Knocking around in my head
Here's something I found myself writing to a professor friend minutes ago . . .
If the institution is to the church what the body is to the soul, then we as leaders need to focus much more on making better persons of ourselves than on the functions of the institution. Too many pastors today appear to be no more than "batches of functions" (institution!) instead of living souls of generative energy (church!). And frankly I don't blame the pastors (too much); they're living into the reality that is expected of them. Makes me want to scream my head off.
And this . . .
I've been reading about network theory, and I just felt compelled to write and say I'm really excited about it. I think I'm "getting it" in a way I hadn't before. The reason I'm excited, I think, is because it takes me further into the whole idea that church as "service in a building" has had its day.
I'm really jazzed by the idea of the church being a living network of relationships not only because it means we can have more influence but also because, understood this way, church becomes who we are all the time.
Man, I just think this whole business of segmentation--that, you know, this part of my life is for church and the rest is for something else--is in the very GUTS of most Christians. I mean, we just can't even conceive of being the church all the time everywhere. We've been socially programmed to think of church in an entirely different way. But actually, for me, the idea that I am a living part of the church all the time in all I do is really liberating. It frees me to be who I've wanted to be all along.
If the institution is to the church what the body is to the soul, then we as leaders need to focus much more on making better persons of ourselves than on the functions of the institution. Too many pastors today appear to be no more than "batches of functions" (institution!) instead of living souls of generative energy (church!). And frankly I don't blame the pastors (too much); they're living into the reality that is expected of them. Makes me want to scream my head off.
And this . . .
I've been reading about network theory, and I just felt compelled to write and say I'm really excited about it. I think I'm "getting it" in a way I hadn't before. The reason I'm excited, I think, is because it takes me further into the whole idea that church as "service in a building" has had its day.
I'm really jazzed by the idea of the church being a living network of relationships not only because it means we can have more influence but also because, understood this way, church becomes who we are all the time.
Man, I just think this whole business of segmentation--that, you know, this part of my life is for church and the rest is for something else--is in the very GUTS of most Christians. I mean, we just can't even conceive of being the church all the time everywhere. We've been socially programmed to think of church in an entirely different way. But actually, for me, the idea that I am a living part of the church all the time in all I do is really liberating. It frees me to be who I've wanted to be all along.
posted by ChadRAllen @ 2:43 PM
1 Comments:
At October 06, 2005 ,
Anonymous said...
Jen- Now that kind of counseling would be worth $100 an hour in my book. My experience with a "christian" counselor came quickly to an end when she quoted "God never gives us more than we can handle" and "All things work together to them that love to Lord." NOT what I needed to hear, or what I was paying $100 an hour for.
And to Chad - A new thought about network theory came to me as I was reading your entry. I wonder, is this notion of the church "being a living network of relationships" and "church becoming who we are all the time" more ingrained in religions which the boundary between religion and culture is less defined? For instance, it's easy for an Episcopalian to go to church sunday morning and then go off and be a businessman, etc., in another category of his life (too easy for most of us, I think). But when you are Jewish, I wonder if it is as easy, since your culture, food, relationships, weekend routine, etc., is so tied into your religion. Maybe we have something to learn from that. Another example - my Grandma wore her prayer covering all the time -- to the grocery store, working in the garden, etc. I wonder if I wore a prayer covering -- a visual symbol of my faith -- whether it would be as easy for me to honk at people (or worse!) in traffic, ignore a person in need, or even just be short with a sales clerk. They're small things that don't change the world... well, actually maybe they're small things that do change the world little by little.
-aly
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