My Dad, bless him, ate drank and slept Salvation Army. He used to say to me as I was getting into things 'pentecostal' in my teens, "Malcolm, you make it all too complicated. The Gospel is very simple." And you know - he had a point.
I started the year with a cup of coffee with a highly respected local pastor(and all round nice guy) who was interested to know what I was doing. It turned out that he was mostly concerned with the fact that I seem to not be, as such, in membership of a local church ..... although I may be .....? :)
He was very concerned with the dangers of being "
outside church" ( which of course begs the question what "church" is) and the benefits of being "
under authority" (hmmmm - let's not go there).
At the outset I must emphasise that I'm not out for an argument or worst still a "contradiction" (Yes you are! - No I'm not!), moreover I respect his viewpoint since it is pretty much one which I held 30 odd years before that "housechurch" thing came along. And it is in the light of the pain of that experience that I write this. But this is a Blog and since the "coffee" has troubled me now for over a week I could hardly not mention it.
Anyways, if you're reading this you've probably been there. Penny wasn't really on the radar. But hey, bearing in mind he was under the impression that
I (we?) was (were) still part of the Boiler Room, there was some catching up to do.
Always interesting to converse with someone who sees church differently. Especially when that person thinks the New testament gives us a clear pattern for church structure and by implication that his church is at least working towards that. Whatever that is. Knowing his background and therefore roughly his theology of church, I cheekily asked him where the Apostles and Prophets are! We kept the exchange light and fluffy and in good heart but I inevitably came away wondering why such a busy pastor, who I hardly know or who knows me, had set aside time like that.
By the way he preaches a solid gospel of personal relationship with Jesus. Which begs the question of why once "in church" it really isn't about a personal direct relationship with Jesus. Instead we find a subtle priestly mediation theology creeps in, where you need someone through whom you hear from God. Fascinating. I did push my luck by asking if he had considered becoming a Catholic! He had the upper hand there because in fact he was brought up a Roman Catholic. :)
As we often have to remind ourselves ...... Jesus said,
"
You seek the kingdom of God -
I will build my church";
As we know, too often church leaders seem to want to do it the other way round.
Jesus also said,"Do not Lord it over one another as the Gentiles do"... rather .. "Love one another".
So it is that most of you who will be reading this blog are now in what I would term "network church" - i.e. you have good friends with whom you relate and whom you encourage, without "membership" or "attendance" somewhere together as a group.
Even Paul taught, "Submit yourselves therefore
to one another" rather than to any line or chain of authority.
The challenge that comes back inevitably is the "
neglect not the assembling of yourselves together". (Can one assemble over the Internet?)
Unlike Penny I miss "sung worship", that's the musician in me.
I would miss "teaching" if I didn't get it from other sources than a Sunday morning.
Keep on trucking.
Malc
