But in the middle of his talk, he made a point about house church/small church people which, seen through the light of the Jethani book, set me off. "People come to me a lot, and I really enjoy talking to them (I don't think you do), and they say, 'We need to get back to the first century church.' (snicker snicker, we ALL know what's coming next) And I say, well
Wow. Did he just go there? I don't know this guy personally, but I'm pretty sure he's not stupid.
Can he not see the analogy between the Roman Empire and the American/Consumer "Empire"?
I'd put it like this:
+ Perhaps, IF American Christianity was living out its true counter-cultural call, and IF "Consumerism" had legal/political power...
... Christianity in 21st Century USAmerica would be illegal as well.
In addition, his main points were that the systems in "your church" were not getting people into groups, or making "guests" (hate that word) feel welcomed in your building.
But when Jethani references Barna's survey work that indicates that American Christian do not differ statistically from non-believers in areas that we would all consider biblical, I wonder "Who the hell cares if people aren't in groups? IF THE GROUPS AREN'T TURNING PEOPLE INTO CHRIST-FOLLOWERS, IT DOESN'T MATTER."
Systems matter, don't get me wrong. I believe that systems can be baptized for the glory of God, but as usual, a well-meaning pastor is championing fixing something that may not be working. Maybe like a cassette tape factory that is investing in repairing its magnets and tape spools when people are already moving beyond CDs...
What is going to produce Christ-followers? The disciplines, one-on-one mentoring, spiritual "parents", close community...
1 comment:
As one who once was a pastor of groups, it was disturbing to see how a group would empower a person to maintain their kingdom ignorance. By sometimes showing up to a group (and let's face it most people only showed up half the time), this allowed them the arrogant stance of kingdom entry without the discipline of a kingdom perspective. The best groups for Christ-like transformation seem to fall outside the structure of the church.
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