which are culturally placed within postmodernism yet still with their differences. Is this a re-imaging of the conservatives and liberals within the context of the post baby-boomer worldview? It’s interesting that the two are still lumped as one by their critics, and perhaps it goes a little way to help me understand what all the fuss has been about. Its certainly attracted the attention of emergents outside the USA (and here) who don't necessarily want to be told what they believe and then criticised for it.

On one hand we have an American emerging church movement seen as liberal by the way it questions age old convictions and breathes fresh insight into what easily becomes barnacles religion. An older post covers much of the threat that the ‘journey of question’ holds for traditionalists and has some great summary points from a message I heard recently.

Christianity has never existed in a cultural vacuum, nor have we ever arrived with it in its purest from. We must know our own biases before we can do anything else….and this requires question.…..and that is true for most things, for we ‘see’ that which sits right with us, but what sits right for us has more to do with the experience of our life’s journey rather than having arrived in a place where all the answers have been worked through for us.

The loudest voice of the American emerging church is Brian D. McLaren recently said:

“When we present Jesus as a pro-war, anti-poor, anti-homosexual, anti-environment, pro-nuclear weapons authority figure draped in an American flag, I think we are making a travesty of the portrait of Jesus we find in the gospels,"
I don't see the issue of homosexuality as the simple black-and-white issue that some of my fellow evangelicals make it out to be," And while not happy about widespread abortions, he added, "to just say 'Okay, let's pass laws about it' seems to me to skip a number of important steps, like honest and open dialogue, persuasion and seeking to remove the conditions that make abortion so prevalent."
This is labeled liberal religion. But I can’t help but agree with
him. Then we have Mark Driscolli’s Mars Hill Fellowship. It has a shop front and a 5000 strong congregation who have re-skinned how church is done. It has a very strong connection with postmoderns because its leaders are not trying to attract people to slick programs nor compete for the entertainment vote, but are simply postmoderns themselves who know how to live in ‘today’. But keeping the more traditional emphasis on teaching although I suspect there is a healty approach to question.

A priest, a Pentecostal preacher and a Rabbi

2006-09-07T13:41:00.000+10:00

A priest, a Pentecostal preacher and a Rabbi would get together twice a week for coffee to talk shop. One day, someone made the comment that preaching to people isn't really all that hard. A real challenge would be to preach to a bear. One thing led to another and they decided to do an experiment. They would all go out into the woods, find a bear, preach to it, and attempt to convert it.

Seven days later, they're all together to discuss the experience. Father Flannery, who has his arm in a sling, is on crutches, and has various bandages on his body and limbs, goes first. "Well," he says, "I went into the woods to find me a bear. And when I found him I began to read to him from the Catechism. Well, that bear wanted nothing to do with me and began to slap me around. So I quickly grabbed my holy water, sprinkled him and he became as gentle a lamb. The bishop is coming out next week to give him first communion and confirmation."

Reverend Billy Bob spoke next. He was in a wheelchair, with an arm and both legs in casts, and an IV drip. In his best fire and brimstone oratory he claimed, "WELL brothers, you KNOW that we don't sprinkle! I went out and I FOUND me a bear. And then I began to read to my bear from God's HOLY WORD! But that bear wanted nothing to do with me. So I took HOLD of him and we began to wrestle. We wrestled down one hill, UP another and DOWN another until we came to a creek. So I quick DUNKED him and BAPTIZED his hairy soul. And just like you said, he became as gentle as a lamb. We spent the rest of the day praising Jesus."

They both looked down at Rabbi Goldberg, who was lying in a hospital bed.
He was in a body cast and traction with IV's and monitors running in and out of him. He was in bad shape. The rabbi looks up and says, "Looking back on it, circumcision may not have been the best way to start."

pagan-Christs

2006-08-31T21:16:00.000+10:00

Its a common theme to see the need for a hero in our society.....in the movies we see the 'pagan-Christs'....but there cannot be a hero without an impending disaster. With our fixation on heros, what do we think is the impending disaster?

A dove with one wing - Right Wing

2006-08-28T15:16:00.000+10:00

An interesting article , which is a book review, entitled Australian Christians: Holy Spirit with only a right wing? Very funny, ....it continues the conversation about the rise in right wing politics within Australian Christendom and finishes with an apt question "What happened to the Christians who built the huge Palm Sunday peace rallies of the 1980s?"

