Ecclesiological Dreamin'
Anyone who knows me will know that I'm a bit of a dreamer. I make no apology for this, but sometimes dreaming/envisioning can be an all-too individual affair. The dreamer is a maverick, running wildly ahead, and usually ends up frustrated, burnt-out and leaving the rest of his community in his/her wake. There's only so far this will take us.Brian McLaren, in chapter 21 of his book The Last Word and The Word After That tells the story of Neil and the group of Christians who he "knows with". The idea is that "learning and knowing are ultimately communal experiences, social experiences". So I thought I'd open the floor for other dreams/visions, and see if we can "dream with" each other.
In that light, I'd love to hear your (short-ish) answers to this "what if...?" question:
If you could start from the ground up, what would church look like?
I'm not just thinking of theological reflection (although that's good too), but any kind of response to the question of how we "do" church: format, theology, practises, setting, size... you name it. Why not get your friends/spouses to comment, particularly people who are finding that 'traditional' forms of church are losing (or have never been in) touch with them.
Dreaming dreams...
J
posted by Jamie at Friday, April 14, 2006
4 Comments:
Here's a way of thinking about it, though by no means the only one. Taken from Walsh and Keesmat (Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire):
"In the face of an empire that rules through military and economic control, what is the shape of a community that serves a ruler who brings reconciliation and peace by sacrificial death rather than military might?"
what if the community of followers of jesus in the first decade of the 21st century would commit to live/practice what the prince of peace demonstrated and taught us by his own life? in both the tanak and the qur'an, shalom-salam means harmony with god, harmony with our being, harmony with others, and harmony with god's creation. today, in the midst of a terrorized world, exacerbated by george bush's so-called "war against terror" (supported and theologized by many right wing conservative christians), those of us who profess to follow jesus christ must have spiritual discernment not to advance western imperialism with a jesus-label.
we're a community of followers of jesus christ working among muslims as peacebuilders. no secret evangelism. no deceptive missionary strategies. just simple people who honestly and transparently share jesus' love to our fellow humans who have been created in the image of god--our muslim neighbors whom we love dearly.
visit us at www.peacebuilderscommunity.org
Thanks for your comments Daniel (and box).
Certainly working for peace and reconciliation needs to be part of the church if Jesus is to be properly represented (whether this is among muslims or the broken homes and peace-less communities around us). And I like your focus on this being done in 'community'.
Any other thoughts?
Check out www.boiler-rooms.com - they seem to have some kind of flexible skeleton that might work well in Edinburgh.
Apparently it's been discussed for Edinburgh many times before but people felt like it could become ecclesio-narcisism. Some of them felt that simply serving as a loose network would be more effective and avoid the pitfalls of congregationalism. I'm still inclined to disagree.
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