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Being Church through Jesus Centred Living

/ Martin / Leave a comment

Cartoon_church_competition

I have been preaching recently about the nature of church, because I think we get confused about what church actually is, or more importantly maybe, confused about what it isn’t.

Church is not a building, it is not a Sunday morning service, and it is certainly not an exclusive members only club.  More importantly, it is not irrelevant and unnecessary, and it is absolutely not about you and me.

Church is about Jesus.

It is where he abides with us, in the midst of his people, present with us through the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit.  He is away from us, sat at the right hand of the Father and yet is near to us, and where he is, with us, that is church.

Why do we always feel the need to make it more complicated than that?

As far as I am concerned, whenever there are two or more people committed to one another in order to be obedient to the commands of Jesus as outlined in the Bible – meeting together regularly to worship and value him, seeking the Word together, being disciples and making disciples, baptising and encouraging others to follow him and his ways – then they are being church.

Which means that as a Jesus follower, whenever you meet with somebody else, you can be church!

And I think it is essential that we all start to see church in this way in order to break the consumer culture and sacred-secular duality that is so prevalent amongst contemporary believers.  I can’t help but feel that the future of church, certainly here in the rural parts of the UK, has to be more about building networks than maintaining traditions, even if those traditions are good and of value.

Hold on, I hear you say, what about Elders and Deacons, heresy and authority, meetings and programmes?  Essential issues that need to be considered in detail.  But fundamentally, if Jesus isn’t at the centre of all that we are doing then we are not being church – everything else is superfluous if we don’t get this right in the first place.

What do you think?

Evangelicals without blowhards, credit to John Stott

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Interesting article by Nicholas D Kristof in the New York Times Sunday Review contrasting the humility of some evangelicals with the arrogance of others – and John Stott gets the credit he deserves:

“In these polarized times, few words conjure as much distaste in liberal circles as “evangelical Christian.” That’s partly because evangelicals came to be associated over the last 25 years with blowhard scolds…..(and) because of such self-righteousness, the entire evangelical movement often has been pilloried among progressives as reactionary, myopic, anti-intellectual and, if anything, immoral.

Yet that casual dismissal is profoundly unfair of the movement as a whole. It reflects a kind of reverse intolerance, sometimes a reverse bigotry, directed at tens of millions of people who have actually become increasingly engaged in issues of global poverty and justice.

This compassionate strain of evangelicalism was powerfully shaped by the Rev. John Stott, a gentle British scholar who had far more impact on Christianity than media stars……

Mr. Stott didn’t preach fire and brimstone on a Christian television network. He was a humble scholar whose 50-odd books counseled Christians to emulate the life of Jesus — especially his concern for the poor and oppressed — and confront social ills like racial oppression and environmental pollution…..

Centuries ago, serious religious study was extraordinarily demanding and rigorous; in contrast, anyone could declare himself a scientist and go in the business of, say, alchemy. These days, it’s the reverse. A Ph.D. in chemistry is a rigorous degree, while a preacher can explain the Bible on television without mastering Hebrew or Greek — or even showing interest in the nuances of the original texts.

Those self-appointed evangelical leaders come across as hypocrites, monetizing Jesus rather than emulating him. Some seem homophobic, and many who claim to be “pro-life” seem little concerned with human life post-uterus. Those are the preachers who won headlines and disdain.

But in reporting on poverty, disease and oppression, I’ve seen so many others. Evangelicals are disproportionately likely to donate 10 percent of their incomes to charities, mostly church-related. More important, go to the front lines, at home or abroad, in the battles against hunger, malaria, prison rape, obstetric fistula, human trafficking or genocide, and some of the bravest people you meet are evangelical Christians (or conservative Catholics, similar in many ways) who truly live their faith.”

Read the full article here.

HT:  Jim Henderson

 

Mark Sayers: Killing an arab – reflecting on the death of Osama Bin Laden

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Interesting take on the recent death of Osama Bin Laden at Mark Sayers’ blog:

….As the death of Osama Bin Laden broke,with one eye I was watching the coverage on television, and with the other, the Facebook feed. Reading the status updates, my friends on the Christian left, were dismayed by the spontaneous scenes of people celebrating the killing of Bin Laden in New York and in Washington D.C. My friends who work tirelessly to see God’s peace break out in the world, reminded us that violence begats violence, that killing cannot bring about the kingdom of God. That the victims of 9/11 were not brought back to life by the death of civilians in bombing raids in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. They produced scriptures that commanded us not to celebrate the death of the wicked, and quotes from Martin Luther King, and Ghandi, lauding the attributes of the approach of love and peace….

….Simultaneously my friends on the Christian right, expressed relief that justice had been done. They updated their belief that a man who declared war explicitly on Christianity, who wished to finish what Hitler had started by killing the Jews, who wished to subjugate women, and who deemed Hindu’s, atheists, homosexuals, and Buddhist’s killable on the spot, who had made it his life’s mission to violently create a world wide Caliphate, who wished to kill you and I, was dead. My friends on the right, with heavy hearts, concluded that sometimes, when individuals choose the path of evil, who present a clear and present danger, that they regretably must be killed. My friends also produced scriptures that told us to celebrate the death of the wicked, as well as quotes lauding the quest for justice and the pursuit of freedom….

….In our society with its divisions of left and right, progressive/liberal and conservative. The left will almost always err on the side of love, it will always take into account circumstance, environment and upbringing. It will view God as primarily a God of Love. The right will always err on the side of justice, and will always look to personal choice, and the decisions one takes, despite their circumstance, environment and upbringing. The right will always view God as a God of Justice….

….Christians when looking to scripture, can easily find proof texts, which taken in isolation can justify one side or the other. But both sides when faced with the totality of scripture, will find troubling passages and teachings, texts which seem to undermine our ability to firmly come down on the side of love minus justice, or justice minus love….

….Interestingly as I watched the TV coverage of Bin Laden’s death, there were several interviews with victims of Bin Laden’s violence, people from as diverse places such as Indonesia, Kenya, the United States and Australia. Almost every one expressed a confusion over their feelings, an initial relief and jubilation at the news of his demise, followed by a sense of loss, a fear that this death would only bring more. I think that it was the victims who spoke the most clearly, who unwittingly got to the heart of the issue.

Read full article here

Haptic Braille: Book reading made easy for blind and partially sighted people

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I saw this and thought it was brilliant – had to share it so you too can be in awe of a wonderful piece of functional design.

As it has been described elsewhere:

The Haptic Braille is a mouse-like device that’s capable of translating ordinary text into braille on its surface. This means that blind and partially sighted people can read virtually anything the sighted can. The technology uses optical character recognition. Simply skim it over any text and wait for the haptic feedback. I like how you can pocket and carry it over to the library. Just imagine how many books literally become available at your fingertips. Splendid!

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HT: ReflectionOf.me