Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Why is Church a large group?

Over at The Heresy there is a post discussing why Church is consistently a large group as opposed to a small group setting. He uses the following analogy:

"Imagine a hotel that has guest rooms, conference and meeting space, a restaurant, and catering. Now imagine everyone gathering together once a week to hear a message from the General Manager on how to become a better employee. Picture it as staff people from the kitchen, front desk, sales, accounting, maintenance, catering all gathering together to hear an inspirational and informative lecture from their leader.

"Sounds like a colossal waste of time doesn’t it?"

He goes on to acknowledge the need for large gatherings, but not as the only form of meeting. Periodically it makes sense, but the vast majority of learning takes place in smaller groups and one-on-one.

<idle musing>
I like the analogy. In The Open Church, the author says that about 300 years on the way to the milennium, the wheels fell off the church. He is right, and the current sit, soak and spectate mentality of the church reflects the "wheel-less" church. That is not the church portrayed in the New Testament, and we need to recapture that if we expect Christianity to be taken seriously as a way of life. Flame away!
</idle musing>

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