Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Simple Church or Simple Jesus
I’ve heard the term "simple church" bantered around in different context meaning different things the past few years. I like it. All the discussion on church is about how to keep the church alive and effective today and insure a place for it tomorrow. How much of that is up to us and how much of that is up to God?
Is the answer of the church and the future of the church found in the church, or outside the church? What if the answer was not the bride but the bridegroom--Christ? Can we truly "deal" with the bride without knowing, understanding, or even getting in trouble with the bridegroom--if it’s His bride? In Texas we have a saying, "Don’t mess with Texas." And, it’s true. Ever been to the Alamo? I have an ancestor whose bones were burned in a pit with some 189 others. I think today Jesus might say, "Don’t mess with my bride until you’ve first dealt with me!"
The challenge to the relevance of the church we are dealing with is generally not our theology, history, or even Biblical understanding of Jesus as much as it is our cultural and personal way of relating to Him. How do we bring others into a dynamic relationship with Him.
What if, instead of making the church simple, we made our understanding and walk with Jesus simple? What would that look like? I’m traveling and will try to respond, but I’m just curious.
Is the answer of the church and the future of the church found in the church, or outside the church? What if the answer was not the bride but the bridegroom--Christ? Can we truly "deal" with the bride without knowing, understanding, or even getting in trouble with the bridegroom--if it’s His bride? In Texas we have a saying, "Don’t mess with Texas." And, it’s true. Ever been to the Alamo? I have an ancestor whose bones were burned in a pit with some 189 others. I think today Jesus might say, "Don’t mess with my bride until you’ve first dealt with me!"
The challenge to the relevance of the church we are dealing with is generally not our theology, history, or even Biblical understanding of Jesus as much as it is our cultural and personal way of relating to Him. How do we bring others into a dynamic relationship with Him.
What if, instead of making the church simple, we made our understanding and walk with Jesus simple? What would that look like? I’m traveling and will try to respond, but I’m just curious.
Comments:
<< Home
I think the questions are very close, if not the same. By making our follwing Jesus simple it by association makes the church simple; simple not easy. I have enjoyed the thought provoking questions lately.
# posted by 
: 9:05 AM
: 9:05 AM
Those are great questions - and insights. You're right, and you've mentioned it before here and in Transformation, about the simplicity of being with Jesus. "When will Jesus be enough?" is such a great question to reorient us.
But what if the structures and values of the church actually HINDER instead of help a walk with Jesus? Would you agree that structures, unfortunately, do not exist in a vacuum? They communicate. They reinforce values. They set expectations. In our culture, the medium IS the message, just as much, if not more than, the message is the message.
But what if the structures and values of the church actually HINDER instead of help a walk with Jesus? Would you agree that structures, unfortunately, do not exist in a vacuum? They communicate. They reinforce values. They set expectations. In our culture, the medium IS the message, just as much, if not more than, the message is the message.
Bob, I wholly agree wit simplifying our love and following our Jesus, but I'm not sure if that lets us off the hook of simplifying the churches. In fact, part of simplifying our following of Jesus will mean unclusttering our churchly lives.
# posted by : 8:46 AM
: 8:46 AM
Whenever I want control over something I tend to organize it to revolve around my preferences and agenda in a way so that it is less imposeing and lower maintnance and so on and I remove anything about it that runs contrary to that,,and in the process it has become simple,,and so if we want to give ourselves to God then maybe we should think about how we can simplify ourselves through Gods eyes and since we are a part of the church then in the process the church becomes simplified to God not us.
So how would simplifying ourselves for God look like? Would it be pulling out all the sinfull clutter we sweep under the rugs and putting it at the curb with the rugs,replaceing the skeletons in our closet with our sunday best clothes,regularly tuneing the tv to christian sermons rather than late night celebrity worship appearances,prayer time instead of beer time on a routine basis,saying goodbye to the hangups that always leave us hanging up on Gods agenda?
Some ask how can I simplify God or in other words break God down into simple pieces for me to understand yet if you do that then it is no longer God that you are understanding instead you must break yourself up to God and try to understand him the way he is
I think I make sense here yet Im rather sleep deprived and have a cat prancing about my face as I type so some of this may seem like jibber-jabber
LowellKyleWilliamson@yahoo.com
So how would simplifying ourselves for God look like? Would it be pulling out all the sinfull clutter we sweep under the rugs and putting it at the curb with the rugs,replaceing the skeletons in our closet with our sunday best clothes,regularly tuneing the tv to christian sermons rather than late night celebrity worship appearances,prayer time instead of beer time on a routine basis,saying goodbye to the hangups that always leave us hanging up on Gods agenda?
Some ask how can I simplify God or in other words break God down into simple pieces for me to understand yet if you do that then it is no longer God that you are understanding instead you must break yourself up to God and try to understand him the way he is
I think I make sense here yet Im rather sleep deprived and have a cat prancing about my face as I type so some of this may seem like jibber-jabber
LowellKyleWilliamson@yahoo.com
# posted by : 3:19 AM
: 3:19 AM
I like what Mr. Hirsh said, simplifying our love and following Jesus doesn't let us off the hook for simplifying the church. We have in the past year started a simple church- I don't even like to use that word cause everyone has their own definition. Nonetheless, we have had to undergo a detox time. Honestly I am still going through it. This has truly been the test, "Is Jesus really enough". Or is it the programs I love, or the crowd and the nice building or sitting in the pew and hearing a great motivational sermon-. Or was it the fun of singing on the praise band. These are great things, but sometimes our church activities and ministry plans take the place of simply Jesus. I totally don't think one model of church is right over the other. I love the Bride of Christ however she looks. It has just been a fun journey to try to pursue simply Jesus and see what happens. On the journey...Beth
Post a Comment
# posted by : 10:13 AM
: 10:13 AM << Home
Rss Feed