[CS-FSLUG] OT: How to Get Fired from a Seminary

[davidm at hisfeet.net]

Brother Josiah,  You have explained a set of problems very well, and you
are right on. What men see (even God fearing dedicated christian men and
women) as the church is not the church at all. "...the disciples were
called Christians first in Antioch." Disciple = learner or follower, so
the word "chistian" was applied to them because they were learners, or
followers of Christ. And Christ was revealed through them, and in them,
and among them.

A very great deal of what goes on in the name of Chistianity, is mere
worldly culture. There never was an hour or a day or a   drachma or dollar
spent (not in the whole new testament) on a building to meet in! And
although "...God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily
prophets, thirdly teachers...."  (I Corinthians 12:28), there is no
textual, or contextual evidence that any church ever had a 'head pastor'
or more than one christian church in any city. We need to follow Christ,
and view everyone by the standard of following Christ.
>
> I'd humbly suggest the problems is that there is a them/us setup. We have
> a bunch of consumers taking what the leaders produce rather than being a
> "we" group. Our culture has taught us to consume and our Christian
culture has taught those in leadership to serve sacrificially by a
generation that served in a far less consumer driven culture and does
not see the change. The result is that consumers suck up all the free
stuff they can get from the producers. The producers produce materials
(programs, studies, sermons, "answer the phone no matter what") that
worked well in the past, often not recognizing that they can never
produce enough for this generation. They were taught to give them all
they need. The people who taught them may have
> even ridiculed those producers who did setup limits to their production.
> Producers who recognize the need to protect become defensive not
> understanding the "suck 'em dry" mentality. Besides, it is also an easy
> trap to fall into being puffed up by constant need and see one self
> as indispensable to the immediate health of the church. I think it also
> doesn't help that in some places "discipleship" is another word for Bible
> study rather than active spiritual mentorship. We are all to blame in some
> regard for what we the church is today. We must all be a part of the
> solution. Christian consumers are earnestly blind in their sin consuming
> what they have been taught within the walls of the church to consume. With
> the urgency of "come to church" across the generations we've taught that
> the building or the leaders are the church rather than the group which
> supports the ideas that you go act out your faith (consume the service) in
> some building and then can step away from it and move on. We've been
> building this problem for generations. Will this problem stop in this
> period of time?
>
> So what do we do about it?
> We (you and I) must lead the Christian consumers to become servants of the
> community instead of become their servants. Their consumption can be
> stopped from draining the resources of the church and redirected into
> Christian service. I suggest that the service should be directed toward
> local and global mission. But the how do we find the time? I think this
> comes from recognizing where we, the church, is failing to currently
> affect
> change and close that down, even if it did work 20 years ago. Then move
> the
> leaderships from an inward focus to inviting those inside to serve
> alongside them in an outward focused way. Feed the hungry, clothe the
> naked
> and paint the local school's hall ways, hold a field day for the kids in
> the neighborhood, get to know your neighbors and find ways to care for
> them, pay for your gas inside to build a relationship with the hindu guy
> behind the counter and then share the gospel with these people. Come back
> to church and share what God is doing and find ways to support each other.
> Community ministry is not someone else's job, it's my job. The blessings
> from sharing this will flow into others, pray that they'll get infected
> and
> want similar blessings. Pray that their fears will subside. Invite them to
> do ministry with you like fixing a neighbor's shed or come join a
> neighborhood play date. Learn who your neighbors are and what they enjoy.
> Engage them in conversation about their passions.
>
> God has blessed me and my family as we've started down this path. It is so
> worth it. I can say from experience that it sure beats complaining and
> causes more change.
>
> /me dismounts soap box...
> JSR/
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