Great nugget from RJ Neuhaus

Source:  http://www.stevencole.org/2009/05/alan-hirsch-makes-my-head-hurt.html

Alfred Loisy the 19th century historian was right in saying that Jesus came proclaiming the Kingdom of God but what appeared was the Church. The disappointment was and continues to be severe. But the great irony is that today we alleviate our disappointment with the contemporary Church by pointing back to the New Testament Church –which was the great disappointment to begin with! Our restless discontent should not be over the distance between ourselves and the first century Church but over the distance between ourselves and the Kingdom of God to which the Church then and now is the witness. – — R.J. Neuhaus, Freedom for Ministry, 33.

Dialogue with Geoff Surratt

Through Twitter I had the chance to ask Geoff Surratt, the Executive Pastor of Seacoast Church in Charleston, a question about church growth.  He was gracious enough to reply.   I asked him to respond to a post I wrote not too long ago about community.  Here is my question and his response below.

In a Utopian world there would be no need to delineate life and age stations within the church. Children would sit with parents and grandparents and each learn from each other and worship together. I love the picture of young children experiencing the wisdom of their elders while older people enjoy the exuberant worship of youth. Unfortunately I have yet to see a model of church where that ideal actually works on a consistent basis.The reality is that children learn differently than adults and teens need often need to experience God in a completely different environment than adults. If a church wants to reach a wide range of people they will eventually have to have some separation based on age and life stations.

At the same time, the distinguishing feature of a church should not be its aged graded or life stage ministries, but its single minded mission. Why does this particular church exist at this time in this neighborhood? What is the God given, passion driven reason for its existence. A pastor who cannot answer that question will stunt the growth of the church.

On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 11:08 AM, Joey White <joeywhitetx@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

http://journeytolife.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/community/

 

Geoff,

 

I blogged about this question some time back.  It’s a quick read, but when finished answer me this Riddler…

Have churches stunted their relational and exponential growth by programming with age and life station as their primary delineators?

 

Thx!

Joey White

Odd piece of self-discovery last night

The title sounds a little melodramatic for the content of this post, but something odd did strike me last night traveling the short distance from Pizza Hut Park to the house.  By the way, it is really nice to only have to travel a few minutes to/from a DFW professional team.   The drives associated with the teams in Arlington really makes it hard.  Back to the reason I am writing this…

It hits me last night that after taking in my first FC Dallas soccer match that each of my first-time experiences with the Dallas professional sports teams have been rather unique.  How so? 

Attention Walmart shoppers – paying it forward on aisle 6

So I am standing at the end of aisle six at one of our local Walmarts last weekend visiting with a family from Water’s Edge about how they were planning on shopping for their recipient family, and a quick statement by the wife caught me off guard… at least when my slow-moving mind figured out the power of the statement.  As you may have read here, our church engaged in an all-out weekend to serve our city with fierce intentionality.  As a leader you hope that these chapters in the life of a church will somehow plant themselves deeply in the hearts and minds of the congregation so that the actual activity level begins to see a shift to things that really matter.  You pray, work, plan and execute with this in mind, but many times what you bring to the venture is just to set the stage for God. 

When the church actually is the church.

US homeless couple marry in dream wedding
 
AFP/File – Bride Nhiahni Chestnut wipes away tears as she stands on the altar with her groom Dante White during …
 

by Karin Zeitvogel Karin Zeitvogel – Thu May 7, 3:34 am ET

 
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The groom wore a black tuxedo, a damask-rose pink waistcoat and tie, and an ear-to-ear smile.

He picked out his wedding outfit at a mall in Virginia — his first time ever in one of the sprawling shopping centers that are monuments to consumerism in the suburban landscape across the United States.

During his 14 years living homeless on the streets of Washington, Dante White, 28, never realized that so much opulence existed. Nor had he had much luck in love in his life, having been thrown out of his mother’s home when he was just 14.

Last week, White married Nhiahni Chestnut, 39, a woman whose battles with drugs and alcohol had left her on the streets of the US capital as well. Both are unemployed.

“I was basically living from day to day, trying to survive, and I wound up meeting him,” Chestnut told AFP at the couple’s wedding, held in the tiny chapel of Grace Episcopal Church in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood.

“Something clicked, the chemistry was there,” said the bride, dressed in a flowing white ensemble with a pink flower.

“We’ve been together ever since. That was nine years ago. He was outside. It kind of clicked because we were in kind of the same situation. We started hanging out with each other, talking,” she said.

The two also frequented a Bible study and meal program run by Grace Episcopal Church on Saturdays. It was there, a few months ago, that White, 28, revealed to a parishioner how much he wished he could afford to marry the woman who had brought light into his life on the streets.

Went and Was

Go and Be, 2009

Today our church celebrated what has become an annual emphasis on community engagement… “Go and Be.”  We literally shut the doors and did not hold services today and instead had projects all over the region to serve others.  It may appear to be somewhat concocted, and it probably is, but necessary to help a typical congregation to be others-focused.  As good of an idea as it is, we still hear complaints.  You just have to press through those comments and be about what’s right.

Our little band at Water’s Edge met at the church before being sent out to provide groceries to a number of families in the area.  We found out about these families through the grapevine, so they didn’t know we were coming.  I was a little concerned as to the reception our families would receive when they knocked on any of those doors.  You hope that poeple would be appreciative, but it has be to tough to be confronted with your adverse circumstances by a complete stranger.   So we sort of warned our folks and asked them to be prayerful as to how they would approach the family.  Some simply left the groceries at the front door, while others had the privilege of having a conversation to encourage the recipient.  All in all, a good day.  

Our families had a simple and effective teaching moment for their children.  It was great to hear the families mixing it up with one another talking about what should be purchased and how they would want to bless this mysterious family.  It was certainly one my best trips to Walmart!  Sometimes the easiest way to come alongside another and help them is to meet their most immediate need, and a few groceries was just that.