There is a great conversation going on at Brant's blog (http://branthansen.typepad.com/) about a group of believers who have assembled to BE the Church. The blog entry is entitled "We Quit Going to Church."
There is some really good thinking going on here with honest questions and integrity in the dialogue.
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Merry Christmas,
Thanks for the referral, I read some of the comments on that post. I'll make my comment here. Sorry for how long it is.
I'm an old man so I remember how Christian people throughout my life have tried to communicate that "we are the Church." I lived through the hippie movement, Jesus people, flower power, and all the anti-establishment rhetoric, demonstrations and rioting. To me it's mostly semantics. Sincere Christians have been trying to get superficial people to change their attitude and "be the Church" since day 1. I can imagine an early church father telling Constantine that he doesn't "go" to church, he "is" the Church.
Being your own church and having complete control of everything is very attractive to some. It can work pretty good in a lot of areas of our lives until something goes wrong.
So forget taking our kids to school we'll be the school
Forget insurance we'll self insure.
Forget motorcycle repairmen, I'll fix it myself.
Forget...the list can go on and on and this is all wonderful until something goes wrong or it gets too big and you can't control it and you get into a bind.
I applaud anyone who tries to get people close to Jesus whether they do it in an organized way or a disorganized way, in their home, a movie theatre or shopping mall. More power to them.
Criticizing how other people spend money is easy to do since we usually don't have all the facts. If we knew more we might criticize less. I'm also amazed at how specific God was in his instructions for the tabernacle and temple and even the priestly garments. When I read God's plan and expectations I can't help thinking that our church buildings are pretty shabby and that I'm not dressing good enough.
I also have seen over the years that when some people say things like "that money could have been used for the poor, or missions," they sometimes don't really have a heart for the poor or missions. It just sounds good and more convincing in the argument against whatever it is you think is a waste of money. In a church setting you often know a person's track record and attitudes regarless of the words coming out of their mouth. I remember Judas criticizing the extravagant waste of money to anoint the feet of Jesus and his attempt to make it sound good by expressing his "concern for the poor."
There will always be people who just "go to church." People could even have that attitude in a cool intimate home setting. My advice for them would "not" be to quit going to church but to keep going to church until the truth gets through to their heart.
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