December 03, 2007
Semi-Comprehensive
Today my church doesn’t do as well in communication as it has done in years past. There was a time our worship service was broadcast on the radio each week, there was a weekly newsletter and bulletin, and even the minutes to the monthly elder’s meetings were posted on the bulletin board. Yesterday when I picked up the now monthly newsletter for December 2007 I read, “The XYZ Church Catalog, which is released twice a year, is the most comprehensive communication tool that we produce.” The article goes on to say the next catalog will be released in January. What a relief! I’m not really out of the loop after all…just comprehensively communicated with biannually.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Maybe it is all the better that your church does not communicate so much. Church is a calling out and meeting together. From the very beginning of the church they devoted themselves to fellowship (Acts 2:42). Some fifty or sixty years later fellowship was still fundamental, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us.” (I John 1:3). The ideas in koinonia - fellowship - are participation, partnership, social interaction, benevolence, and communication. Simply stated, it is being called out to be involved in each other’s lives. Of course, we know bad company corrupts good morals, so God gave to this participating gathering some special guys who were particularly devoted to the Lord and the fellowship. These apostles, prophets, evangelists, preachers, and teachers are given to keep the growth of the gathering going in a godly direction.
-----And that, basically, is church. The Bible does prescribe a bit of organization for the gathering, but man has strapped it with a lot. It began with man’s nature to seek validation through others accepting his ideas, especially those concerning religious life. So, being men, these special guys the Lord gave us layered upon the gathering one idea upon another with one hand, while trying to strip off the other guy’s ideas with the other hand. The need to make sure one’s own layers of ideas stuck invoked organization, and the need to make sure the other guy’s layers peeled off and went away formalized and strengthened organization, while giving it a sort of Teflon coating. Church’s are nice and organized now so they can stand out in all their distinctions and accomplish the narrow little patch of work their own special guys think is important.
-----But really, the Bible placed the organization of the church into the background. The love, the sharing, the benevolence and kindness of the new life acting out in the ones called out is what the Bible puts into the foreground. Again, the nature of man has turned around and reversed the order of God’s system. But you, Gail, are performing your part of the communication function of your church with this blog. Many others perform their parts as well. Sure, one would like to know what the special guys are planning to do in the church or with the church property (or not to do - Sunday School, for example). But that is just them, just property, just their ideas, and just silence. The Bible gives to you something much more valuable than some guys who see they are special, having property they think you should worship on, coffers they think you should drop money in, and ideas they think you should acknowledge. It gives to you your family, the folks in your Sunday School class, the special friends you know because they are Christians also, me, the folks who read the drivel we write, and many more brethren whom you have not yet met. This is the church! And between us, our communication is in fellowship. Of course, we also have the special guys, the place they want us to meet, and the things they want us to do. After all, they are special, they are given, and we love them, too.
Post a Comment