Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Comments on The Church.

A friend and resident of Oakwood Hall who shall remain nameless (Ryan Walker) asked me visit a website that was just launched by a community of Jesus followers from his hometown. Please visit www.darnthechurch.com and add your perspective.
My comment is number 8 and reads as follows:
"The church is beautiful. It is just the institution that we have come to call the “church” that is disenchanting, imperialistic, distracting, and arrogant. We will only see the fullness of the beauty of the church upon deconstructing its current consciousness and embracing the radical call to be a compassionate, missional people, viewing ourselves as the covenant community of followers of Jesus."
I am still searching for other adjectives and descriptors of the carnality, beauty, and wholeness of the church. What would you include or disclude from my comment?

6 comments:

John said...

Your perspective on the Church can be wrapped up in three sentences? You've barely touched one aspect of a vastly complex issue. There are huge sections of the Church functioning within the "institution" that embrace "the radical call to be a compassionate, missional people, viewing ourselves as the covenant community of followers of Jesus."

T.K. you well know my agreement with some of your points in sentence two, so I know you wont think I'm coming to the defense of the so called institution. I'm just wondering who gets to be a part of the deconstruction? I'm also wondering if arrogance is a genetic trait which gets passed down like brown eyes or a cleft chin. I'm being ironical, no responses concerning sin nature...

If we don't have the grace and creativity to do deconstruction and rebuilding together (not just with a bunch a people who think everything the way we do) then we are equally disenchanting, imperialistic, distracting and arrogant.

Anyway, three sentences? Come on... :-)

:::: Travis Keller :::: said...

jb,
three sentences... yes. that is why i asked the question. so... what else would you include you institutionalist ;)?

John said...

I'd include a dissertation. You'd need several of them just to touch the idea of "the institution". I'm saying that it's dangerous to give trite little answers at all.

I guess I read your answer and found it too simplistic to mean anything. I can't add anything or subtract anything when I don't have enough context to know if I agree or disagree with the original answer. For instance, I don't know if you abhor real institutionalism or simply organization of any kind within the Church. Who are the "we" who have come to call this institution the "church"? Americans? Nazarenes? Flag waiving youth pastors from southern Ohio? Moderns? Postmoderns? I have at least 20-30 more questions that need long drawn out answers to satisfy me in order to give you a response that is worth your time.

By the way, I threw in "trite" and "little" above to be condescending since you called me an institutionalist :-)

:::: Travis Keller :::: said...

jb,
i know you did. i laughed.
and just for the record for everyone else reading this:
i am not american (well, i guess by birth i am but i do not pledge my allegiance to the nation for which a striped flag stands), a nazarene, a modern, and for certain i am not a flag waving youth pastor from southern ohio (though i used to be a youth pastor in southern ohio). just had to make that clear!

Tyler DeLong said...

Descripters of Carnality...
good.
sorry i had too!

deWeb said...

trav, i went to your buddy's non-constructive website...;)

anyway, i was reading through some of the comments and finally found one that i agreed with...that basically said the same thing that i was thinking...

then i saw that it was your comment.

bangerrang, peter.

Matthew 5:38-48, NASB

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone want to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only you brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."