Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Sept 23--Resurrecting the Church
Opening Question:
How do you respond when someone asks you if you are religious? Or, what religion are you?
Quote to consider:
Two guys are sitting talking about the condition of the world. One of them says that he wants to ask God why he allows all this poverty and war and suffering to exist in the world. His friend says, "why don't you ask?" He answers that he is worried God will ask him the same question, saying, "You tell me why we allow this to happen. You are my body, my hands, my fee."
Once in small groups, we answered the following:
Feel free to continue the discussion by posting your comments.
How do you respond when someone asks you if you are religious? Or, what religion are you?
Quote to consider:
Two guys are sitting talking about the condition of the world. One of them says that he wants to ask God why he allows all this poverty and war and suffering to exist in the world. His friend says, "why don't you ask?" He answers that he is worried God will ask him the same question, saying, "You tell me why we allow this to happen. You are my body, my hands, my fee."
Once in small groups, we answered the following:
- Share your experience of the church.
- What do you think of your local church? How are we doing? What are we doing right? Where might we be off track? What are we doing wrong? How do we need to change?
- How do we stay on track or get back on track?
Feel free to continue the discussion by posting your comments.
Comments:
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My big question after all the discussion is this:
Can you have a discussion about the church and be critical of its direction without people feeling like you are being negative about the church?
I believe the church in general rarely takes an honest look at itself. The reason I believe that is becuase when we do we only have to look at how we personally follwing God and in general we qualify as believers and not followers. I include myself in this category.
Can you have a discussion about the church and be critical of its direction without people feeling like you are being negative about the church?
I believe the church in general rarely takes an honest look at itself. The reason I believe that is becuase when we do we only have to look at how we personally follwing God and in general we qualify as believers and not followers. I include myself in this category.
# posted by 
: 6:33 AM
: 6:33 AM
The book is called "Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne. Chapter 5 is available online.
# posted by : 11:57 AM
: 11:57 AM
I just have never been part of an edifying conversation about the direction of "the church" when people are being critical. It leads me to a place of judgement of other believers, frustration and hopelessness. When I'm in conversations about what the Lord is doing, instead of about what His people are NOT doing - I am encouraged, uplifted and spurred on to become more 'radical' in my relationship with Him and others.
The thing is the church will always be deficient. We can either talk about how "the church" should do this and that and what a bad reflection of Christ we are or we can choose to focus on the amazing ways God is using his people to love this world. There is enough data to support both kinds of discussions. It just depends on how we want to spend our days here - celebrating his use of broken vessels or complaining about how everyone is screwing up.
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The thing is the church will always be deficient. We can either talk about how "the church" should do this and that and what a bad reflection of Christ we are or we can choose to focus on the amazing ways God is using his people to love this world. There is enough data to support both kinds of discussions. It just depends on how we want to spend our days here - celebrating his use of broken vessels or complaining about how everyone is screwing up.
# posted by : 6:56 PM
: 6:56 PM << Home
