Saturday, August 25, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
Flickr: Photos from PatL
Flickr: Photos from PatL
William Temple said that the church is the only institution that exists for those outside the church. In that respect the church is not an institution but a movement of God's people. While ministers and other church leaders spend most of their time propping up the institution and taking care of its own people there is a whole constituency outside the church walls which is looking for leadership and concern. Are we going to go to the places where they are hanging out? Are we ready to rub shoulders with the great unwashed of society that we might win some for and to Christ? Are we willing to pay the price?
Even the word "Christian" has got a bad press just as the "church" has. Increasingly we will need to call ourselves "followers of Jesus Christ". The Celtic Christians in the time of Patrick and Columba and Ninian were on the edge of their society-they had no desire to play power politics or to be part of some form of Christendom-all they wanted to do was to be with people and to win them for Christ. The idea of doping mission or evangelism was foreign to them because they did not separate witnessing for Christ from the rest of their lives, they had no dualistic way of life, just one , holistic way.
William Temple said that the church is the only institution that exists for those outside the church. In that respect the church is not an institution but a movement of God's people. While ministers and other church leaders spend most of their time propping up the institution and taking care of its own people there is a whole constituency outside the church walls which is looking for leadership and concern. Are we going to go to the places where they are hanging out? Are we ready to rub shoulders with the great unwashed of society that we might win some for and to Christ? Are we willing to pay the price?
Even the word "Christian" has got a bad press just as the "church" has. Increasingly we will need to call ourselves "followers of Jesus Christ". The Celtic Christians in the time of Patrick and Columba and Ninian were on the edge of their society-they had no desire to play power politics or to be part of some form of Christendom-all they wanted to do was to be with people and to win them for Christ. The idea of doping mission or evangelism was foreign to them because they did not separate witnessing for Christ from the rest of their lives, they had no dualistic way of life, just one , holistic way.
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