Simple Church

I'm linking again to Rick's blog explainng a bit about Simple Church. The film connected to the post does a great job of allowing you to hear the thoughts of the shakers in the movement. When The Blind Beggar crashed and Rick lost all of his posts, I was saddened that I may never again hear this quote from the end of the video:

Every member of the body of Christ here will know they are living in their
destiny, and that not one person will go to their grave with their music still
in them, but they will sing their song, and reach their purpose God’s got for them
here…

me and the church

I've begun to want more out of church. I'm beginning to think that church being all about *me* and my other fellow believers is backwards. Maybe the main focus of the gathering shouldn't always be to sit quietly and be “fed the Word" when what we equally need to do is get out into the world and feed (literally) the would-be sheep. I'm tired of pretending and living like we are in a "culture war" and "they" are the enemy (thanks to Adventures in Mercy in this post that really helped me "get it"). I want to shout, "Wake up!" to "the Body" and tell the butt to stop acting like we are here simply to make it until we are rescued from this horrible, no-good, God-forsaken land. We are called to make disciples, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, help the poor, the widows and the orphans, and to live lives worthy of the call (Ephesians 4:1-3, Colossians 1:9-11) *here on earth*. Our so-called cultural enemies are the very people we have a responsibility to love and to care for.

I’m not referring simply to evangelism (because I always felt uncomfortable with the idea of passing out tracts). I am coming to realize that loving our neighbors as ourselves is much more intimate than a five minute Christian schpeal (am I the only one who uses this made up word?). There is a new (to me) way of doing church. It’s a new (to me) focus for the church, and the key term is missional.

One of my new habitual reads is The Blind Beggar, and he has compiled missional thought on a website completely devoted to it- Friend of Missional. The website explains what missional is in context of the way we normally “do church,” and it is very easy to read and understand. I strongly encourage you to take a look, and come back here and tell me your thoughts. It’s not too long and I regard it as exceedingly important.

I am honestly not trying to condemn our church structure as it stands, but I feel so complacent going to church, coming home, living life with my morally like-minded body and never doing much beyond baking brownies and Ooey Gooey for the neighbors.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son… let’s go out and touch the world, one person at a time.