Becca and I have started reading Frank Viola and George Barna’s “Pagan Christianity.” I saw a guy whom I respect and converse with frequently about the state of the church and know well his tendency towards the re-defining of justification by Tom Wright and his leanings toward the “emergent” village, reading this book about a week ago. I asked him about it and he said that it basically went through the “roots” of Christianity as we know it specifically in America and how it was influenced by pagans (this is not necessarily all bad with the definition that the book uses in which “pagan” refers to “those practices and principles that are not Christian or biblical in origin…We are not using the word as a synonym for bad, evil, sinful, or wrong.’)
This book makes a distinction between the “institutional church” and what is refereed to as the “organic church” which is the true community that is really what the church is composed of.
Here is a glimpse of the chapter titles and how the book is bent…1) Have We Really Been Doing It by the Book? 2) The Church Building, 3) The Order of Worship, 4) The Sermon, 5) The Pastor, 6) Sunday Morning Costumes, 6) Ministers of Music, 8) Tithing and Clergy Salaries, 9) Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, 10) Christian Education, 11) Reapproaching the New Testament, 12) A Second Glance at the Savior.
So here is my thought and goal. I desire to question and understand why we do the things we do within the “business” “institution” of the “church” but also within my / our daily lives. I want my faith to be pure and in King Jesus alone. I want my love and devotion to be whole in Him. I want to think critically about the things I have grown up with but about these “new” “old” ways of “doing church” (which is a term I really don’t like fyi.) So over the next while intermittently I will be giving you an analysis of my thoughts and significant points from each chapter…get excited to be rocked by the questions but be grounded in Him.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Israel Conclusion
As I move back to my blog, I apologize for not updating when I said I would. Before I move on to topics that I have definitely been running around in my head, I wanted to bring to conclusion my experiences in Israel.
The trip was amazing simply said. God definitely rocked my world in a whole ‘nother way then expected. My outlook in going to Israel leading up to the trip was of not wanting to go, thinking that going would be pointless, wanting just to do evangelism and that’s it, wonder of why we were spending so much money to go to just another place that sure Jesus was at one time but isn’t anymore and why the place is of real significance other than historically. Needless to say I was brought to my knees and changed.
As I look over the last couple of months and look at my time in Israel, I would say I learned 2 major things: 1) How much pride I had and we (mostly) as Gentiles have in connection with Jews and God’s promises and 2) How we (mostly) as Gentiles really have a completely different perspective on God compared to the Jews.
First, in a capturing moment I express what I learned about pride and God’s promises with this picture. Standing in one of the first church buildings built in the city of Jerusalem and looking up to the stain glass windows and seeing a picture of an olive tree with branches cut off and on the ground while some other deformed random branches are put in their place upon the tree. This is the image of Romans 11. If I dare look as a random deformed branch upon the branches lying on the ground with contempt how arrogant and evil that is.
Secondly, I give you the picture of being able to take part within a Shabbat meal, Friday night meal starting the Sabbath day of rest, with believers. This meal basically was conducted like the Passover meal with tradition, scripture reading, imagery, and contemplation. I was changed though not through the food or the tradition but through how they referred to God and the prayer at the end. Whenever there would be a prayer within the meal, it would always start with, “Blessed are you God, King of the Universe, who has…” This view of God is completely contrary to most of us. The other thing was how at the end of the meal the leader conducting everything basically said this (roughly). “If you are a good Christian you would have noticed that we never prayed for God to bless this food for us. This is because in Jewish tradition you always thank God for the food that you received after you eat of it. That way you can thank God for the blessing and nourishment that He gave you. You can experience firsthand the blessings of God within the food’s tastes, smells, delights, satisfaction, etc. and then proceed to thank Him for it.” This is something that Becca and I have definitely incorporated into our lives this perspective of prayer after a meal from what I learned in that time.
If you are really hard core and what to know what we really did each day and other things learned then you can download my journal that I turned in for the class. You can download it HERE.
The trip was amazing simply said. God definitely rocked my world in a whole ‘nother way then expected. My outlook in going to Israel leading up to the trip was of not wanting to go, thinking that going would be pointless, wanting just to do evangelism and that’s it, wonder of why we were spending so much money to go to just another place that sure Jesus was at one time but isn’t anymore and why the place is of real significance other than historically. Needless to say I was brought to my knees and changed.
As I look over the last couple of months and look at my time in Israel, I would say I learned 2 major things: 1) How much pride I had and we (mostly) as Gentiles have in connection with Jews and God’s promises and 2) How we (mostly) as Gentiles really have a completely different perspective on God compared to the Jews.
First, in a capturing moment I express what I learned about pride and God’s promises with this picture. Standing in one of the first church buildings built in the city of Jerusalem and looking up to the stain glass windows and seeing a picture of an olive tree with branches cut off and on the ground while some other deformed random branches are put in their place upon the tree. This is the image of Romans 11. If I dare look as a random deformed branch upon the branches lying on the ground with contempt how arrogant and evil that is.
Secondly, I give you the picture of being able to take part within a Shabbat meal, Friday night meal starting the Sabbath day of rest, with believers. This meal basically was conducted like the Passover meal with tradition, scripture reading, imagery, and contemplation. I was changed though not through the food or the tradition but through how they referred to God and the prayer at the end. Whenever there would be a prayer within the meal, it would always start with, “Blessed are you God, King of the Universe, who has…” This view of God is completely contrary to most of us. The other thing was how at the end of the meal the leader conducting everything basically said this (roughly). “If you are a good Christian you would have noticed that we never prayed for God to bless this food for us. This is because in Jewish tradition you always thank God for the food that you received after you eat of it. That way you can thank God for the blessing and nourishment that He gave you. You can experience firsthand the blessings of God within the food’s tastes, smells, delights, satisfaction, etc. and then proceed to thank Him for it.” This is something that Becca and I have definitely incorporated into our lives this perspective of prayer after a meal from what I learned in that time.
If you are really hard core and what to know what we really did each day and other things learned then you can download my journal that I turned in for the class. You can download it HERE.
