Friday, August 31, 2007

Consumer Church

There is a nice bit of advice about house church/small group gatherings over at
The House Church Blog. In six short points he sums up what he has been learning about “church.” The first one struck me the hardest:

1. Relax. This is not a performance-oriented event. In our past church-life we gauged the value of our gatherings by how “good” the church-event was. We have grown past that. Our church-life, now, is about being the church everyday, living a 24/7 lifestyle, and about being part of a community of people whom we love and share life with. We don’t look to the gathering to be the “big event” that will make up for our own lack of relationship with God. So, we can relax and enjoy whatever God does in our midst.

<idle musing>
In our performance based society, it is refreshing to remember that God’s love for us is not based on what we do, but on who He is. I have been reading in second Isaiah lately with his heavy indictment of the idols and idol makers. One thing comes through very clearly: God is; the idols and the ones who make them are but a breath, at best.
</idle musing>

2 comments:

Jonathan Erdman said...

Very good.

Back to the simple church life: Love God, love your neighbor. Everyone else can have the Sunday morning talent show.

Joel Brueseke said...

Howdy... I'm really enjoying your blog. As one who has been growing in grace for over a dozen years and as one who has recently been looking intently into the simplicity of Christ and His church and in how we interact with one another, this is all very refreshing!