Posted on 01/16/2016 8:51:09 PM PST by TBP
“It’s hard to demonstrate love from the institution now,†says Jimmy Wolfe, a pastor and married father of four who lives near Atlanta. “But in a relationship, I can live out love: If I have an opinion about same-sex marriage, and I’m talking with someone who has same-sex attraction, then I’m able to figure out what’s in their heart.... And I can share what I think God shows me in Scripture, and be open to go on a journey with them whether I’m right or I’m wrong.â€
Mr. Wolfe left the institutional setting of church but still ministers to people in informal settings – coffee shops, gatherings at his home, and through his relationships in the inner city of Atlanta, where he visits a former foster son and his family regularly.
Some people say that institutions aren’t working for them because of a lack of open debate about beliefs.
“We found time and again that people were leaving not because they couldn’t find agreement – in fact, many were leaving because they couldn’t find disagreement,†says Packard, who recently published “Church Refugees: Sociologists Reveal Why People Are DONE With Church but Not Their Faith.†“They would tell us that God is bigger than any one person can understand. How can I possibly understand God and hear just one perspective?â€
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
A book I read back when it first came out. Documents the phenomenon, mostly anecdotally. Liked the book, but her recommendations are, IMHO, crap.
Christians need to be among God's assembled people on a Sunday. Christians need to be associated with a local organized body of other Christians, for nourishment, correction and support. Lone ranger types tend to go off the rails without it.
“You know, the places where I had seen God move the most were in places like on a river while fly-fishing, or backpacking with a group of teens, or sitting at a pub with a group of guys from the UK and South Africa, talking about life,†he adds.
rude word. That's what they all say.
What to do about it? That's harder.
Fifteen years ago, Mike Rea was a successful productivity manager for General Electric. He felt “the call†to ordained ministry and began the process to become a pastor. But his training, he says, mostly reminded him of the corporate techniques he followed at GE. There was something deadening about that to him, so he left his ministry and became involved in the house church movement sweeping through many evangelical traditions
The last thing I want to see in evidence on a Sunday morning is the ethics and morals of a corporate HR department.
Right preaching of the gospel, right administration of the sacraments, exercise of church discipline.
I understand. IMHO many churches think they will survive by going to new age services. Church survival is not their mission. Preaching the word of God is their mission. And it seems to me that as the churches have fallen away from their core mission their attendance has plummeted and the moral structure of the nation has decayed.
I sincerely doubt that this gentleman is truly "ministering" to someone. Probably more like taking a Starbuck break. It's easy to justify that one is finding God in fly fishing or on the golf course.
We're commanded not to forsake the assembly of others. He should understand what that passage means.
It was taken over by Marxists years ago!
You sound like Glenn Beck!
Not to mention the speaking style of most corporate executives. Frankly, most of them could use a public speaking course or two. So could many ministers.
Many people want a more direct and personal experience of God, and they see churches as attempting to manage that relationship and interpose themselves as the only channels, controls, and arbiters of it. And that turns people off.
Ultimately, the only God we can really know on a day-to-day basis is the God within, the One we can experience directly. While churches can point the way there, they can also impede that way, or at least appear to.
Striking the balance of guiding without seeming to demand and control (and intercede) is critical, I think.
Galatians 3:27-29.
AMEN.
We NEED the fellowship of the CHURCH.
Ultimately, the only God we can really know on a day-to-day basis is the God within,
The god within what?
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