Too much emphasis on "church"

Once again the great comments from others (this time on my last post, What people are saying about "church") have led to another blog post!

Alvin's (Walking Church) comments, as well as Aida's follow-up, were similar to what I had in mind when I commented on Aida's Jesus is building His church post, but I lost track of my thoughts and didn't say it. Basically: I think it's true that for some people, especially today's younger generation, phoniness and dung (more specifically, that found in "church") can be smelled a mile away.

My only hope is that people who sense all of that stuff will not have been so turned off by "church" that they decide "to heck with it all," but rather that they would sort through it all, by the Holy Spirit, with a true desire to be a part of a true, living, vibrant community. Along with what Alvin says on his Blogger profile, I hope they don't throw out the gospel with the bath water.

I truly do think the internet is playing a huge part in connecting people together. Well, I don't 'think' it, I know it! I'm part of it, along with all of you. Not that a "gathering together" on the internet through websites, blogs, forums, etc, is the be-all-end-all by any means - but neither is a local gathering! In fact it's to the contrary, isn't it? (Please bear with me, as during the past year or two I've been sorting out all kinds of new thoughts. Well, some of them are new thoughts and some of them are thoughts I've had for a long time but I'm finally beginning to see them become more than thoughts).

On Alan Knox's "Assembling" blog, he wrote a post called "Gathering suggests dispersal," in which he suggests, in a nutshell, that "a gathering or an assembly, by its nature, suggests a dispersal." He goes on to say, "The people of God gather because, in general, they are not assembled - they are dispersed." Read the full post to see how Alan defines "church," as well as to get his thoughts on the purpose of the gathering, and even more importantly, the dispersal. (I should have included this as a link on my last post).

In our modern church culture we seem to focus too much on the gathering, in my opinion. The "worship," the service, the sermon, the programs. "Bring people HERE, to this place - to 'our church,' and we'll get 'em saved, delivered and healed."

The gathering is important, and it's not that a traditional church service can't include any of this! Man, I've seen a LOT of great, true, genuine LIFE happen in church services. In other words, I've seen Jesus express His life in other people and I've seen Jesus express His life through me, all within the context of a "church service" and through various "church programs."

But we place so much emphasis on the structure and timing of the gathering, and on planning what happens during the gathering, and on who's in charge during the gathering, and in finding our place to "serve" within the organized church structure, and in essentially making our gathering into a performance or a show, that I think we lose sight of true worship, true service, true community, true discipleship - all of which can and does happen outside of the context of an organized church / church structure.

The building of the church (the people of God) can be done without the building and the church (system, building, programs). It can be and is done anytime Jesus is the Life and Director and Pastor of whatever He is doing in His church!

I don't mean at all to knock legitimate fellowship and community that is taking place in traditional churches. Even 'contemporary' traditional churches. :) Jesus is alive and well wherever He is alive and well! My hope, if anything, is to point out how we seem to have become so focused and dependent upon man-made programs and systems (however well-intentioned), and we've complacently called that "church," and have lost who we truly are as a widespread body with a much larger mission than gathering, and recruiting people into our gathering, and having a great "gathering experience."

I'd say we're a body that much more resembles a starfish than a spider. :)

Tradition

I got a kick out of this pic I found over at on coffee.