Thursday, September 18, 2003

More churches please?

Found a cool thought over at Dwight FRIESEN'S (cool name eh?) site. He writes:



Recently I was in a discussion about whether we should still plant churches, or would Paul plant churches today. I say we need new language to discuss the idea of fostering new Christ-communities.

Of course Paul would foster Christ-communities - Clusters of people who recognize their oneness in and through Christ. But almost without question Paul would avoid the creation of "churches" as we think of them. Institutional churches embody ideals that are counter Christ.

- an institution´s first concern is self-preservation - not Christ; he lays down his life for those he loves,
- an institution needs money - Christ has no place to lay his head, even Paul built tents,
- an institution has an image to protect - Christ puts on a towel and washes feet,
- an institution guards power - Christ empties his,
- an institution gathers its members - Christ sends his out,


I think he's barking up the right tree! You?

3 comments:

  1. There is a nugget of truth there. But it almost Christ out to anti-institutional -- almost gnostic in his oppostion to a material life. I'm not so sure that Jesus was so much against institutions in general. But he was about planting a radical new kind of institution -- an institution which won't be fully realized until he comes again.

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  2. I wish you could edit these things after they've been published. "But it almost Christ out to anti-institutional -- almost gnostic in his oppostion to a material life." should be "But it almost makes Christ out to be anti-institutional -- almost gnostic in his oppostion to a material life."

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  3. I don't mind calling Christ a gnostic from the perspective of the average North American Christian. We would call anyone a gnostic because nobody on the planet values material possessions and institutions like we do.

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