Before i start into my next blog i want to start with a quote from the Brian McLaren book im reading, i will being this alot more while writing more blogs.
Tell me what you like and dont like about it, and also if it means anything to you.
"When any sector of the church stops learning, God simply overflows the structers that are in the way and works outside them with those willing to learn. As the old hymn says, God's truth keeps marching on. God can't be contained by the structers that claim to serve him but often try to mangae and control him.
But then, as soon as the center of gravity shifts and those within the structures are ready to learn again, the Holy Spirit is there, ready to move to the next lesson in the ongoing educational process called history. Again and again through history, although we want to create "right people" and "wrong people" columns into which groups are sorted. God flips the script and sees two rows that cut across both columns: the "proud and unteachable people" row on top and the "humble and teachable people" row on the bottom. Grace flows downward, Scripture tells us, in both columns."
My thoughts on this -
These couple of paragraphs got my mind working in overtime which is pretty darn good for my mind as it is usually is in sleep mode most of the time, but i look at the church today and wee have become very one mind in our thinking and translating of the Word.
There is alot of people who want to learn in church, including me, but we feel that what we are being taught is not teaching us the truth!
Are the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And the ways to grow spirtually strong, through ways of Contemplative Prayer.
The Modern Church is growing, i see that with the church that i am in, Richhill Presbyterian. The numbers of people is amazing, well in the mornings anyway.
But sometime it would be awesome to ask these people......Way do you come? What are you expecting to see and hear and do? Are you a Believer and Follower?
And if they answer no for the last one! You could go deeper and find out why not?
They might hate the Rules and Tradition......which i could foresee as a great chat with them..cuase i can agree with them..
ok on to my next quote -
" I find this delightful, because it tells the traditionalists that their tradition doesn't protect them from losing their way, and it tells the revoultionaries that their zeal and courage don't provide guarantees either. It calls everyone to humility and teachability,and invites everyone to climb up to a higher altitude and look for the larger pattern of God for which God constantly works-the common good.
And this, of course, is essential to finding our way. Practices are not for know-it-alls. Practices are for those who feel the need for change, growth, development, learning. Practices are for disciples. We could say that rituals are practices of learners, and ritualism is the continuation of the practice by people who have stopped learning. Similary, we could say that traditions are the heritage of a community of learners, and traditionalism is the continuation of the heritage by people who have stopped learning."
My thoughts -
I wonder if the church in Northern Ireland will ever see past their traditions and open the doors instead of having strict ideas on what you should and should not wear to church, or the ideas on what you should drink and should not drink (im talking about beer, wine etc).
There is alot of people out there in the vast crazyness of life looking to learn more about God, prayer, bible, followship, growth, peace, faith etc.....
But is the chruch ready to move forward?
one more last quote for tonight -
"The life-and-death question for each of our churchs and denominations may boil down to this: are we a club for the elite who pretend to have arrived or a school for disciples who are still on the way?
What might happen if we experienced a conversion so that our churches became learning communities, schools of Christian practice, bands of disciple once again? How much are we willing to let go of, to let change, in order for us to leave our comfortable status quo and find our way again?"
MY last few words -
May God helps our Churches become a place of learning, a place of practice and a band of Disicples wanting to learn about God.
May we stop being a strict sect following man-made agendas....may we follow Gods Sons Mission plan...
Mat 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Mat 28:20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
blessings
Robert
all quotes from Brain Mclarens book Finding our way again....
bible quotes from the esv bible
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