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- Author: Wayne Jacobsen
- Full Title: Finding Church
- Category: #books
- I found it disheartening that one could know so much about Jesus without being shaped by his life.
- But as good as they were they were always interrupted by our preoccupation with the program, and seasons of renewal would easily fade into drudgery.
- They were supposed to work. Everyone said so. How can you fault studying the Bible, praying, trying to be righteous, being active in a local fellowship, and learning from the teachings of others?
- I share the frustration of one pastor in Sacramento, who expressed it this way: “I’ve tried seeker-sensitive, purpose-driven, cell church, house church, organic church all to no avail. What do I try now?” Only after numerous failed attempts do we even consider that our human systems may be part of the problem.
- So we search the Scriptures to craft a set of principles we think will make us good Christians and then try to live up to them. We turn the fruits of the Spirit, for example, into a list of obligations. Be more loving, more patient, kinder, and gentler. We will try, of course, but in time the list becomes less an encouragement and more the source of condemnation whenever we fall short of our own expectations.
- No one told us about the new creation already inside us, or how to embrace it. We were simply told to pray, read their Bibles, live by God’s rules, and love others as best we could. And above all, attend “church” and submit to the traditions and doctrines that have stood for centuries.
- When I was a pastor I spent the bulk of my time not helping hungry people grow, but managing the political realities of people seeking these very things. The pressing needs were never about spiritual growth, but about the tangled web of money, approval, and power.
- Those in power want us to believe that the process itself guarantees that they speak for Jesus and that the faithful must follow.
- When Ezekiel castigated the worthless shepherds of Israel (Ezekiel 34), declaring God would remove them from their place, he didn’t say that God would replace them with better shepherds. He said that God would shepherd his own people and they would never be afraid again.
- I’ve talked to many a young “church planter” describing their vision to create a new group that will be truer to Scripture, more relational, and better at helping people follow Jesus than those who have come before. They think no one has planted a church with that vision when almost all of them have, only to end up weighted down with a structure that cannot sustain it. Instead of rethinking the validity of the system, they assume it is flawed because the wrong people are in charge. Once the white hats take over, all will be well. They don’t realize it is the system of management itself that passes out the black hats.