I just realized that it’s been a long while since I’ve posted.
So sorry.
Some times I wonder if anyone is reading this thing. If you are you are a very silent crowd. Maybe you’re just good at listening. Anyway, in regards to that actually I was responding to a couple of comments that made me realize I hadn’t posted for a while.
Well I’m still reading Company of the Committed. The book is the size of a Cliff’s Notes booklet but I’m a pretty sporadic reader.
A couple more quotes:
“The radical difference between the Church and most human organizations is so important that unless it is truly understood our chance for renewal of vitality is slight indeed. Though it is sad that people fail to respond to public worship wit the enthusiasm and devotion which they evince at basketball games, the greater sadness lies in the fact that supposed Church members do not even understand the difference between the two kinds of relationship.”
“The crucial question today is not whether we must have a fellowship, for on that point we are reasonably clear; the crucial question concerns the character of the fellowship. The more we think about it the more we realize that it must be a fellowship of the committed. This is because mere belief is never enough.”
4 comments:
What is the difference between the two relationships? And if the two are different, why should not the response be different also?
Hey Anonymous,
Sorry it's been a while since I’ve responded.
That’s a good question. One that sparks thought on my part.
As to the first part of your question. The blatantly obvious answer as to the the differences between the two would be...well God. Essentially the question your asking is what is the difference between basketball (or the like event) and God since the idea of church in essence is a forum for worshipping God. Of course the answer depends on who you ask. Let’s say you consider God the greater impact point in your life. That leads to the second part of your post. Why should the responses be different if you believe the events are different?
In essence why shouldn’t your response to a goal made in a game be different than your response to seeing and experiencing God?
I’m not sure I fully know the answer to that. On the one hand maybe they should be slightly different. But then again I think we can say that people’s specific emotional expressions, whether it be joy, excitement, anger sadness etc. won’t change according to the event. When someone is happy or excited about something that point of excitement will effect their entire lives. If you’re happy that your favorite team won the Super Bowl then you’ll probably talk to people about it. The same is true of God.
I know that there is a serious lack of excitement surrounding the Sunday experience we have come to call Church. More specifically there is a lack of excitement surrounding many Christian’s relationship with God.
While there may be differences between the two events and thus the two responses, I think basically what Trueblood is saying is true. There is more life impacting excitement surrounding our sources of entertainment than our encounters with God.
Interesting. It seems to me the response to a basketball game or something similiar is about us and what we like (or what our friends like). Our relationship with God should be different. Shouldn't it be about Him and what He is? If that is true the responses probably will have few things in common. Certainly the underlying modivation is not the same.
I guess the way I see it is that they’re both about what we like. Just to a different degree. Us glorifying God should provide us with the ultimate satisfaction. John Piper talks about how God is the most satisfied with us when we are most satisfied in Him.
When we truly connect with who God is and what His love looks like for us it's then that we can truly begin the journey of finding true satisfaction and joy in our relationship with Him.
So ultimately we live out our lives in the light of glorifying God because that's were we experience the most joy/satisfaction. I think we try to fill that with so many other things. It's definitely not basketball for me. Maybe it's entertainment in general or other people for me. Those things aren't wrong but when they take away from out true purpose in our lives then they become very destructive.
So ultimately a basketball game and being in the presence of God are both about satisfaction. If you can climb on board with that then you can draw a correlation between the two responses.
Post a Comment