I am beginning to emerge from my hiatus. I finished reading Jim & Casper Go to Church and am continuing where I left off in Soul Graffiti, where I read the following:

I believe part of our society's frustration with organized religion stems from a lack of discourse and question-asking. The one-way communication from pastor or priest to congregants that is so prevalent maintains awe, authority, and distance, but does not invite fully engaged participation, ownership, or collective action. If our goal is generative loving activity, rather than mere indoctrination, then candid dialogue must be encouraged. We need casual cooperative contexts in which we can ask questions and navigate how to live and travel well together. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why early followers of the Way so often ate together in their homes and met from house to house.

Some may respond, "Ah-ha, then what we need to do is promote conversation!" which is not a bad idea. But if it's contrived or controlled, I'm not sure that it's a conversation. The hallmark of conversation is listening. How can you tell when listening is taking place?

Continue reading "Listening as a spiritual act" »

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BlogOneAnother/~3/209132286/the-de-c 

My friend Dave has had enough, and has posted a rant about the American model of church. If you know him, you owe it to yourself to read the first part, a biography of what brought him to this point. But the second part of his rant is a full-on manifesto. Here's a taste:

I want to see the Come To Us Model die a death more violent than the one suffered by PowerPoint.

I want no one to be in charge of a loosely-coupled network of people who gather together because they want to know each other and God.

I want people to stop giving their money to the church and instead give their money to the needs of people in their own community. But before that, I want full time staff to quit their jobs.

He will be slammed for being negative. But my friends, reconstruction is not possible without first doing deconstruction. Dave is not merely tearing down, but he is proposing an alternative.

If you want to skip the biographical background and jump right to his manifesto, go to http://bimmergeek.blogspot.com/2007/12/patience-and-tolerance-waning.h and search for "I want".

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BlogOneAnother/~3/209138668/deep-tho

My Facebook profile has a "Deep Thought" widget. Today's is notable:

If God dwells inside us, like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting!