Here’s two new blogs I’m reading … both have sent me kind emails so that makes the connection tighter and the glue sticker 🙂 I’ve cut and paste some of their thoughts for preview …
First, introducing subvergence…
_________________________________________________
I finished reading The Spirit of the Discplines by Dallas Willard. It was recommended to me about 12 years ago and has been sitting on my bookshelf since—feel kind of foolish for not reading it before. It is very much in the vein of The Divine Conspiracy, which is no surprise since they are books one and three in a trilogy. I think it was actually easier reading than the Divine Conspiracy. There was a lot of underlining and many dog-eared pages when I was done. Here’s a few of the questions/thoughts I have in my book journal:
pg 99—We often gauge our religious services by how much people ‘feel good’ about them. We also feel like a service was good if it ‘went well.’ Neither of these ever would have crossed Paul’s mind. What does it look like when a religious service is successful? In what ways can we measure that people have encountered God?
pg 139—”The need for extensive practice of a given discipline is an indication of our weakness, not our strength.”—Brilliant! The disciplines are often talked about as if they are the pinnacle of Christian life. Truth is, they are useless if they don’t translate into action in our life. I will never get to the place where I have no need for disciplines, but the way he states this is a good way for me to keep perspective on why I need to do them.
pg 246—”Ministers pay far too much attention to people who do not come to services. Those people should, generally, be given exactly that disregard by the pastor that they give to Christ. The Christian leader has something much more important to do that pursue the godless. The leader’s task is to equip saints until they are like Christ, and history and the God of history waits for him to do this job.”—I’ll just leave that one to speak for itself and we can all ponder to what degree we agree or disagree…
_________________________________________________
And another one, A Jewish God-fearer in a room full of Christians …
_________________________________________________
Not many people who are looking to “reform” their current church can do something so drastic. So I had to think about what other options are available for those who were asking. After some prayer, contemplation, and saying to myself, “I think I can, I think I can…” over and over, a little engine train came out of nowhere and nailed me! I had been reading Journey Inward, Journey Outward, by Elizabeth O’Connor, in which she so eloquently told the story of Church of the Savior, and explored what it means to be the Church. What a wonderful way to give new life to the evangelical church! Finding those within the congregation that have the love and vision of a missionary for the local community. Helping them develop their gifts, the very things they love to do, helping them become the unique self that they were created to be, helping them become the GOOD NEWS! Then to set up a team of people around them to work together at bringing that vision to its fullness! Being about the business of calling out the depths of others, and teaching those around us to do the same. This would completely revitalize and reform the evangelical and traditional church. This would put the focus on being the Church, as opposed to “going to church.”
_________________________________________________
Thanks for the recognition! 🙂