Quick Church Thoughts
As the church, we tend to organized our selves around a form while trying to retain an identity. What if we organized our selves around our identity and let the form change to fit the rhythms of our life?
What do you imagine Church gatherings and activities could look like if we focused more on who the Church is and less on what the church looks like?
Book Review: Steeple Envy
I think most of us are burnt out on religion, tired of bigger and better being the church mentality. We are sick to death of the Christianity we see on Sunday not matching up with what we see in the pages of scripture. This is why I really appreciate Victor Cuccia‘s book Steeple Envy. Primary, this book is Vic’s story of finding himself sick and tired of a Christian religion and his ongoing journey to rediscover the Church and Jesus.
Through out his story, Vic openly and lovingly questions practices and underlying motives we have in our evangelical “super star” church mentality.
“The whole reason I’m writing this book is the share my mind and heart without being influenced by what people think or how they’ll react.”- pg 79
Steeple Envy wasn’t written to toot one man’s horn. The main thrust behind this book is to share the story thus far of Vic, Journey Church and their journey to re-think what it means to be the church. It’s filled with honest questions, and opinions about what Jesus started. It’s also got some crazy cool stories about stuff that God has done among and through Journey Church. Check out the stories behind the 12×12 Love Project. Testimonies like this shout at us all that God is at work and we can be a part of the good things he wants to do. Things don’t have to be status quo; we can live in a sacrificial way and show the love of God to the world.
It’s a great read. If your feeling that discontent with the Sunday show and questioning some of the priorities of Churches, I think you will resound with the book. I found it engaging, easy to read, and a great addition to the ongoing conversation of what the heck it means to be the Church of Jesus.
Saturday Rant
Angles and prophets carried a message of hope and God’s great deeds in ages past. Now, celebrity preachers write books, travel to conferences, and leave pulpits to further their ministry. Why do our methods of proclaiming the topsy-turvy kingdom of God now look so sleek,so familiar to our internet culture? Inverting the old ways just leads to something we are comfortable with, something like us, something devoid of prophetic life.
The value of a martyr is not that they are brave enough to die. The true glory of martyrdom is the life preceding the death, a life that by its very way of expression proclaims something so different, so other, so holy they powers that be deem it as a threat to their familiar, their safe, their way of wielding power.
So, why does a blessed christian life look so much like the American dream? Why do pastors we think successful look like CEO’s, motivational speakers, and entrepreneurs?
The danger of conforming to the world is not that we will end up looking like the unwashed masses. The real devastation comes when our life loses its prophetic voice because the home we point to looks exactly like the demon of success. Maybe we should sell everything we have, give the money to the poor, and follow Jesus… not because poverty is more spiritually pure, but rather because that kind of action is so unfamiliar to our beautiful, savvy culture that shops at Ikea.
If our Message is Jesus and his new kind of life, should we really be telling people Jesus will give them everything they have ever day dreamed of?
Father, Husband, Theological Dreamer, Web Designer, Photographer, Coffee Chugger... It's kind of like listening to a cross between guerrilla radio and a street corner prophet with a bad case of tourettes.
