Exciting Times!!
What an exciting year! Christy and I have been struggling so much with institutionalized Christianity, the role of clergy, and attitudes of the general Christian population but have come to peace with much of that this year.
- We’ve seen that “the church” (with little “c”) is largely ineffective in fulfilling the mission of Christ. “the church” tends to perpetuate apathy toward non-believers, it often creates an atmosphere of “in” or “out”, and almost forces people to go through 2 conversions. The 1st conversion in Christ is essential, but the 2nd conversion to “the church” is not.
- We’ve come to see that a movement of Christ followers is not going to happen under the umbrella of paid clergy. Paid clergy is not bad, but aren’t these men and women often placed on an unattainable pedestal? Shouldn’t the paid clergy be equippers, leaders, encouragers, and spiritual coaches to believers instead of the religious point people?
- The attitudes of the general Christian population are that of “feed me” and “give me something new and exciting in worship”. I’m wondering about this trend. Are the ones who are living out what Christ commanded more concerned about themselves or are they trying to apply the last principle they learned? (Rhetorical!)