Here are transformations that are not only possible but are also likely. They fit the “dying and rising” metaphor that belongs to the church:
• Dying to hopelessness and defeatism, and rising to fresh new life.
• Dying to worrying about or obsessing over numbers, and rising to passion for authenticity.
• Dying to self-absorption, consumer thinking, and the desire to have one’s needs met, and rising to passion to reach others with Christ and to attend to the poor, powerless, and disenfranchised with the compassion of Christ that has no boundaries or limits.
• Dying to worship wars, and rising to new openness for worship that embraces all.
• Dying to saying, “We can’t,” and rising to asking, “Why not?”
• Dying to fear of conflict, and rising to welcome conflict as healthy and needful to keep clarifying that the main thing must remain the main thing.
• Dying to fiscal fears and an ethic of scarcity, and rising to lavish generosity and an ethic of abundance.
• Dying to clergy-driven ministry, and rising to ministry owned by all.
• Dying to programs, and rising to witness.
• Dying to negative energy and bashing the church, bishops and judicatory executives, and the seminaries, and rising to an awareness of being advance scouts for an emerging new church.
• Dying to a sense that the church is necrotic, and rising to a new day of optimism and vitality.
• Dying to deals, causes, and spiritual self-help, and rising to a childlike passionate love for Jesus Christ and his church.
--Rick Barger, A New and Right Spirit
Showing posts with label witness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label witness. Show all posts
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Congregational Passion
No committee at your church may ever have voted to lower the congregation’s expectations of God. A motion may never have reached your council urging you to abandon God or to forsake the task of being faithful witnesses, aggressively engaging the surrounding culture. Yet here you may be, lacking spiritual passion for today’s religious race. Loss of zeal for the Lord is not the fruit of one bad choice or the fault of certain people in the congregation. It is, instead, woven into the very culture of the organization and evident in many things we do or fail to do each week.
Congregations with low spiritual passion do not need to change everything. They do, however, need to realize that it is normal to feel good about faith. Further, they need to practice new behaviors that will shift their attitudes about prayer, scripture, and the sharing of their faith. The proof that the depression has lifted comes when they become enthusiastic about sharing who they are as a congregation with those around them who don’t have a church home.
--Bill Kemp, Ezekiel’s Bones: Rekindling Your Congregation’s Spiritual Passion
This is true at a personal level too. - Ed
Congregations with low spiritual passion do not need to change everything. They do, however, need to realize that it is normal to feel good about faith. Further, they need to practice new behaviors that will shift their attitudes about prayer, scripture, and the sharing of their faith. The proof that the depression has lifted comes when they become enthusiastic about sharing who they are as a congregation with those around them who don’t have a church home.
--Bill Kemp, Ezekiel’s Bones: Rekindling Your Congregation’s Spiritual Passion
This is true at a personal level too. - Ed
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The Nature of Church
I have always felt that the purpose of church was much more than I had experienced in most congregations. There are several authors whose writings have helped me articulate this vision. Rick Barger is one of them.
“The church was born out of the Spirit of God. Its purpose was to witness to the saving activity of God, not as proffering a deal, cause, or spiritual assistance but to be a transparent sign in which and through which Jesus is encountered, experienced, known, and lives. The church’s relationship to Jesus is not simply to be identified with a historical person. The church’s identification with Jesus is its DNA. Jesus not only gives the church its DNA. Jesus also is the church’s DNA. Jesus abides or lives in the church (John 15:4 and others). Thus, Jesus can speak about his being “the vine” and the church being “the branches” (John 15:5). Vine and branch are of the same DNA. The church as the Body of Christ is more than just a metaphor. It is reality.”
--Rick Barger, A New and Right Spirit
The church I grew up in had as it's theological framework Scripture, Tradition, and Reason. "Experience" wasn't even in the mix. I grew up not understanding what "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ" was all about. I have come to understand/experience that while the relationship is personal it is much more than just "you and me, Jesus." The longer I am on this journey, the more challenging it becomes.
“The church was born out of the Spirit of God. Its purpose was to witness to the saving activity of God, not as proffering a deal, cause, or spiritual assistance but to be a transparent sign in which and through which Jesus is encountered, experienced, known, and lives. The church’s relationship to Jesus is not simply to be identified with a historical person. The church’s identification with Jesus is its DNA. Jesus not only gives the church its DNA. Jesus also is the church’s DNA. Jesus abides or lives in the church (John 15:4 and others). Thus, Jesus can speak about his being “the vine” and the church being “the branches” (John 15:5). Vine and branch are of the same DNA. The church as the Body of Christ is more than just a metaphor. It is reality.”
--Rick Barger, A New and Right Spirit
The church I grew up in had as it's theological framework Scripture, Tradition, and Reason. "Experience" wasn't even in the mix. I grew up not understanding what "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ" was all about. I have come to understand/experience that while the relationship is personal it is much more than just "you and me, Jesus." The longer I am on this journey, the more challenging it becomes.
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