dougs digs

once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right

3.27.2005

Why I Stopped Going to Church

This is why I stopped “going to church.” For the church is not an institution, or an event, and least of all a building. Rather it is distinguished by the kind of relationships its members have with one another. It’s not about suits and ties, or about sermons and singing, but about a radical realignment of relationships governed by Christ’s lordship. It is, in Bonhoeffer’s words, life together in Christ.

There is much talk today about an emergent church, one that is more authentic, relational, liquid, culturally relevant, organic and missional. This is a church that works for nonbelievers, where unnecessary barriers of traditional church are removed, via alternative worship gatherings, while at the same time integrating the spiritual in the warp and woof of everyday existence, by practicing the Divine Hours, for example. This is encouraging. But in too many cases, these postmodern alternatives confuse the symptom for the cause. The church is still conceived as another structure, albeit sacred, along side those of family, work, neighborhood, education, etc. The church is an add-on to real life in the world.

The biblical notion of church, the “ekklesia,” however, is far more radical. It is a community that is called out, called together and called forth—a community in which the presence of the risen Christ transforms existence itself. Church is the locus of Christ’s ongoing work of reconciliation and redemption, where people exhibit a new way of living together as an expression of their new life in Christ. Church is not about what gets proclaimed by a preacher or taught by an instructor. It’s not just songs, sacraments and ceremonies. The church is what gets lived out in daily life by a people who bind themselves together to live for God’s kingdom of unity, justice and peace.

continue . . .
|| doug, 23:11

1 Comments:

So cynical. I can feel the hurt in what this article is saying and where it comes from. That type of hurt and cynicism, if left alone, can destroy a person. I've seen it. There's a point where you stop struggling, stop trying to change and just give up. It's an empty place.

Paul.
Anonymous Anonymous, at 28/3/05 11:38  

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