Today was spent sitting in a chair (nice leather armchair) and visiting a few ministry places.
Things are coming together.We spent the first day and a half tracing God's story through the Bible. For the most part I have been fascinated by the discussion and the insights we were getting by conversing about different narratives of the Bible. However there were times when in my prideful seminarian mind, I thought we were spending too much time talking about "obvious" things from the Bible.
Today, we spent 6 hrs talking about the Gospel and how it is not only the beginning of our Christian faith but it is the mean and purpose of our Salvation. And then one of the ministry leaders walked us through the core values and
rhythms (day to day activities in which the Gospel is lived out). The neat thing about today's conversation is that it constantly reverted back to the stories we had talked about in the beginning. This way a strong connection was formed between the way this ministry is structured and the Bible.
My boat is beginning to rock. This community (what I would refer to as a church) is very different. I have never seen anything quite like it. I am understanding and liking it. It fits in this context. But what they're saying is that it should fit in any context and the few international church planters present at the conference are living proof of that. What gets me real fired up about it is that a great majority of the people in these communities are unchurched people. This ministry values greatly community and the mission of impacting the world with the Gospel. Because of this they shy away from calling the place they meet
the church, because of the potential (and historically known) misconception of the building as the church. This is true, we are the church, and the building is something to keep us warm and dry in the winter and cool in the summer. I resonate with this idea and many others I heard today. But at the same time I have many questions... and I'm struggling whether it is my pride or a conviction that the church (i.e. the body of Christ) also needs an
institutionalized face. If this sounds confusing it exactly describes my mind. I hope things will clear before the end of the week.
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