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read the experts, but don't take them too seriously

Over on Steve Addison's blog (about movements) some down to earth thoughts from a church planter on the ground:

Mark’s been baffled that a lot of the “Emerging Church” reading he’s done isn’t working in practice. For instance, the idea that the “PostModern” generation isn’t interested by “attractional” church services. After twelve months of immersing himself in his community he’s discovered people can be confused by alternative models of church. They actually feel more comfortable with a traditional concept of church on a Sunday morning. Heresy.

So Mark decided to “suck it and see”. In addition to connecting in the community they began an informal church service every second week in a sports centre. People who have been hanging back from getting involved have started showing up.

Mark’s conclusion?

Read the experts. But don’t take them too seriously. Try a lot of stuff, see what God is doing and keep what works.

Here's the whole post.

posted by alexander @ 6:35 AM 2 comments

2 Comments:

I think we can all have a tendency to want something theoretical to apply in every context, and that just is never the case.

One of my big dreams though is to help people reimagine what church is. Church is so, so much more than a Sunday service and I want to establish something that provides multiple environments where people can connect with "church". One of those environments will at some point be a gathering, probably on a Sunday. But I would see that as one of many environments.

Mark is definitely right with his conclusion. We need to see what God is doing and do that. It can be very easy to be endlessly following new ideas rather than following the Spirit.

Thanks for posting!

By Sam Radford, at 11:30 AM

This post has been removed by a blog administrator.

By Sam Radford, at 11:34 AM

emerging church, emergent, simple church, house church, home church.

2 Comments:

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