Some great stuff from me learned colleague:
We never want to return to the strict formality and artificiality which characterised at least some Christian gatherings in the past. Gathering with God’s people must mean taking each other seriously as well as the opportunities for service that arise when we are together. The critical difference between ‘church’ and our own private prayer and Bible reading is that we are together, ‘in the fellowship of his people’. And that fellowship must have a sense of reality about it. Precisely for this reason the work of ministry has ‘building each other up’ as a proper concern. But in our rush to address the imbalances of the past and to work together for the good of the body, it is at least theoretically possible to ignore that this happens as we meet with, or better, are met by God in his word. Church is not just a study group or a training centre. Church is a gathering around the powerful, confronting and encouraging address of the living God. Recapturing this sense of the significance of our gatherings might actually prove to be an important part of getting on with the mission.
'nuff said.
9 comments:
So it's more like a conference with God as the keynote speaker? :)
Great quote Michael. Well spotted.
A related quote from Karl Barth: "But the church service is the most important, momentous and majestic thing which can possibly take place on earth, because its primary content is not the work of humans but the work of the Holy Spirit and consequently the work of faith" (The Knowledge of God and the Service of God, p. 198).
Yes: I am not sure the strict formality and artificiality is anymore part of the young ordinands experience in the Syd diocese. It is now a fast fading memory (if it ever was like that)...
I was interested that he said 'a sense of reality'... that is, in a way, what the radical rationalists are afraid of: it being only a 'sense', or a manufactured 'sense'.
Great quote, where's it from?
The title has a link... you can find it at
your.sydneyanglicans.net
Oh, just realised the link was embedded in the title - very flashy, if a little less than obvious!
Isn't there something too about the church service (Lord's Day covenantal renewal) as a formal public thing that sets it apart from family devotions, homegroup or the individual quiet time too? I think I want it special and a bit formalish?
No. Since I don't buy that the NT sees the meething of Christians together in these terms... that produces that view of what a church service is...
Post a Comment