The Committed

I just finished "Present Future". Great book. As I have stated in previous posts it's giving what I've been struggling with for a while a voice. I was talking to Brett a month or so agop and as we talked we both felt like I was going through now what he had been through a while ago as far as our views of the church.

Well I picked up a book that was given to me from my old boss at my graduation 2 years ago and based on the highlighted sections I only made it through the first part of the book. This book is amazing. I forgot that I was wrestling with questions I had about the church at least 2 years ago and I think it has been longer than that. I don't know how I forgot about that struggle. It's weird. It's almost like a section of my spiritual life was snipped from memory for a while and now I've found it again. That probably sounds strange but there it is.

Anyway this book is amazing, not solely for it's content, but for the fact that it was published in 1961. I can't believe that people were beginning to struggle with the idea of the ineffective church model/mentaility that early on. And I'm sure the book is simply a product of what the author was struggling with for a good time before he wrote the book.

The auther is Elton Trueblood by the way and the book is entitled "The Company of the Committed".

Here are a few quotes from the book that stood out to me:

"Whether our religion is segregated from common life by being limited geographically (i.e. to a religious building ), or temporally (by undue emphasis on one hour a week, which is usually on Sunday morning), or limited in personnel (by assumption tht religion is the responsibility of a special professional class called clergy), the damaging effect is the same....The major danger of our contemporary religion, then, is that it makes small what ought to be large. By segregating religion in place or time or personnel, we make religion relatively trivial, concerned with only a part of experience when it ought to be concerned with the whole of life.”

“It is hard to exaggerate the degree to which the modern Church seems irrelevant to modern man. The Church is looked upon as something to be neither seriously fought nor seriously defended. A church building is welcomed, partly because it provides such a nice place for a family wedding; and, after all, most families expect weddings, sooner or later. A church is also a good place to send the children on Sunday morning—they might learn something helpful, and certainly the experience of being sent will do them no harm. The point is that such conceptions are wholly consistent with the idea that the Church has only marginal relevance. We do not expect, for the most part , to find the gospel centered in a burning conviction which will make men and women change occupations, go to the end of the earth, alter the practices of governments, redirect culture, and remake civilization.”

The Website

I'm finally done with it. It took forever but it's finally done...almost. I'm not sure all the art in there is final but this stuff will continually change. Check it out.

www.redpaint.nu

Complications

We live in a very complicated world. This is what I was thinking as I sat with a couple of friends in a coffee house downtown talking about politics, religion and everything in between. And there is a lot that falls in between those two...actually I think the gap is shrinking.


I think the answer to a complicated world is a simple faith. At least a faith that is built upon simple foundations.

I guess my question is why do we insist on making our faith so complicated? Is it a security blanket? Do we believe that this is the oppropriate response to a complicated world?

This can be seen in the rise of seminaries and spiritual training institutions across the country. Theology defense centers is what they really are. There isn't anything wrong with these places but I wonder if it's just another piece of evidence that argues the fact that we feel like we need to be prepared for the onslaught of complication this world is bound to bombard us with.

Our walk with God is intended to be simple. Deceptively so.

Thank You

Seeing how boxes of bathroom supplies are not standard items thought of when thinking of gifts of encouragement I can only assume that whoever dropped off the box of shampoo and such is a reader of this blog. Now I see myself as a fairly intelligent guy and so I think I can make some educated guesses as to who the individual(s) was who graced my front door step with this gift. But since this giver of fine gifts has chosen to remain anonymous I shall keep the veil of ambiguity intact and will simply say thank you to her and possible parties.

It was meaningful.

I say her because the card was decorated in such a way to leave me with only two assumptions. One the gift giver was a female or two the gift giver is a very flamboyant male with questionable orientation.

I choose to believe it was a female.

Clarification

Recently my boss sent me an email letting me know that he wants to address some of the thoughts I have posted on this blog. This was very interesting to me since I had no idea he knew about this blog. Which leads me to another thought, maybe this blog is read by a few more people than I thought.

For that reason I am left with the feeling that I need to clarify some of the things that I have written here that, if taken in the wrong way then the wrong impression and thus conclusions will be formed about me and my views of the church.

Simply put: I love the church. It is my family. The things that I have learned in the embrace of the Bride Of Christ have long since passed the point of explanation or expression. This is where I have learned how to love and am learning how to be loved. This is where the hands, the feet, the body and the face of Christ have been shown to me. This is the place where I have fallen in Love with God, have cried before God and sought forgiveness from God. This is where I am learning that faith requires more than a sweet word on your tongue and smile on your face. This is where I have learned that faith requires blood, sweat and tears and often times much pain. And this is the place where I have learned that that pain is only bearable through Christ and the loving embrace of his Bride the Church.

I realize that some of my posts seem really scathing and deconstructive in regards to the church. Know that my intent is not to sabotage, uproot or murder the church. I myself am part of the church. So first of all know that any negative remark made toward Christ’s bride are directed at me first.

As there are many negative things about the mentality of the church today there are so many positives. There are organizations out there who are doing amazing things that are furthering God’s kingdom in tremendous ways. Riverside among them. People are coming to know Christ as their personal savior through these ministries and it’s awesome to witness.

But when you see the church failing to do it’s job as a whole in impacting the culture that it’s surrounded by or even the people who attend the church gathering on Sunday morning you have to ask questions. That’s what I’m doing...asking questions. I don’t know the answers. I barely know what questions to ask. In doing so maybe I gave the impression that I’m questioning everything or worse attacking the church. Those are not my intentions.

I know that at the end of the day I need to be able to say that everything that I did today was done in love and with the desire to further God’s kingdom and not to break it down and cause disunity in the body of Christ.

To whoever sent Drew the link please know that if you have a question as to what is meant by a post you have the freedom to come to me directly and address any concerns or questions. You can even challenge me on an idea. I'm willing to admit I'm wrong but you'll have to show me in what way. Otherwise I’ll try and be more clear about the topic at hand in future posts.

One last word. Nothing here that is said about the church is a direct attack on Riverside Baptist Church. I really do love this church and there are many Godly people here who have amazing hearts. If anything I would say that Riverside does a better job of reaching out to people than most any other church I’ve been to. Then again this is my spiritual home and I have spent much time here. I’m sure there are plenty of other bodies that are taking huge steps in taking the gospel to the lost. Unfortunately it’s the parts of the body who are doing things in a poor way that draw my attention. I think that’s due to the fact that for so long I have assumed that the church is doing everything it is supposed to and in the way it was supposed to. Only now have I started to wonder whether the things we’re doing are effective or even biblically accurate. Thus this quest for truth naturally takes me down the path of close scrutiny of that which is questionable in my mind.

But I’m no scholar. I’m just an idiot with a keyboard. I’ll say things sometimes that maybe I shouldn’t. But I’m willing to take that risk if it means finding the answers to my questions. Just know that if I do realize that I have made a mistake I will try to correct it as soon as possible.

I don’t feel like I’ve made a mistake. But I do feel like I need to be careful to express accurately how I feel about the Bride of Christ.

I hope I have done that here.