An Excellent Point

A friend commented on my "rigid orthodoxy" post and makes an excellent point. I'll try to respond in such a way that it make sense without going back to read his comment (but you may want to do that anyway).

The most significant point he makes (I think) is that the ideal experience of some type of utopic Kingdom life is not going to magically materialize. I believe, however, that it CAN be a pretty radical departure from traditional ways of 'doing' church. In Neil Cole's book Organic Church, the fourth chapter deals with the 'dangerous question' of defining church. He suggests, "The temptation is to define church accoring to our own experience. We think we know something because of familiarity. By defining church this way, we are assured that we are always right, but this is a cheap solution that perpetuates all our current problems."

Cole goes on to present an understanding of church as "the presence of Jesus among His people called out as a spiritual family to pursue His mission on this planet." The big question that brings up for me right now is...how much of church is about God's mission and how much is about the church itself...as an institution, organization, and pseudo-corporation?!

But back to my own story and the questions raised by my friend. Here are the climactic questions he posed...

And the question I must pose is whether or not you think you are any closer to
this ideal of a community that truly embraces kingdom principles than you were
several years ago? And does bouncing from one place to another help that ideal
become reality?

The short answer would be "yes" and then "no." I guess I would say "yes" to being closer because with every part of the journey and struggle comes learning and growth and because I keep unpacking and discovering things about myself and the way I've been conditioned and mentored by the church. I answer the second question with an emphatic "no" because my decisions over the past two years have been errantly motivated and quite detrimental to our experience of geniune community and formative relationships. I don't want to discount any of our experiences and ministry over the past couple of years, but we left ministry at Westerville for the wrong reasons, I finished the MDiv for the wrong reasons, I left Starbucks in Columbus for the wrong reasons, and went to Dayton for the wrong reasons. Wow...all in one sentence like that makes me feel like a failure in many ways (certainly a personal issue I'm battling right now). IF I could have the past 30 months to do over again...no doubt we would still be in Columbus further building relationships and moving towards a more "emerging" style of BEING the church. (the extent to which I miss Columbus is almost painful...especially this time of year...Go Bucks!)

BUT...having made some decisions out of fear, financial anxiety, human logic, personal ambition, etc...here we are in Cincinnati starting all over again. And in many ways it really sucks. But then again...there's hope because of the redemptive, reconciling, and restorative Presence of God.