Emerging Grace Chronicles: III
2. Emerging Grace asked: "Or is that not realistic considering our culture and the natural tendency to organize and institutionalize?"
This can happen in house churches just as easily. I've seen it happen, and it's been sad but funny to hear them rail against the "institutional church" while acting just like it in a living room.
As much as everyone is really sick and tired of Prayer of Jabez, the author (Bruce Wilkinson) had an insightful teaching back in the late 80's where he talked about "three chairs" -- meaning generations: the first generation knew God first-hand, the second heard the stories and accepted them as true, but the third generation didn't even believe the stories and tended to walk away unless there was some miraculous intervention.
Bruce's point was that we inevitably all become "third chair" persons, even within our own generation; we get too familiar, jaded, and develop a "been there, done that" attitude towards even the things of God, let alone the church.
I would agree with Bruce that we can choose which chair we sit in; it's not unlike the parable of the four soils in Luke 8:4-15, which is usually understood as an explanation of why not everyone responds to the Gospel, but which can also represent the possibility that we can also choose our soil condition (because it can change during our lifetime, for good or ill).
If we see being "organized" as evil, then we will live in the tyranny of fear of being organized; God-given gifts of leadership will be stifled, and even the prophetic edge that some house churches have will be throttled by the new "glorious post-evangelical status quo" (to paraphrase Bob Girard).
So, any organized or unorganized gathering of Christians can either be healthy and vibrant, embittered and toxic, or -- the real danger is here -- a stagnant post-modern status quo that could result in us hearing from Jesus, "You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead." (Revelation 3:1)
It will depend a great deal on the heart attitude -- soil condition, or chair -- of the people involved. We will have to learn how to function on the edge of chaos, probably more than we'll be comfortable with, but we'll also likely resemble the followers of Jesus that He referred to in the Gospel of John: "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." (John 3:8)
This can happen in house churches just as easily. I've seen it happen, and it's been sad but funny to hear them rail against the "institutional church" while acting just like it in a living room.
As much as everyone is really sick and tired of Prayer of Jabez, the author (Bruce Wilkinson) had an insightful teaching back in the late 80's where he talked about "three chairs" -- meaning generations: the first generation knew God first-hand, the second heard the stories and accepted them as true, but the third generation didn't even believe the stories and tended to walk away unless there was some miraculous intervention.
Bruce's point was that we inevitably all become "third chair" persons, even within our own generation; we get too familiar, jaded, and develop a "been there, done that" attitude towards even the things of God, let alone the church.
I would agree with Bruce that we can choose which chair we sit in; it's not unlike the parable of the four soils in Luke 8:4-15, which is usually understood as an explanation of why not everyone responds to the Gospel, but which can also represent the possibility that we can also choose our soil condition (because it can change during our lifetime, for good or ill).
If we see being "organized" as evil, then we will live in the tyranny of fear of being organized; God-given gifts of leadership will be stifled, and even the prophetic edge that some house churches have will be throttled by the new "glorious post-evangelical status quo" (to paraphrase Bob Girard).
So, any organized or unorganized gathering of Christians can either be healthy and vibrant, embittered and toxic, or -- the real danger is here -- a stagnant post-modern status quo that could result in us hearing from Jesus, "You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead." (Revelation 3:1)
It will depend a great deal on the heart attitude -- soil condition, or chair -- of the people involved. We will have to learn how to function on the edge of chaos, probably more than we'll be comfortable with, but we'll also likely resemble the followers of Jesus that He referred to in the Gospel of John: "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." (John 3:8)
posted by Robbymac at
12:09 PM
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