…where the “five purposes” are not just words on a banner
…brimming with life and growth and joy in the Holy Spirit
…where everyone knows—really knows—everyone else
…where love is shown to everyone in unmistakable ways
…that experiences a “we can’t wait to be with one another again” spirit
…where encouragement runs freely without being artificially forced
…that feels like a loving, normal, extended family
…where ordinary people do what needs to be done because they want to
…where worship happens spontaneously, rather than being scheduled
…that reaches people wherever they happen to be
…becoming more a sense of identity and purpose than a geographical location
…no longer obsessed with maintenance and stability, but transformation
…that gives 100% of its resources to benevolence, missions and social action
…where lives and homes and things are shared openly with one another
…where each person participates and shares their spiritual giftedness
…where the Christian faith is an authentic life experience, not just a system of belief
…that causes people to ask questions like, “What makes your life so different?”
…that creates thirst within others for the Living Water that only Jesus can give
—Bill Lollar—
Bill, you’ve got to stop posting so many good consecutive posts. I already have about 6 of your posts flagged, intending on blogging about them myself and writing on things you keep bringing up. I love the sources that you are quoting from, including this “Imagine…” post today.
Sorry, Guy. I’ve been a little infrequent in my blogging lately and, for some unexplainable reason, I began to recover my stride in the last few days. As you’ve probably noticed, I prefer writing longer posts with a few “quickies” thrown here and there; as a result, I bank a lot of my posts and work on them as I have time.
This particular post was inspired by reading Christian Smith’s book, Going to the Root: Nine Proposals for Radical Church Renewal (unfortunately it’s out of print and the author’s done a complete 180 degree turnaround from this particular gem).
I read “Going to the Root” several years ago and thought it was a great book. What do you mean the author’s done a complete 180 degree turnaround? I hadn’t heard.
Christian Smith is now occupying an endowed chair at Notre Dame as professor of sociology, as well as the director for the Center for the Study of Religion and Society. When I wrote him several months ago regarding permission to post excerpts from Going to the Root, he explained that, “I no longer subscribe to the theory of the Bible that underwrote all that, have come to believe that historical tradition is essential.” He’s now an Anglican, so the above statement sort of makes sense, considering his current academic post at ND. He describes his views as written “in another life.” Sad, really.
Wow, that is amazing. Hard to believe he could swing back the other way like that. Sometimes the “job” requires we take a particular stance on things. Maybe his being offered the prestigious job at ND influenced his stance on some things. I don’t know.