Friday, February 03, 2006

Down with the Institution!

"Western Christianity is largely belief based and church focused. It is concerned with landing on the right theology and doctrine and making sure everyone else toes the line. Jesus of the Gospels, in contrast, is relationship based and world focused. It is concerned not so much with what you believe as with who you are following. It is less invested in maintaining and growing an institution and more invested in Jesus' passion for saving the world." Leonard Sweet, Out of the Question... Into the Mystery

I read this and say, YES! This is what i believe my friends would love to hear, this what i believe high schoolers have the ability to connect with, this is what i want my children to be raised believing and i want to make sure that i put my focus into knowing and understanding Christ and his passion to save the world. I am not interested in knowing certain theological issues that we are not even sure of, but i know confuse the crapp out of everybody.

I want to live in God's realm and not man's realm. Too much pain in this realm... lots of love, acceptance and commpassion in his realm. I have no idea if i make any sense to anyone else, but i love that quote and i love the idea. I want to remind myself everyday that Jesus said, "Follow Me." Not a theological position about him and who he chooses or does not choose ... just Him.

Peace

2 comments:

urBenLA said...

I love it. I think about that. This is what divides the church, this is why people try and remove people from their church who don't believe as they do. This is a prime example of the fear of Western Christianity which continues to see a God based on rules rather than a God based on belief, grace and love. Numbers and legalism is meaningless in this system LS speaks of. But how do you embrace those who know the church-focused institution as the ONLY way, and not fall into judgement of them as the church has for others? How do you affirm them and yet show the difference while "working towards the same end"?

J-Lou said...

Ben,

I think that is my struggle. I wise person made me think this weekend about not attempting to get others to believe like i belive or i get caught back in the game or creating a new line to be towed and if you do not believe this way, than thier is something wrong with you. This is not my goal or should be anyones goal... but the tension is how to become more inclusive to the world we live but not create a divide in the faith community. We are still recovering from the first reformation that made number of Christian groups. I do not think the goal is to make some new groups that can argue with each other.