Is the church dead?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0310/p09s01-coop.html

I found this article interesting.  I want to disagree with it completely but as I read it I just have to take many of his comments to heart.  What do you think?

Why I'm afraid of Jesus Christ's return

What?  I was raised that you are supposed to wish for Christ's return to this earth, you know Revelations and everything.  It's a good thing right?  Rapture, Jesus rules the planet and once and for all defeats Satan.  I hear all about it and am supposed to be ready for it and excited about it...

I'm Not!

Here is the problem as I see it.  A little over 2000 years ago there was a belief that a Messiah would come.  He was, they felt going to crush all the opponents they had.  He was going to rule the world and begin a Golden Age for God's people.  That's not how it happened!  That's my problem.  God absolutely fulfilled his promises.  He did what he said-- it was just that his followers didn't understand what he said.

So now go forward a few thousand years and here we are.  We believe Jesus will return and that he is going to crush all our opponents and that we will begin a new era with him in Heaven as he will now rule the Heavens and the Earth.  We read it in the scriptures, we understand it and we know what it says.  But my problem is will it really happen that way?

The real problem to me isn't whether it happens the way I think it's going to happen or not.  Basically I believe God is in charge and he can do it however he wants to do it and when all is said and done it will be clear that God absolutely fulfilled his promises... to me and to everyone else.  It doesn't matter one bit if it happens the way I believed it would happen.  I know that what does happen will be God's will and that it will be right and good.  The real problem is if I am alive when this happens will I recognize it?  That is critical to me.  When Jesus came most of the people that studied the scriptures and were sure they knew what was going to happen were wrong.  But there were some who were open to God's Will and recognized it when it did happen.  There were some very important guys who recognized it when they saw it and made the correct choice.  These people didn't say it HAD to be a certain way.

Making the correct choices every step of the way and finishing up this life having made the correct choices is key.  I hope I will recognize God when I see him and recognize his work as it is done!  I hope I don't have my mind made up that he will come as a King and rule and not be able to recognize him has a child or even as a baby.  I sure hope I make the right choices because if I know anything they probably won't be as easy as they seem.

Technorati Tags: Jesus return,Revelations,Rapture

What's with Love

LOVE...

It is not everything but it is the most important thing.  Love should be my most important asset.  It's not tax deductible but luckily it isn't taxable at all either.  Love doesn't cost any money but it will cost everything else.  Love will get you through every challenge.  True Love that is! 

What!  There is Love that isn't TRUE?  Yes, that which is evil in the world wants to dilute the power of Love.  At times Love is even redefined.  We say making Love which is really just Sex.  Sex does not equal Love... but it can be a great expression of Love.  It often is just something physical, which Love is not.  You can express Love by cleaning the house or washing the car but those aren't Love.  Love can be created without any of that.

Love is not what you feel for Ice Cream or Chocolate.  That is a dilution of Love.  Love is only between spiritual beings.  Spiritual beings don't have to feel love they can feel a diluted form or they can feel lust or they can feel indifference.

Love will sacrifice but it will also be greatly rewarded.  You can't even count the wealth generated by true Love.  If you have it you value it dearly. 

Love is created from nothing.  It doesn't seem to come from anywhere, there is no formulae for it and it is not on the Periodic Chart of Elements (Lv).  Since Love is created from nothing there is nothing to kill, it can not die.  Love will endure.  With Love--- you will endure. 

You need Love.  If you don't have Love life is pointless.  Because of this seek Love.  You can find Love anywhere on this earth it is all around.  It isn't flashy however and if you are not careful you can miss it.  Look harder!!!  You can find it.  If you do find some keep looking, you aren't done yet.  There is more Love.  Always more Love to find.  Even when you have tons there is more.  Keep searching, Keep trying, get so much that you have to give some of it away because of the abundance.

Repeat Process. 

What does a church look like?

