I hope these words from Francis Chan challenge you and make you think as they have me this week:
"Is there any logic in believing that God started His Church as a Spirit-filled, loving body with the intention that it would evolve into entertaining, hour-long services? Was he hoping that one day people would be attracted to the Church not because they care for one another, not because they are devoted to Him, not because the supernatural occurs in their midst, but because of good music and entertainment?"
If you'd like to read the rest you can find it here.
4 comments:
So why should we have structured churches? So those of us that are called to ministry have a way of getting paid to do God's work?
Good question. What do you think?
I think part of the benefit of the Church as institution is that when if functions best, we can do greater things as a whole than we could as isolated, even semi-connected communities. Think of higher education, missions, disaster relief, printed materials, etc. Without a larger organization, there would be so much duplication as well as not enough resources to accomplish a lot of what a large institution can accomplish.
As far as the local church and it's structure, I guess what I'm asking and what Chan is asking is have we, and if so, how far have we strayed from what we believe God's intention was for sending His Spirit and creating the Church. I believe it's a question we as leaders (and laypeople) need to be asking ourselves on a regular basis. Like I shared with you before, we ought to ask "Is this really all that Christ died for?" Or is there more.
I yield the floor . . .
I think that we have to look at the church like we do our understanding of the Bible as a holy, living, inspired word. I think likewise that the church is a God inspired, living being and that God would probably not allow teachings to go on for thousands of years in His name without Him setting the church back on course.
What do you think?
I yield the door....
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