Sivin Kit’s Garden

Archive for February 16th, 2004

I’ve been waiting for his concluding remarks and then read the rest of what he’s written in relation to Peter Ward’s book Liquid Church. Anyway, here’s the closing remarks:

“There is a boldness in Ward’s vision that intrigues and fascinates me. I find myself wanting to run with this creative view of the church’s future. Yet, I find he wants to correct the pendulum swing too much. Solid church has had an overemphasis on the Sunday morning gathering. Yet, that does not mean that the idea of the faith community gathering together is wrong, or ineffective or counter to following Jesus.

Our churches need to become less institutionalised and rigid. We need to explore models that don’t just tinker with the same formula but attempt to rethink the whole DNA of what it means to be the ecclesial faith community. Ward’s vision doesn’t offer an entire solution, and it is not perfect in its expression, but it does challenge our processes and ideas of church, in order that we can express our mission in new ways and forms.”

For the rest of it .. I’ve taken the liberty to post it below (no comments from me – I didn’t bold letter the whole thing so it’s easier to read):
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got this quote via Maggi Dawn:

“12 years ago, Tom Wright wrote,
“It is time to forget evangelicalism and concentrate on the gospel; to forget catholicism and concentrate on the church and its mission; to forget liberalism and concentrate on clear thinking; to forget the charismatic movement and invoke the Spirit of the living God ” New Tasks for a Renewed Church [Hodder 1992]“

It’s reminders like this that helps me keep the main thing the main thing!

Thanks Duanne Cottrell for this (in his words) personal manifesto.

I some how got linked to http://www.singaporeatheist.com/ because of his rant about a Singaporean lady-pastor who’s shot to stardom lately. Reading his “my background” page struck me … with what’s going on in his mind. And it makes me wonder “how” I would relate to him if he’s sitting in front of me right now, and “how” I’d engage his thoughts …

Here’s some excepts (not for the faint hearted!):
__________________________

The main reason I converted was I found a strange sense of unity amongst these people, sharing their lives, worshipping god, always happy, no matter what happened. The fellowship I experienced in their presence was certainly very heart-warming, something I had not experienced elsewhere. …

I ignored all reason when praising and worshipping god, gave out of everything I had to the church building fund (boy, what a scam!), got myself baptised, even went round evangelising to total strangers in my university and actively read the Bible. Ironically, it was by doing all this that I came to slowly realize that all that I have been believing in, was just a glorified fairy tale at best, and plain dangerous, evil bullshit at worst. …
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While it’s a joy to be connected to what’s happening globally, what’s happenign locally is equally important. GLOCAL is a good word! Checking this out!

“Yet I get nervous when I regularly read how people are seeing this as their substitute for gathering, and church.” ~ for more read here

I appreciate his concern, here’s my comments:
I get nervous too … because the fact remains that many of the 40-50 people who are somehow part of our church are not that “connected” (either by choice, ignorance or simply busyness). And nothing beats good “old fashioned” face to face contact and interaction.
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