Stop long enough to be challenged

2006-08-22T19:25:00.000+10:00

Imagine being widowed at the age of 8. You never meet your betrothed, you simply get the news that your future husband has died and in your culture that means you lose all priveledges and are banished to live out your days in poverty and exile. The texts of an ancient religious book seal your fate, or at least those who get the priveledge to translate those texts deem it so. You are another mouth to feed.....until someone questions the 'system'. Like the emerging church, the system, the religious structures of the day are questioned anbringing new responses, new perspectives. But this is a true story. There are 34 million Indian widows today continuing to live in penitence for innocently becoming a widow. This is current affairs. I am re-visiting a previous post because while the movie isn't mainstream you can now get your own copy by visiting the link in the side-bar.

I took my 13 yr old daughter see this movie. I reckon she is at a good age to expose to social justice issues and help challenge her heart to issues of today. She lives in a world of mobile phones, fashion, friends, education and prosperity but her world view, indeed her heart, will be confined to the only world she knows unlessas a parent I give her a bigger picture. The movie was subtitled which I thought might be an inconvenience, until I found myself laughing out loud at some of the scripting. There is a press release here and coding for the advert should you wish to further advertise the cause.

Good night little boy

2006-08-17T21:21:00.000+10:00

My little 5 yr old wandered out from bed tonight a bit distressed about a bumping noise he heard. He is one of those little fellas that loves his Spiderman heroes and lives out his make-believe during the day but at night his heroics melt and the little boy returns.

It doesn't happen often but he will hear something and come and find me and tell me his fear. I explain its nothing going through all the absurd safe possibilities of the sound and usually take him back, kiss him on the head and leave. I sometimes send him back to his room by himselfif I am 'busy'.

Tonight I was 'busy'. After a few minutes I put myself in his shoes and thought back to my childhood. I had done the wrong thing. I thought of all the times when I possibly hadn't reponded with the protection he required and went in to find him eyes closed and hands over his ears. He was learning to cope with it himself. And it came flooding back to me that this was the training ground for young boys to internalize fear, keep things to themself and deal with their problems on their own. Hear was I falling into the same parental trap of self-indulgence. Boys grow into men that typically have difficulty in expressing their feelings to others. We cope, put on the "I'm OK" face...we are products of our environment.

He sensed my presence. I spoke to him in precious tones and together we lay and I promised I wouldn't leave him. We huddled together and he was soon asleep.

We live and learn.

A test for easy religion

2006-08-16T12:27:00.000+10:00

Taken from Ron Coles site...

"Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow and to love [God] as they love their cow - they love their cow for the milk and cheese and profit it makes them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. They do not rightly love God when they love for their own advantage. Indeed, I tell you the truth, any object you have on your mind, however good, will be a barrier between you and the inmost truth". (Meister Eckhart)

Church & State - Democrats survey

2006-08-16T09:05:00.000+10:00

Thanks Tim for the heads up on this. The Australian Democrats have an online survey concerning God and Government (23 questions) and I am keen to flesh some of this out and see where people stand on issues and why. Sometimes just ticking a box doesn't give you enough room to communicate your response. I've lifted a few out...

2. Should religious education be part of the school curriculum?

I actually think it should be included for the secular reasoning that the upcoming generations need to learn tolerance of the existing religious rifts created by their parents. And I can't see that happening where misinformation and misunderstanding reign. Information need not be a dangerous thing. But how that is packaged may need some fine tuning.....perhaps including basic ethics & morality studies to help kids understand their world and their responsibility within it. Without it we are left with the current situation where people default to demanding their rights rather than living out their responsibilities. A shift from selfish to selfless.

18. Do you think that politicians who have strong religious beliefs should try to use the political system to turn their religious beliefs into law?

Its part of the democratic charter to allow free speech. Everyone in parliament has beliefs, some will be rooted in a religious conviction while others won't. It would be anti-democratic to deny some that freedom. If you don't agree with them, then use your democratic vote. Question 19 continues in the same vein asking whether religious leaders/churches/houses of worship should try to influence government decisions on issues? and again the answer for me is the same. While I don't agree with some of the issues they lobby, I have no right to muzzle them either. And certainly there will be other issues that I will agree with. Its all part of the democratic process.

20. In the last 10 years, do you think that political leaders in Australia have used religion for their own political purposes?

Um...Yes! but that's the problem that can't be circumvented.

That's just a few ... your thoughts?

Financial perspective test

2006-08-14T09:16:00.000+10:00

This is huge. Actually I was floored.

http://globalrichlist.com/

I knew we were among the most well off in the world, bla bla, bla. But put your annual income in the box and hit enter, and you will be embarassed to find just how well off you are. I didn't deserve to be born where I was born.

