My very short take on it all: God intends for us to live out our commitment to Him within the context of a church community, both visible and invisible. We cannot do without the web of relationships that comes from being a committed member of a church body, at least we cannot do very well.
Granted the church has its problems today, just as it always has, but what can we expect? The church is made up of people in desperate need of grace from God, and who continue to struggle to live how God desires even, and perhaps especially, after they join the community. We should not do away with hospitals because we find sick people there, that's the whole reason for the hospital. Healing sick people is not the only, or main, purpose of the church, but it is one of them, and God desires for that to happen first and foremost within His church.
Anyway, here's some links to stuff I've been reading that touches on these issues in one way or another. Would love to hear your thoughts!
Books:
The Shack, William P. Young
The Reason for God, Timothy Keller
Articles:
http://www.modernreformation.
2 comments:
i like your thinkage.
i wonder: for some, it's already difficult to be vulnerable because of life experiences, gender even.
and i wonder what kind of habitat, what kind of space a community can create that would make it feel safe to share.
are we always in a rush? flurry of activity? do we create time to "waste" on the Lord, together? to not let OUR schedules dictate what/where/how He could show up and move? do we have time for each other?
what would it be to experience the Lord and hear Him as a community?
and Chapter 10 of Dallas Willard's "Renovation of the Heart" talks about this, too, how spiritual formation is a social process...
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