SAYING OF THE WEEK
A congregation in town going through real transitions has just had an open dialogue with its folks.
One person got up, shared a few contextual expletives, held up a verbal mirror of reality which DID NOT say 'you are the fairest in the land' - and then said ' I WOULD RATHER THAT WE WERE A DYSFUNCTIONAL AND HONEST FAMILY THAN A FUNCTIONAL LIE' meaning lets dump the pretense we present, lets stop pretending to live out our publicity on the surface and loosing sight of finding some gutsy substance.
posted by al bino at 7:44 am
2 Comments:
You just said the magic "T" word: Transition. Man oh man, do i see that going on BIG TIME right smack here at home. Several of the fellowships in my area are going through that. Part of it is the that the old stuff just isn't going to cut it. And that leads me to the second part of what you shared. In a nutshell it boils down to "Let's be real". Dysfunctional indeed! I think we are already there . . . just need to confess the fact that we are a wreck and stop trying to hide it. Problem is, some folks can't handle that. They would rather "shoot the messenger" and keep their fantasy safe.
Begs the question "How real are we willing to get?" If the pioneers really push the envelope, some of the wagon teams are going to drop out big time. i've already seen it. (pardon my cultural paradigm as i happen to live in California).
Thanks for impartation. It's got the percolator going again . . . hmmmm, more to chew on . . .
6:15 pm
Had just that conversation with a pastor today. Chicken or egg syndrome, we have a particular methodoligy to our churchmanship, which differ greatly depending on the seminary route the pastor has trained with. We in turn look to people who have come through a specific route / credentials /'already' theology of whatever.
Its an unhelpful comparison i know but i remember God granting the people just what THEY were looking for dispite His knowing better - they want a king - they can have a king.
We blame pastors who we have defaulted to, we employ pastors who can fulfill our 'already' perrameters of what we alreay feel church is, then expect them to take us somehwre we have not been yet........or keep the status quo.
Im not sure if thats what you meant bob, but we do share the responsibility for how are communities are. The only way to move fwd is to take pesonal responsibility for who we are and our individual dysfunctions or erring. They say in counselling 'i can only help you help yourself' - i think part of the reformation of Church (which is after all 'people') is to go through personal reforming, sometimes dispite what exists around us.
Some folks though will no doubt be trying to become more functional through a dysfunctional route and wonder when they do not 'become'- some will not be able to take responsibility for self, because they have given that responsibility to another, usually a percieved senior 'other'. So they default to the very thing God is moving us away from - visionary platformed postional hierachical leadership. Trouble is we dont know what biblical leadership looks like, and never will till we kill this roman laity preisthood divide which, whilst we know its wholly innapropriate, still live in line with to some degree.
Guys - wheres this verse that says 'therefore - submit to one another out of reverance for Christ' = thats the only line of command in the nt dispite other words and roles, co ownership of the whole thing.
Bless You Bob
6:27 pm
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