Perspective is a wonderful thing.

Just what we do with it is our choice.

Secular Christianity

2006-08-12T19:42:00.000+10:00

The church has retreated from the world and created its own super-culture, a luxury perhaps it cannot afford. It creates two worlds; what is Christian and what is not. It aligns itself with right wing politics and its cultural imperialism is seen by a consuming interest with legislation over moral issues...not social justice issues, but personal morality.

If it were in the end to win....to Christianise society, to legislate 'goodness' in terms that the church ordains....what then would there be to save people from?Is this just an echo of the unspoken behavioural salvation that infuses the churches very own culture? "We're the good people".... and we can fake a good face if we have to. The very message that keeps people away from church....they don't have to go to church to be 'good'....and they know it. But its not about being good.....its about knowing Good...knowing God and giving a life passionately away.

While the church waits for the world to come to it, while it continues in attempts to Christianise culture, the gap widens. Our call is to go out into all the world, showing people what God looks like...perhaps we need to secularize Christianity.

Indulge me

2006-08-11T17:10:00.000+10:00

My ideals for an emergent community have taken a new twist, or perhaps they have merely consolidated something that has been brewing for a long time. Reading many other traditional church blogs, I see a repetition of a paradigm now foreign to me. One where the church service is the focus of the Christian living. This imparts certain expectations to its adherants.

1. Head counting as an index of spiritual growth
2. The inevitable marketing to influence people to come and keep coming.
3. The programs to keep people engaged.
4. The attractional worship models that create a rousing atmosphere.
5. The notion that the service does the evangelism….just bring them and we’ll do the rest. We’ll even design services just for people who don’t normally go to church because the design is still to have a service. Church is now reduced to an event.
6. And the selling of the gospel like we are somehow ‘closing a deal’….as if Jesus is a product.

So where does that leave me? I managed to run a precursor to what might have been an emergent ‘church’ out of my loungeroom for a few years prior to buzz words like ‘emergent’ reaching my ears. But now nothing. But maybe something!

My perspective is this…we (Christians and the unchurched) see church as a place where people gather rather than the people themselves. Sure we all pay lip service to that fact, but congregational life does not reflect it and I think it shows we have missed the big picture.

In the absence of ‘church’ my little attempt at a pilgrimage outside its walls has given me new perspectives on many things. In particular, the friendships I (we) have forged with others of different worldviews to ours has been interesting. I initially wondered whether I could create community with non-believers, partial believers and people who were simply spiritually minded but open to sharing journeys and perspectives. So what does one do with a group?

Again my heritage tells me that I should be aiming to create a group that ultimately ‘meet’ somewhere on a regular basis – and bingo!!….. a post-modern church. But I would fall into the same trap of 'head counting' and attractional strategies. I realised that I didn’t want to attract anyone to anything. My only desire was to show people what I had found God to ‘look like’.

I am at a point where I can see a legitimacy in just simply being a ‘disciple’ or a ‘Christian’ yet I dislike both words due to modern day associations. So what about the service? Well…I love connecting with others but realise that these are merely attractional ‘events’ but not church. The business of church life ultimately stifled God’s work in me as I hurried to make our church ‘work’ …..and it did....church had its moments when God things happened, people grew. And God continues to use what we give him in that context….but its simply not the only way and that way also comes with many excesses and unscriptural difficulties.

I think for me it now boils down to this.

Is there a service aspect to my lifestyle that joins God in the street meeting human need?

Am I connecting and journeying with other similar people?

Has this journey forced me to go deeper myself due to the absence of the weekly sermon?

And am I deeply rooted in the lives of others where there is a respect for different worldviews but a desire to share without having to be ‘right’?

Is my mind being blown away His thoughts as I question?

So I am left with a bunch of very different people. I am amazed how many have filtered through a church experience, a youth group, a catholic school etc etc and retain a belief of convenience, but still a belief. There’s an interesting blend of dogmas among the crowd I call my friends and yet they ask questions wanting to truth their beliefs against what I might hold.

The church acknowledges there are so many who would never attend a church….but my response is why should they? Perhaps as Christians we simply need to live out our faith in the community as anchor points for and with others.

For me the service still holds legitimacy but on a less frequent basis where the ‘event’ functions as it does presently (teaching, worship and reflection). And unburdened from having to ‘get with the program’ we can be freed to secularise our Christianity.