yes, I do indeed love the Church
“Isn’t the church worth the effort?”
Have any of you revolutionaries ever heard this when you’re talking about problems you see in the “establishment” and people are usually trying to get you to shut up and behave?
Here’s my response - - the church is worth MORE. The Church deserves MORE. I love Christ’s Body - - LOVE HER. I love her too much to see her self destruct, to allow her to become obsolete, to stand by while she prostitutes herself to the demands of being more attractive, more organized, more more more….
Subversive? Yes, so was Christ. So if I can count myself among the saints throughout the decades and even Christ himself then I consider myself blessed.
__________________________
**by the way, I acknowledge that every church has a right to be who they are and function the way they determine themselves to function without a minority causing problems at every turn. I don’t expect systems to bend to my desire to change or even adapt to my ideas. I think what I’m trying to share is my feelings regarding why some of us need to step away from these establishments and that we’d like to be able to do so without being accused of giving up, quitting, being rebellious or otherwise subverting the universal Church itself.
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Well said…!
yes, very well said
thanks y’all
Mak, great reflection here. I have so often been accused of ‘not loving the church.’ Nothing could be further from the truth! I am totally dedicated to the church. But I usually answer with a question “does god love the Church?” And the obvious answer is “?Yes. Of course” Well then, it seems that he loves it too much to leve it where it is. this is called santification, and it involves relentless change! Nothing new here. I guess the religious dudes in Jesus day would have said their own version of that.
hehe…yeah, no doubt about that. It’s probably a bit sanctimonious to suggest that I feel like Jesus sometimes in that regard, but I do.
I think the problem for me is I say the church but i often mean my church - i need to step back and see that my love affair with the church i like whilst good needs to be balanced with a love affair for all the church in all its forms with all the weird people in it like me :).
Hmmm that would be a Jesus like perspective. Somone once told me that they got so frustrated with church that they kept asking God about it - eventually the felt they got the answer to their Q, a picture of them as a sheep way out ahead of the flock, running around exploring and coming back to the flock. way back in the middle of the flock was the shepard with the fat sheep, the old sheep, the pregnant sheep, the new sheep etc. Whilst it was great that this person was a sheep created to run on ahead and come back and tell people what she experienced and found, it was also a reminder that not everyone travels at the same pace - to go her speed there would be a trail of exhausted dead sheep and that sometimes being slowed down gave her time to think and maybe realise where she wanted to go wasn’t quite so good or that there was something even better beyond etc…
I like those images cos i guess i often get frustrated and forget that whilst i am wired one which is all good, not everyone else is, which is very good too come to think of it
Ah well that is why it is sooo good that there are so many flavours/colours of church that are lighting and flavouring the world…
The world and the church and me need your subversive stylings Mak
absolutely - - all are needed. I have a parable in my head that is along the lines of that sheep analogy. I’m working on it at the moment.
I would caution though, that while “flavors” are interesting, it doesn’t mean ALL of them are good. And it also doesn’t mean that all of them should stop on the journey and settle for who they are at the moment either…ya know? So while I can appreciate certain “flavors” that doesn’t mean I think all of them are functioning well. I can appreciate my leg even when it’s broken but I certainly wouldn’t want it to stay that way
absolutely Mak, the analogy does have its limits
I think the trouble for me is that i often decide when someone else’s leg is broken and still want them to walk on it just as fast as me with my healthy two legs - when maybe i should practice more patience or something.
I think there must be a great David post here on the smells/flavours of church
right, but we’re not separate bodies - - we’re all one body.
so there is no “someone else’s leg”, there is only 1 leg in the universal body…at least in this analogy.
patience yes, ignorance no.
both our perspectives are good and needed but neither can exist alone.