Thinking Out Loud

Tonight at Mosaic, the faith community I'm part of, we're starting a series of conversations about the supernatural. I'm really interested to see how this conversation unfolds.

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Having an affair can be stressful because you never know if the other person involved is going to get attached to you. You just want to have an intimate encounter and nothing else. 

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Whenever we think about church, we tend to think about it in the form of a ‘what’ question. We ask ‘what is a church’?

But could this be part of the problem in our thinking about church today? We are trying to define church based on the wrong question. Somebody asks us what a church is and that immediately frames how we will respond.

We talk about what the church does rather than who the church is.

Most people who have been around church for a while would probably give mental assent to the idea that church is about the people. And yet, everything we actually focus on tends to be about what the church does.

How can we move from the place of giving mental assent to the idea of church being the people to actually being and doing church in such a way that embodies that truth?

What would it look like to talk about the church in human terms rather than functional ones?

How would that change our own thinking about church and what others perceive church to be?

*This is actually a repost from The Future Now from around a year ago.

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I've decided to the rename this blog. I've used 'The Future Now' in various forms for a while now but have decided it's time for a change.

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I've never really done Lent. Well, I kinda did last year and had one day a week when I didn't do social media. But, to be honest, my thoughts about Lent have been very similar to my thoughts about New Years resolutions: if something is worth doing, you should do it anyway.

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Just as it was written by those prophets of old, the last days of the Earth overflowed with suffering and pain. In those dark days a huge pale horse rode through the earth with Death upon its back and Hell in its wake. During this great tribulation the Earth was scorched with the fires of war, rivers ran red with blood, the soil withheld its fruit and disease descended like a mist. One by one all the nations of the Earth were brought to their knees.

Far from all the suffering, high up in the heavenly realm, God watched the events unfold with a heavy heart. An ominous silence had descended upon heaven as the angels witnessed the Earth being plunged into darkness and despair. But this could only continue for so long for, at a designated time, God stood upright, breathed deeply and addressed the angels,

“The time has now come for me to separate the sheep from the goats, the healthy wheat from the inedible chaff”

Having spoken these words God slowly turned to face the world and called forth to the church with a booming voice,

“Rise up and ascend to heaven all of you who have who have sought to escape the horrors of this world by sheltering beneath my wing. Come to me all who have turned from this suffering world by calling out ‘Lord, Lord’”.

In an instant millions where caught up in the clouds and ascended into the heavenly realm. Leaving the suffering world behind them.

Once this great rapture had taken place God paused for a moment and then addressed the angels, saying,

“It is done, I have separated the people born of my spirit from those who have turned from me. It is time now for us leave this place and take up residence in the Earth, for it is there that we shall find our people. The ones who would forsake heaven in order to serve the earth. The few who would turn away from eternity itself to serve at the feet of a fragile, broken life that passes from existence in but an instant”.

And so it was that God and the heavenly host left that place to dwell among those who had rooted themselves upon the earth. Quietly supporting the ones who had forsaken God for the world and thus who bore the mark of God. The few who had discovered heaven in the very act of forsaking it. 

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I love this from Genesis 18:

13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.”

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I read the below comments this morning from 'An Orthodox Heresy' by Peter Rollins:

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I'm browsing through the introduction to a Christmas book called 'Awakening The Heroes Within'. I loved this quote that jumped out at me:

"Many of us try to achieve a big life by amassing material possessions, or achievements, or property, or experiences, but this never works. We can have big lives only if we are willing to become big ourselves and, in the process, give up the illusion of powerlessness and take responsibility for our lives."

I though this was a relevant reminder this Christmas.

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My good friend Lon Wong has taken the initiative and got several of us who are dads with daughters to do a group blog. We're going to all take a different chapter from the book 'Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters' by Meg Meeker and blog about it.

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