My friend shared this and I think it’s “spot on.” Here is the article:
It’s not just about “me and Jesus,” because that can so easily become just about ME and MY Jesus.
The church needs to stand for both unity and community! It rubs against cultural trends right now, but learning to love and live with others that are radically different than us is CORE to the gospel. It’s about our welcome at the table of grace. This is why working through social issues together (not just splitting apart) is so very important to our very identity. You can’t say social issues aren’t important or that they are a recent invention … they certainly were for Jesus, the gospels, the book of Acts, and the epistles! Look at how the love of Jesus and power of God forced them to wrestle with loving lepers, Samaritans, Gentiles, Pharisees, Saducees, scribes, rich young rulers, the “circumcision party” in Acts, women, tax collectors, adulterers, eunuchs, and we can keep going …
Let’s be the church! I believe there is a spiritual rebirthing going on in these tough times of institutional brokenness. Instead of regressing toward being a judgmental place where young people are repelled and go elsewhere to find community in their spiritual search (often to the internet, which is only a semblance of community because it becomes about finding people that are like YOU, not finding love with those you have been given as a gift) we need to recover the true soul of the church … being followers of Jesus in a fully welcoming and engaging place where we forge community that stands out in a lonely and isolated world.
That’s the New Testament Church. That’s the mystical church that can be vibrant and active in the midst of the institutional church. I have a dream for restoration to this way of being church! And you know what? It’s already happening … look for it.