This is something I have been thinking about for a while.  I've got a number of ideas on the subject:

• The Non-Church Church.
• The Late Night Church
• Multi-site Churches, they are all the rage but how are they different from a denomination?
• Church on the Internet
• Convenience Store Churches

These are some of the ideas I have had in a cute title and maybe I'll write some of these as well.  For now I want to ask what is a church?  There are many groups that call themselves churches.  The church I believe is undergoing come cultural changes and will continue to do so in order to make itself reach more people.

But many churches today all have a certain look.  They have a building or more than one building.  These buildings are all on a piece of property or sometimes more than one piece.  People drive or walk to the building come in to a large auditorium, they sing songs, listen to somebody speak and maybe... hopefully talk to a few people on the way back home.  People with many different beliefs all do the same thing.  You could walk in and participate and often it would take a while or maybe even weeks before you realize a church believes different than you do, or different than the last church you went to.

So would Peter or Paul walk into a church today and say, "this feels like church"?  Seems to me the way the church has become is far, far different than what their experience was.  Church has adapted to culture as well as enjoyed success.  The churches that are started in somebody's living room may feel more normal to the old Apostles.  Could also be that the Bible Studies that meet at coffee shops or restaurants or in a park would seem more "normal" for the experience of a couple thousand years ago. 

Even though many of us attend the modern church there are churches that meet on the beaches of Hawaii and Mexico.  There are churches that meet in movie theaters. 

So how far can you push the IDEA of church and have it still be ok?  Can you leave out the worship service?  Could you for that matter leave out the sermon and add a video sit-com?  Could you leave out the offering but charge admission?  Does a church have to operate as a Non-profit organization?  I've got some ideas but I hope to hear others. 

What does church LOOK like?

True Friend Disease

Last night we were driving into Seattle to take my daughter to her Aunt and Uncle's so she could do child sitting for her cousins, they are much younger than she.  We were driving across the 520 bridge and looking out over Lake Washington.  It was after 8pm which this time of the year up here is when the sun is beginning to go down on the horizon.  It is the time of the evening we call Twilight.  It is not only beautiful but it is also an emotional and maybe even a spiritual boost to experience a twilight like this.

I have a great friend that I have known since Jr. High (which is a long time).  He has often proclaimed, "twilight is my favorite time of the day".  I agree with him whole-heartedly.  And for some reason at that time of the day I think of him.  I think his love of that time of the day has rubbed off on me.  A true friend will do that to you.  Their likes become your likes.  Because of the deep relationship that you build and the respect you have for them you begin to see things from their perspective.

Maybe twilight is just a universally wonderful time of the day but I would like to think that it is special to me because it is special to my friend.  I believe that a good friend changes who you are... and that's a good thing.

Could you spread the "Good News" without a Bible?

I've been meaning to write about this for a while.  I asked a number of people the question.  This is kind of a series I'm doing on mixing or messing things up.  I have a number of different thoughts on this topic but the question that sums it all up for me is that "Could you spread the 'Good News' without a Bible?"

Why would you want to?  You may ask.  After all the Bible is a pretty amazing book.  There are a number of ways to look at this book.  Most of Christianity considers it basically a Love Letter from God.  In this Love Letter God spells out all the "realities" of our personalities.  He acknowledges that we are not at all perfect and yet he still LOVES us and will always do so no matter what.  In addition he also LOVES the person next to you so you may as well treat them with some respect.  There is a lot more in it than that of course but if you view it through that lens you would be doing well... I Believe!

Even if you take a colder approach to the Bible and say that it is simply a collection of Letters, Songs, Historical Docs written by multiple authors over the course of thousands of years and that God has not particularly inspired these words it would still be a pretty amazing Book.  The true Cynic would say that the whole thing was written by some early church fathers after Constantine made Christianity the State Religion.  Even if that were true which is pretty difficult to support at least on the Old Testament side, it would still be a pretty amazing book to still be in circulation and to have fooled so many people for so long.

So hopefully you accept that this is a unique book in all of history?

