Archived Posts For Church
the problem of good intentions
Posted on November 5, 2007 by Geoff Matheson
Filed Under Church | 3 Comments
One of the problems of being around churches, and in being someone who tries very hard to see the good in people is the way that bad things happen because of completely good and honourable intentions. Dealing with teenagers (but also in the wider world), there are some very fragile self-esteems involved, and it doesn’t take a lot to see a whole heap of damage done on the back of what starts as a “really nice idea”.
So something I really haven’t worked out yet though, is how to explain to people who have these lovely ideas that they are actually going to prove harmful for people, or are going to cause stagnation, or represent barriers to growth. Because ultimately, I know that if someone told me that my ideas were harmful - I’d want to whack them across the head. And I don’t know any way to approach it that would result in me having a different reaction.
this way to the door
Posted on September 24, 2007 by Geoff Matheson
Filed Under Church | 12 Comments
On our first foray into some proper discussion on Amateur Theology, we threw around the idea of at what point of theological disagreement should you leave a church, which prompted Ron (my father) to tell his story:
Back in what seems like an earlier life, my young family and I were in a church in a smallish country town - the denomination is not relevant. Up to this point in time, I had largely been ignorant of the gifts of the holy spirit. My wife and I were involved in assisting to run a youth group, and I was in fact on the elders council of the church, despite being at least 20 years younger than anyone else on this inflated body, and a relatively new christian.
Together with another couple, the leaders of the youth group, we had some responsibility for running monthly youth services on Sunday evenings. We made several mistakes, one was to include an ‘altar call’ for people who wanted to commit their lives to Jesus, and the other was to have someone speak about the gifts of the spirit as something that was real and to be apprehended in this age. To be summoned to the regional overseer (no titles to give denominational hints) and told that perhaps we would be better off in the local Baptist church (there you go, it wasn’t them) sort of put the writing on the wall for us, particularly as there wasn’t a local Baptist church.”
Dad’s story triggered the thought: should churches ever ask people to leave? Obviously any time this happens, it becomes a deeply hurtful experience - likely not just for the person being ejected but also for the person doing the ejecting. Should it ever happen on a point of theology? I’d be very interested to hear what people think.
collective language
Posted on September 21, 2007 by Matt Stanford
Filed Under Church, Emerging Questions | 8 Comments
Prompted by my LifeGroup: what does the language of a corporate experience of God look like?
I think it’s quite a poorly developed area of communication for us.
In my experience, when we talk about what God’s doing, we talk about it from a first-person perspective: “something I’ve learned this week…”, “God told me…”, “my experience this week has shown me…”; I’m really not sure our 3rd-persons language is familiar or well developed: trying to describe what God is doing with the upper or lower case C church seems to result in us pulling specific instances.
At the very least, it’s not something we spend much time talking about.
This, to me, contrasts against the things I read about when God spoke about Israel, his people, as a singular entity: we don’t seem to think of ourselves in the same way today as much, instead focusing on the individual or the intimate church group. Is that a result of post modernism, and is it what God wants from us? If we’re called to be other-centred, doesn’t that mean collective language should be our primary language type?
What’s God doing with us as a people? How does Jesus feel about his bride right now? What’s my role as part of that as an individual, a church member, a Church member? A hand, or a foot? Or a cell IN a hand or foot?
why I still go to church
Posted on September 11, 2007 by Geoff Matheson
Filed Under Church, Why I... | 4 Comments
As someone who has been interested in the “emerging conversation”, and believe that there is a lot wrong with the model of institutional church we find in western society, I’ve been forced to reconsider whether or not “going to church” as an activity is still something I ought to be doing. It’s been important for me to attempt to separate out the feelings of obligation or habit that come from attending a church service on Sunday mornings for essentially the entirety of my life. I haven’t needed to wrestle with whether or not discipleship and ministry should happen in community: that seems to me to be self-evident. But whether or not attending a regular church service is integral to working out my faith has become an important question for me. For the sake of clarity, my church service occurs on Sunday mornings. I don’t believe that it needs to; it just does. So when I refer to Sunday mornings, the day, time and details is flexible.
1. Sunday Morning is my primary point of contact with wider church
Most of the people I walk closely with, I tend to see during the week. My youth group kids, my small group (although circumstances have changed a bit recently there), my mentor-type person, etc. But if I’m going to have any sort of input, interaction or connection outside of the people in my immediate “circles”, it has the best chance of happening by rocking up on the Sunday morning and chatting with people.
2. Being part of a wider community
Rocking up on a Sunday morning has been a constant remider for me that the picture of ministry in our church is much bigger than the things that I do. It connects me with a church who is out-working their faith in many varied ways, and reinforces the point that we’re all pushing to further the same kingdom. It wouldn’t be uncommon for happenings (whether positive or negative) in the youth group to become overwhelming in their importance in my mind, and being able to step back from them and recognize the vastness of the work of the kingdom, even feeling that the last hope for our teenagers doesn’t rest on my shoulders. It has been the most valuable reality check and certainly helps to shift my focus back onto letting God work.
3. There’s just something about…
Worshiping. Hearing a sermon even. Taking communion with 200 odd people (and I do mean odd). Standing together with a community of people and sharing a wider mission together. One of the things I miss about not being in an Anglican church (and haven’t been since I was 13), is that it’s much rarer for us to speak a prayer together. And there’s something special about joining together in worship, in prayer, and affirming the same beliefs together.
4. Being Equipped
I know it’s not the fashionable thing, but I do enjoy a good sermon. Sometimes I even enjoy average ones. And while the old war horse cliche about people never being able to remember what was preached on a Sunday, I do think that I develop and grow through the words preached in sermons. And it’s a part of growing my theological thinking that I don’t control myself: which is a good thing for someone who wants to be very careful about not creating a picture of God that’s “whatever is best for me”.
So that’s my list. Or some of my list. There are more reasons, better reasons, and probably even truer reasons. What reasons do you have for going/not going to church?
controversial quote of the week: Mark Driscoll
Posted on September 7, 2007 by Geoff Matheson
Filed Under Church, Quotes | 4 Comments
From the always-controversial Mark Driscoll:
“The reason they (young men) don’t go to most churches is because they could take the pastor and can’t respect a guy in a lemon-yellow sweater, sipping decaf and talking about his feelings.”
(The Resurgence - The Right Hand of Fellowship, Hat tip to planet telex)
Discuss.
