Since a whole lot of you are coming to my blog right now (dont know why but thank you anyway), I would like to start some more discussions and have you interact with me about something more substantial than my html bo-bos.
1. Is there more or less stability in the emerging church structures?
I was asked this yesterday by Kristof and Sonya, who were staying here from Poland for a few days. They help to run the Slot Festival in Wroclaw.
My answer. I think the focus of the stability has changed from the institution to the people themselves. Before, the instution was stable enough to last 100 years but people changed churches and even pastors moved from one to another with ease. Today, young people in organic church structures commit to each other and those relationships last much longer, regardless of geography or the institutional structures that contain them. Stability is still present but in a different form.
Another one. I was asked this twice recently. Its about repentance. Do young people REPENT of sins? I have an answer and a suggestion, but I will wait to hear from some of you.
RESPONSE - SCOTT: Andrew, . . . I do repent. Not as much as I should and I believe that to be part of my struggle to see what God's will for me is. "...repentance requires total honesty w/ God. Repentance is not complete without honesty. I believe God is looking for us to be honest about our sin. Honest about our weakness, our failures, and our frustrations. HONESTY PROMOTES FELLOWSHIP. As long as we continue to be open and honest w/ God, He can continue to work w/ us, even after we have committed our most grievous sin."
Sin separates us. Our doing not Gods. Repentance says I'm sorry. Help me to change so we can be better friends and I can serve you better. If I lie to my wife, my heart is hardened and I do not communicate w/ her as I had before. When I repent I a open fellowship w/ her more freely and closely. Her love for me would not change. My heart would.
God bless all of you at the fruit house, I mean the nut house, I mean the Giant Peach.
LORA: Hi Andrew! . . . I would like to counter with another question--what is confession? If your asking if I ask for forgiveness then Yes! but I find it hard to indivdually state my sins. How do I know what is Sin? is it Sin just because I feel bad about it? is Sin different for everyone?
I was raised believing that I could lose my salvation, that even if I have accepted Jesus Christ as my saviour but still sinned I would go to Hell. So yes everyday atleast 10 times I would confess and get "saved" again. Within the past 6 years I was introduced to the GRACE I know I'm loved and I don't deserve it. I can't give you the actual qoute but in Brennan Mannings Ragamuffin Gosple he says something like -----If there is nothing I can do to earn His love or my salvation then why would I think that my repentce would? I repent to acknowledge His grace. ----
I don't know maybe this is all just rambling? Lora
JAY: Dear Andrew, I never really confessed to fellow believers until I joined an emerging church, wait the church was already there, umm well a post modern church or whatever. Anyway, this has been a very important part of my walk with Christ, sometimes I do not recongize my sins until I discuss them with a fellow believer. Part of the healing process from sin has been being in confession and living openly with other believers. A problem I had had in traditional churches, and this not to bash traditional churches there are going to be few churches that "get it" whether traditional or post modern, is that they responded to sin by trying to eliminate the action and recongized it as only an action when sin is the complete decay of our connection with God. So we never dealt with the aftermath of sin, sins we have been victims of by others, the brokeness and mentality that leads to the action. In my community I have started dealing with sin before it actually becomes an action, when its still in its ripple state. In the churches I had been in before it was okay to have a wave of sin going, just as long as the wave didn't crash and become an action. In previous churches not swearing, having sex out of marriage, drinking, smoking, or gambling made you a pretty decent church, in the emerging church I have found my sin puts me at the same level as everyone else, no one is more particularly in need of God anymore than anyone else. Well I know you'll have a lot of email so I'll end it at that, I can usually express myself better conversationally but I hope that helps you get an idea where I am.
peas, jay
P.S: All apologies for my unsensitive way of expressing my dislike for that horrible horrible horrible horrible horrible horrible horrible horrible god awful yellow you had as your blog background.
1. Is there more or less stability in the emerging church structures?
I was asked this yesterday by Kristof and Sonya, who were staying here from Poland for a few days. They help to run the Slot Festival in Wroclaw.
My answer. I think the focus of the stability has changed from the institution to the people themselves. Before, the instution was stable enough to last 100 years but people changed churches and even pastors moved from one to another with ease. Today, young people in organic church structures commit to each other and those relationships last much longer, regardless of geography or the institutional structures that contain them. Stability is still present but in a different form.
Another one. I was asked this twice recently. Its about repentance. Do young people REPENT of sins? I have an answer and a suggestion, but I will wait to hear from some of you.
RESPONSE - SCOTT: Andrew, . . . I do repent. Not as much as I should and I believe that to be part of my struggle to see what God's will for me is. "...repentance requires total honesty w/ God. Repentance is not complete without honesty. I believe God is looking for us to be honest about our sin. Honest about our weakness, our failures, and our frustrations. HONESTY PROMOTES FELLOWSHIP. As long as we continue to be open and honest w/ God, He can continue to work w/ us, even after we have committed our most grievous sin."
Sin separates us. Our doing not Gods. Repentance says I'm sorry. Help me to change so we can be better friends and I can serve you better. If I lie to my wife, my heart is hardened and I do not communicate w/ her as I had before. When I repent I a open fellowship w/ her more freely and closely. Her love for me would not change. My heart would.
God bless all of you at the fruit house, I mean the nut house, I mean the Giant Peach.
LORA: Hi Andrew! . . . I would like to counter with another question--what is confession? If your asking if I ask for forgiveness then Yes! but I find it hard to indivdually state my sins. How do I know what is Sin? is it Sin just because I feel bad about it? is Sin different for everyone?
I was raised believing that I could lose my salvation, that even if I have accepted Jesus Christ as my saviour but still sinned I would go to Hell. So yes everyday atleast 10 times I would confess and get "saved" again. Within the past 6 years I was introduced to the GRACE I know I'm loved and I don't deserve it. I can't give you the actual qoute but in Brennan Mannings Ragamuffin Gosple he says something like -----If there is nothing I can do to earn His love or my salvation then why would I think that my repentce would? I repent to acknowledge His grace. ----
I don't know maybe this is all just rambling? Lora
JAY: Dear Andrew, I never really confessed to fellow believers until I joined an emerging church, wait the church was already there, umm well a post modern church or whatever. Anyway, this has been a very important part of my walk with Christ, sometimes I do not recongize my sins until I discuss them with a fellow believer. Part of the healing process from sin has been being in confession and living openly with other believers. A problem I had had in traditional churches, and this not to bash traditional churches there are going to be few churches that "get it" whether traditional or post modern, is that they responded to sin by trying to eliminate the action and recongized it as only an action when sin is the complete decay of our connection with God. So we never dealt with the aftermath of sin, sins we have been victims of by others, the brokeness and mentality that leads to the action. In my community I have started dealing with sin before it actually becomes an action, when its still in its ripple state. In the churches I had been in before it was okay to have a wave of sin going, just as long as the wave didn't crash and become an action. In previous churches not swearing, having sex out of marriage, drinking, smoking, or gambling made you a pretty decent church, in the emerging church I have found my sin puts me at the same level as everyone else, no one is more particularly in need of God anymore than anyone else. Well I know you'll have a lot of email so I'll end it at that, I can usually express myself better conversationally but I hope that helps you get an idea where I am.
peas, jay
P.S: All apologies for my unsensitive way of expressing my dislike for that horrible horrible horrible horrible horrible horrible horrible horrible god awful yellow you had as your blog background.
