Okay, back to the book. For me, chapter two, Elvis Has Left The Building, was a lot of rehashing of information that we have been reading in starting the church. This is why we are starting a new church - all of us know that if we weren't starting a new kind of church, there really wouldn't be a need for a new church, right? The church, in the format I knew growing up, has lost it's saltiness.
Chapter 3, Tremors, was much more significant for me. I identified with every single one of the five tension points regarding the church.
1. Tension comes from a broken heart.
2. Tension arises from simple frustration of energy and resources wasted.
3. Tension can bring fear.
4. Tension arises when you see the structure of the church falling, and you realize everything the church stood on may go down too.
5. Tension related to identity.
Planting a new church has not made these tensions disappear. In many ways, planting a church has magnified them even greater.
I think I'll write more about this later. Thoughts?
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I think for me, the key issue that I saw was expressed in the line on page 20:
"In a 'state of the union' sermon, he repented for helping them become as he said, 'idoloaters of the Bible' and for prioritizing head knowledge over heart life.
I take it to mean that he was sorry for teaching them about God, not leading them into a relationship where they know God; that knowing something about someone is different from knowing them.
When we get to know Christ, and are being restored into His likeness, only then will others get to know us and be inspired by the saltiness of our lives. Then the question gets asked: why are you so salty? What makes you different? Where does your hope come from? Now our vey lives give us permission to convey to someone with our words that it is Christ. Then our words won’t be a stumbling block which keep Christ Seekers from becoming Christ Followers. They won’t be words from a dry and dusty tome. They will be the words that go with the story of our lives.
We are not told to be the guardians of the God’s Holiness, or keepers of the Bible. We are simply told: “Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.” (I Peter 3:15). Our lives are to be shining examples of Hope, drawing people to Christ like a moth to flame.
So for me, the question isn’t about how we do church, but do I know Him? How do I get to know Him? God tells us in Jeremiah 29:13 that we will find him when we seek him with our whole heart. If I know Christ, then I know the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
As Albert Einstein said: “I want to know God. The rest is just details.”
I thought of the scene in the movie Martin Luther that is very powerful where Martin was teaching and expressed his frustration in the fact that he was the people’s connection to God since they could not read God’s word. His passion was to let each of them experience it for themselves and not just try to glean wisdom from his experience and commentary. He was saying that you need more- you can’t survive on my teachings you need to know Jesus personally. Like Pete pointed out relationship is the key- knowledge is good but without application and relationships knowledge will not get you far.
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