Wait a minute...

OK, so perhaps my previous post was a little cheeky…


Might I propose something a little more reasoned… a little more…

I am convinced that it is important, healthy, necessary, critical and Biblical for every believer to live as a part of a community of believers that gathers together on a regular basis to:

• do the “one another” stuff spoken of so much in the epistles (do a “one another” word search to see what I mean) - Stuff like challenging, exhorting, building, loving, crying with, teaching, being taught, living grace, etc. These things cannot happen apart from bumping shoulders with others.

• wrestle with what God is saying to them, how to interpret it and how it needs to be applied to their living. I don’t mean this as the intensely personal, subjective exercise that takes place in our “prayer closet” I mean the community needs to hear God speak to them as community.

• to faithfully respond to God’s work in their “living together”… what God is doing in their lives individually, their families, and their community. To respond to God’s character, promises and works past, present and future.

• to remind each other of God’s work of salvation in Christ Jesus and God’s works past and present…

…I’m beginning to believe that ritual is an important part of this community-living and I increasingly convinced that done right this regular gathering is what the scriptures describe as “Sabbath”

Both loaded statements in the circles that shaped me I know what are blogs for if not to be a little controversial from time to time.

The reality is that there are many “churches” that fail to accomplish this… some fail in most of this… most fail in all of this to some degree.

While I personally remain committed to the Body of Christ (big “C” Church) – I struggle with the organized gathering commonly referred to as church (notice the small “c”). Unfortunately, many believers continue to equate the “church” with the “Church”

The church is a culturally rooted, human attempt to create a structure, an organization… a methodology to consistently produce the work (ministry?) of the Body of Christ (big “C” Church).

That is, we say, “This is what the Church is supposed to be accomplishing! Here is a method, program, organization which will consistently produce these results.”

The problem is every human-made structure has a limited life expectancy. Everything that we create… eventually de-creates… dies, crumbles, stops being effective.

The Church (Body of Christ) is God’s plan… the visible representation of Christ in our communities, schools, workplaces… God has left no Plan B for the Church.

I am committed to Body of Christ, it’s work and… I was going to say “effectiveness” but the beauty of the Body of Christ (Church) is that it’s effectiveness does not depend or rely on me! Which is a great relief because lately I’ve been feeling guilty.

See, I told a couple of friends quite recently that if I had the time, energy and resources I would probably look at investing in… or developing the kind of community that I believe the Church is called to be. Going so far as to say that every believer has the responsibility to invest in the development of, the strengthening of, the health of Body-of-Christ Community… I am responsible to find a healthy church…

Wrong… I am responsible to BE Church… as are you. And if enough of us “BE” we end up (by the power of the Spirit who indwells each of us) finding ourselves participating in communities which do Body of Christ works:

• Hearing God…

• Responding to God

• Building, exhorting, challenging, serving, etc. one another

• Remembering God’s promises, character and works past present and future…

That we would probably find ourselves doing them in some sort of life-rhythm which some might describe as ritual and we would find that in this community of “BE”-ers that we are refreshed, celebrated, rejuvenated… Sabbathed…



This is all just my 2c…

I’d love to hear yours.