The Church Is Not:
1. An organization made up of programs, systems, and methods dedicated to attracting monies and members to itself.
2. Buildings and offices, departments and positions, manipulated by hierarchies given to earthly display and self-aggrandizement for the purpose of being better accepted within chosen social spheres.
3. Another worldly institution dedicated to applying a balm of humanistic principles and solutions to man's personal and social ills.
The Church Is:
A family, a family much like the one described by Edith Schaeffer many years ago:
1. Family is the place where we no longer need to pretend that we are anything other than what we really are.
2. Where acceptance of each other is not based upon levels of performance.
3. Where we don't have to be afraid that our relationships will be broken.
4. Where our material possession are spontaneously shared.
5. Where our unique callings in life can be sought out and called forth with another's help.
6. Where each member's celebration or pain is felt by all.
7. Where we are free enough to admit we are needy, asking for help and expecting to receive it.
8. Where we are freed from the horrible burden of seeing life as a demand, as oughtness, as duty, instead as a gift, a feast, and a banquet.
And, periodically these families (microcosm) gets together with other families (macrocosm), as a family of families, maybe in a larger building, a tent, a warehouse, a gymnasium, wherever they can gather in a certain geographical sphere or given locale to celebrate like a family reunion encouraging one another at a larger scale and collectively worshiping God. But all of its strength, all its vitality comes not from the numerics of the gathering but rather from the family dynamics of the gathering.
Welcome to the Family,
1. An organization made up of programs, systems, and methods dedicated to attracting monies and members to itself.
2. Buildings and offices, departments and positions, manipulated by hierarchies given to earthly display and self-aggrandizement for the purpose of being better accepted within chosen social spheres.
3. Another worldly institution dedicated to applying a balm of humanistic principles and solutions to man's personal and social ills.
The Church Is:
A family, a family much like the one described by Edith Schaeffer many years ago:
1. Family is the place where we no longer need to pretend that we are anything other than what we really are.
2. Where acceptance of each other is not based upon levels of performance.
3. Where we don't have to be afraid that our relationships will be broken.
4. Where our material possession are spontaneously shared.
5. Where our unique callings in life can be sought out and called forth with another's help.
6. Where each member's celebration or pain is felt by all.
7. Where we are free enough to admit we are needy, asking for help and expecting to receive it.
8. Where we are freed from the horrible burden of seeing life as a demand, as oughtness, as duty, instead as a gift, a feast, and a banquet.
And, periodically these families (microcosm) gets together with other families (macrocosm), as a family of families, maybe in a larger building, a tent, a warehouse, a gymnasium, wherever they can gather in a certain geographical sphere or given locale to celebrate like a family reunion encouraging one another at a larger scale and collectively worshiping God. But all of its strength, all its vitality comes not from the numerics of the gathering but rather from the family dynamics of the gathering.
Welcome to the Family,
John Gaultney
Courtesy of Third Day Churches
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