so you don't want to go to church anymore?

Following on from the Wayne Jacobsen links below, this is a fun read which you can download for free or buy a hard copy. It is the story of an IC pastor - Jake Colsen and his transition from a works-based religion to a grace-based relational christianity outside of traditional church structures. He is helped on this often painful journey by a mysterious character called John who has a knack of bumping into Jake at key moments.

There's some excellent stuff in it; it fleshes out the teaching you can hear on the Transitions teaching mentioned in the last post. Here's a bit when Jake excitedly tells John of his plans to start a home church and is brought up short when John doesn't seem quite so enthusiastic.

“A few days after we last talked I got in touch with Ben Hopkins. He used to be my assistant in a home group I led before I got railroaded out of City Center. He’s discovered something called house church and has found a lot of information about it on the Internet. He and I are going to start one this weekend.”

“You are?” He seemed markedly less excited about this than I thought he would.

“Yes. Isn’t that where it all began? The early believers met in each other’s homes. They didn’t build huge organizations. They didn’t have a clergy to run everything. They simply shared community as brothers and sisters together. That’s what I’ve been looking for since I became a believer. I’ve always thought our view of church seemed to present more problems than it solved. This is the only answer I’ve ever heard that got me this excited. It seems there are thousands of people all around the world who have given up on our traditional congregations and are trying to rediscover life like the early church experienced it. Many are calling it a last-day move of God to purify his church.”

“And that will happen just by meeting in a home, will it?”

His seeming cynicism surprised me. “You don’t think so?”

“Don’t get me wrong, Jake. Finding more relational ways to share life with other believers is a marvelous direction to head. But just moving the meeting into a home will not accomplish all that you hope for.”

...“If this is another place for you to find your identity and to bury your shame by thinking you’ve got a better way to do it than anyone else, then you’re sating the same thirst, just from a different fountain. That’s what I hear when you call it a great move of God. You’re still talking like you’re a competitor with other brothers and sisters. You can’t love what you’re competing against and if you’re keeping score you can be sure you’re competing.”

“So we shouldn’t do it?”

“I didn’t say that, Jake. What I hope you’ll do is simply let God connect you with those brothers and sisters he wants you to walk with for now. Think less about ‘starting’ something, than just learning to share your life in God with others on a similar journey. Don’t feed off your need to be more right than others, then you’ll know more clearly what he is doing in you.”

posted by alexander @ 9:37 AM    0 comments

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