CommonSense EveryDay Church

I was just reading Brian McLaren's website Deep Shift, with info about his EverythingMustChange tour.

Good stuff. Well, good stuff if you like change. If you like considering things deeply.

I do.

Our church is about to head into a deep shift. Here are a few of my untested, early articulated thoughts on church.........feel free to challenge or take me further along the road........

I dream of a church that comes together to worship and to be inspired........and then heads out into the community to "be". Not so much "do". There is doing in the being, but the primary work is to seize the who of who we are and then live it. Called to be a computer geek? Then do it with high standards, integrity, fairness. Called to work at a seminary? Then do it with high standards, integrity, sacred space. Called to teach? Teach well, grow your students. Called to do acupuncture? Then do it with a heart for the poor, the sick and not the bottom line. Called to work somewhere? Work well, be on time, demonstrate honesty and trustworthiness. Called to be a high school student who lives differently than your peers? Do it with style. Let others take note.

Our evangelism then comes when those we work with, impact and encounter say "Wow, you're different". Then we can explain why. We can then explain that we live another way, peacefully simply and together. That we are not into the behaviors of gossip, slander and hate..........that we revel in forgiving and being forgiven.....that while imperfect, we strive to be more attuned to the Holy.......that God is our center and reason for all things.

A church can have a soup kitchen, can have youth clubs, can women's fellowships: but if it isn't a common sense everyday church, it is nothing. Each one of us can evaluate the church programming to see if it is what the church needs to be. New paradigm, old paradigm......doesn't matter. As long as the church (local) is what God has called into being.

asgr