Tuesday’s thoughts

So I am still reading through Reimagining Church, by Frank Viola. His book has me thinking. Thinking about the church again. What it is today and what it is supposed to be. I obviously understand that churches are not perfect, and understand that we as believers are part of “the Church” no matter what. But I just can’t help but think of what maybe we could be, are we missing out on something? Something big?

I just finished a section in the book entitled, “Reimaging the Gathering Place”. Viola talks about how the church started in homes, and thats where it should be today. Instead we have moved into these huge buildings. I don’t want to get into the entire thing, because I could go on for a while, plus I think that you all should read it for yourselves and come to your own conclusions and thoughts. There were just two things said in the chapter that got my attention. Here is the first, “most modern church buildings reflect the boastings of this world rather than the meek and lowly Savior whose name we bear”. I think this is pretty true, isn’t kind of strange that there are so many expensive things inside the churches, flat screens everywhere, expensive furniture and art, the sound equipment and lighting are pretty crazy. I admit it is attractive, and draws people in the doors. But what message is it sending?(Again, this is just me questioning, I dont think I have all the answers.) I actually enjoy most of this stuff and have never really questioned it. But just because I enjoy it doesn’t really mean a whole lot. Maybe without even thinking about it, we are sending the message that we should have it all together, we should all be up to date with the latest technology, we should have our houses decorated just as well? Maybe I am rambling, but I just question the way we portray our God in our “church buildings”. Jesus came to this Earth and made himself the lowest of low. The dude was homeless while he was here. I just dont know if that correlates with our “buildings”

The second thing that caught my attention sort of goes along with this first point. But Viola points out a stat that Barna used in his previous book. This stat is, “institutional churches in the U.S. alone own over $230 billion worth of real estate. And much of that money is borrowed (debt). Christians give between $9 to $11 billion a year on church buildings.” That is a lot of money, right? And it all goes into buildings? Is that really how we should be spending our resources? I can only imagine what $11 billion would do to help homeless, hungry, orphans, the needs of the body. It is just all puzzling to me. Perhaps we should reimagine the body of Christ and what our purpose really is. Is it to build buildings and put really cool things inside of them? I do understand that Jesus was relevant to his time and culture. But are we trying to make Jesus too cool? To hip?

Again, I just want to say I do understand that the Church does do good things, and that God will work with what is there. There are plenty of great things happening in Churches all over the world. I am a part of ones of these churches. I just have questions about weather or not all of our focus is in the right place. If all of our resources are going to the will of God, or if they are going to what we want?

Adam’s Manifest Destiny

This summer, I shall journey across the great Northwest of these Americas. I have been looking forward to it a lot lately. I dont really have any plan for the trip. I don’t know if anyone is going to go with me. I just know that I need to go. There is something inside of me that needs to move. That needs to go. My goal for the trip is to meet as many people as I can that are different, from different places, and see the world differently than I. I just want the Lord to guide me on this trip, see things He wants me to see, go places He wants me to to. I feel like this will be like a exercise to make me more sensitive to the voice of God. I feel like there are some amazing things I will learn on this trip. At work, this trip is pretty must all I have been thinking of lately.

How freeing this will be to just go, no certain direction, no place I have to be, Maybe ill stay for a few days somewhere maybe I’ll just drive for days with no stopping. I just can’t wait to see things I have never seen before! I have to go! and I will go!

But that is all for now, for whoever reads this, God bless, keep loving people and enjoy the rest of this day you have been given! Shalom.

Reimagining the Lord’s Supper…..

So I have recently been reading a couple few books by, Frank Viola, Pagan Christianity and Reimagining Church. They are meant to compliment each other. Pagan Christianity talks about where we took all the practices that we use in todays “Church Services”. I was pretty surprised to see where we got a lot of the things that are done today in Churches. There are a lot of things that are done that are not all that biblical. I would suggest this for reading, it made me think pretty intensely about the way things are done. I have this on audio book if anyone would like to borrow for a listen (aren’t audio books great, all the fun of reading without the reading).  But I am currently reading the book Reimagining Church. It is the follow up to Pagan Christianity. It talks about a multitude of things for us to rethink in the Church, and how it can look. He talks about the Church as an organism, the meeting place, the Lord’s Supper (which is where I am heading with this, so hang in there), the Leadership, etc… But so far the thing that has got my attention is the Lords Supper, or Communion, however you want to think about it.

I have always loved Communion, I think that is why this Chapter in Violas book stood out to me. He explains the “elements” in depth and what they fully represent. He says this about “the Bread”. “The bread- being the most basic and lowly of all foods– points to the humility and availability of our Lord. By taking on our humanity, Jesus Christ became accessible to us all– just as bread is available to us all, just as bread it available to everyone, both rich and poor.” What really stands out to me in this chapter about the Lords Supper is how Viola points out how the early Church views the Lords Supper. They view it as a banquet, an entire meal, with fellow believers, remembering Christ, His death, but most of all His resurrection and the life that it gave us, a celebration of what has happened. Viola calls this a covenant meal, in the fact that we are to remember the new covenant we have with God, through Jesus Christ. I love this statement that Viola makes “the Lords Supper was never meant to be a morbid reminder of Christ’s suffering. Nor was it a somber occasion where Christians mourned over their sins. Instead, the Supper was a cheerful reminder of who Jesus Christ is and what He has done. It was a reminder and a proclamation of His glorious victory at Calvary, which will be comsummated at His future coming.” It is meant to be a celebration. So I say let us celebrate! The celebration of Passover is just around the corner. I think it would be really neat, to get some peeps together, have a meal, a full spread, the works if you will and celebrate what Jesus has done in our lives. To come together and share prayer and thanksgiving, words of encouragment, stories of victory in our lives personally, anything. I just think that would be awesome! I am going to try and see what I can pull off for this, I would like to get some people together, it would be powerful and encouraging. But those are just some thoughts that I have been meaning to post on here. Hope everbody has a great Tuesday!