That is critical to us.
The key thing we are doing is not building a building, but building church and church is about people, not about bricks and mortar.
The church is not there to serve the building.The building is there to serve the church, as it seeks to build the Kingdom of God in our community.
That is our God given task at this time
I read this today missional church .It is quite a lengthy read, but there are some great quotes in it, and it describes much of the journey that I have personally travelled over the last few years, to what I believe is a more New Testament way of being a church and which is more exciting ,dynamic and relevant to todays world
There is an especially good description of what Missional Spirituality looks like.
I have just read "missional church" because it ties in with a few sessions on "Fresh Expressions of Church" we had at our church. Although it seems at first glance, quite "weighty"- like something you have to read to do an assignment- it is actually VERY readable and I was very moved by a lot of what this guy says, because I think we are ALL being called to heed this message.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble is, there's still a very stubborn "temple mantality" and especially in the more traditional churches. There are some quite fearsome people who sit in Church council meetings and terrify anyoe who dares to come in and challenge them and tries to change things and move them out of their comfort zone!!!
Some ARE genuinely afraid, or may think they are too old to go out on any sort of mission, yet God can use us as we are. I was particulary moved by this:
"Richard Quebedeaux writes that with the foundations of society, including the family,
crumbling we need a new kind of leader to show us the way to the abundant life:
No medium or method of conveying the Christian gospel can meet people's basic
needs for recognition, involvement, worthiness, growth, and indeed salvation itself
without the loving give and take of person-to-person interaction over a long period of
time. This is what community really means, and this is exactly where popular religion
and its leaders are not successful. The church , therefore, does need to become God’s
ideal family.. [and] the battle against authoritarianism is the consequence of
leadership without love."
Sorry if I comment too much, Charles! I probably have more free time to do it than all the hard-working people in full-time employment!!!!!
Thanks for your comments Pauline delighted to have them I assure you
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