The point I'm making is if we are trying to witness or share Good News with people they don't necessarily accept this book with the same authority that we do.  It would be like trying to prove the Law of Gravity with a textbook written by ME.  Well ok not quite that bad but still you will find people that know the passages of scripture better than you do but don't hold it in the same regard.  If that is true they probably have a better argument against believing than you do for believing. 

Now there are the other kind of people that know nothing about the Bible.  Even in churches you will find very few people that actually read or have ever read the Bible.  They just don't.  I went to what we commonly call a "Bible School" for college and even in that crowd I found few people that had read the book from cover-to-cover, every begat and all.  Only a few people read the Bible!  It's sad really but true.  So what are we proving when we learn 4 or 5 scriptures to throw at somebody to prove that they are going to hell unless they follow steps 2, 3 and 4!!

Read the Bible, Memorize the scriptures, let them influence and change your life--  But share the change that a certain Love Affair has made in YOUR own life and I believe that is more powerful.  Sure have a scripture in mind when you are talking to somebody but don't quote it or throw in Thee's and Thou's accidentally.  Tell people your story... then once the Affair has started for them hopefully they will want to read the Love Letters.  Turn away from being an Ugly Christian to a person who is beaming the effects of that Love on your face.  That will attract people and that will hopefully start a more earnest desire to read this Book we call the Bible.

Progress - when life goes by too fast

Well I'm sitting here and thinking boy it's been a long time since I have written a post for this blog.  Sure it's because -- I've been busy.  So what!  Life is busy for everyone. 

So I was thinking what should I write about?  After such a delay!  I came up with Progress.  I should probably look up the definition but I'm thinking of progress as "accomplishing what I wish to accomplish".  So have I? 

Well I know for a fact from many years of experience that if I keep on a routine each day but only do maintenance I'm not going to see much change.

Example... hum I'm thinking.

Ok so let's say I have a goal in my back yard to have a swimming pool.  So every week I wake up on Saturday and go outside and mow the lawn and weed the gardens and blow the lawn debree off the deck.  This is all a stretch because I rent and so therefore I could never build a swimming pool in the backyard and anything other than portable would be dumb.  Also I definitely don't wake up each Saturday ready to mow and weed, etc.  The point is that if I don't make any progress toward the pool it ain't going to happen.  Now the yard would look nice it doesn't from mowing etc but the pool won't just magically appear.  Does that make sense?

I hope it does make sense, but the point is that certainly it's easy to see that the pool isn't going to ever get built if I don't start digging and then take the next step of whatever it takes to build a pool.  Likewise if I have a desire to be a better Christian but don't pray, read Bible, fellowship with others, etc. it ain't going to happen.  In case you were wondering this is going to be an ouch for me as I do about as well on those tasks as on getting up every Saturday morn to mow the lawn, why would I be surprised about how my spiritual lawn looks?

I actually wish to improve my abilities in written communication.  Why?  Well because I want to communicate better.  I actually have a hope that I can become more efficient by being a better writer.  I believe I can help other people through writing and I believe I can enhance the businesses my customers own by giving them good stuff to read.  Sure I want to do a nice job of talking too but I've spent a lot of time talking on the phone, teaching computer classes, etc.  I wouldn't say I'm good at speaking yet - and I'm still working on that also, but I have the desire to write.  One motivation for this is email.  That's right I have sent and received email that was not received the way it was intended.  I have thought somebody was upset when they weren't and probably have thought they were fine when I should be picking up on more.  Written word is tough to interpret but those who write well seem to do better than most.  I'm sure they are mis-understood as well but they are better.  You can't see a persons face when they write so the writing has to get the point across on it's own.

How does this relate?  I think it's guilt.  I want to be a better writer and yet I get busy and neglect an opportunity to explore my writing in this blog for a long period of time.  I'm sorry.  I don't know if I will get any better because life does go by fast but I do realize that if I don't I'll never swim the the cool water of the literary stream.