AWANA track victory is in sight! This is the car Dagen and I prepared. First plan was to make a tank — in this case a camoflage vehicle. Take a close look — this will not only serve as a protection vehicle, the speed will be incredible (or so we hope!!).
The shape of the church is a centuries old discussion.
My ancestors, in the middle of the last millenium, found themselves pushed out of both the Catholic church and the emerging Protestant Church. We now call them the Radical Reformation — they were anabaptists.
I’m not sure what their church services were like. I understand they practiced baptism, communion of some type, there was lots of preaching and indoctrination because of the “radicalness” of their approach. They met in churhes (where permitted), in forests, at homes — wherever they could. Perhaps for that reason I am not frustrated by those who have been pushed outside the institutional church.
OK — there is some frustration! I watch some people isolate themselves. They are no earthly good in a society that needs “salt and light.” I watch others maintain “victim” status, never dealing with real and perceived hurt, needing ministry and not giving ministry. I even wonder when people will realize that everything has a structure — the question is not — “Let’s start a group without structure, or discipline, or expectations!” — ain’t gonna happen!!
Greg, your previous comment regarding the church in China is well worth considering — “ the hunger of believers to exercise their faith in community with worship, Word and sacraments overcame the loss of their ‘structure’. ”
The current struggle within the Salvation Army church is also worth considering. The Salvation Army dispensed with sacraments (baptism and communion) and kept worship and word — calling their meetings holiness meetings. Now, a century or more later they are asking if sacraments need to be reinstated. Or was worship and word enough?
Last year I worked with Dagen Armstrong to prepare an “AWANA” car.
You begin with a block of wood, a proposed design, some old paint, drills, planes and general woodworking tools. The shape begins to emerge from the wood.
Our previous design was a race car with flame stripes surrounding the side panels. We (note the “we” — I guess I’m taking a little more credit than I should) placed second in the race — a sloped track with four cars racing side by side.
This year we decided to work on this once again.
This time the idea was to create a tank. We chose a picture or two off the Net. Google images provided sites to view — within seconds we had a design and colour scheme.
To the basement we proceeded. The drill whirred, the plane scraped and the jig saw chomped off all the pieces that didn’t fit. We then primed the shell and chose our paints from leftovers stashed behind a wall. Monday we will paint again. By the end of the week I’ll be displaying the marvel of a “car” on this website! Tune in then!!
Is a small group a church? Do you have to have a management structure to be a church? Is church just people without reference to a building?
Our denominational president, Franklin Pyles, has a blog with the following
One of the respondents asked for a fuller presentation of the Marks of the Church. Thomas Oden’s Systematic Theology, Life in the Spirit, Vol. 3, gives an excellent summary. The Reformed tradition identifies Word (true teaching), Sacrament (proper celebration of Lord’s Supper and Baptism), and Discipline. Earlier creeds identified the church by Unity (founded in Jesus Christ – 2 or 3 gathered in his name…), Holiness (set apart from the world), Catholicity (not bound to a particular place or time) and Apostolicity (grew out of and continues the teaching and ministry of the Apostles). Oden combines the two streams into a “consolidating thesis: That ekklesia in which the Word is rightly preached and sacraments rightly administered and discipline rightly ordered will be one, holy, catholic and apostolic.”
This is very important because we have those who say that we should do mission first, that is, simply proclaim the gospel, and not worry at all about what comes out of it, i.e., the church. At first glance this may seem attractive. But in fact the church begins at Pentecost and it begins with the true preaching of the apostles, with baptism and the breaking of bread, with unity, for as the converts scattered they understood their continuing unity in the Holy Spirit, and with holiness.
This is the core. If we recapture it, then we can stop wasting ink telling each other that a church can be a church even if it meets in a cave or a garage and even if it uses a different format and on and on. Of course it can. But, it can’t be the church without the above marks. So I would beg you that when we talk about how the church needs to change etc. that we start here with the historic understanding of what is being talked about when we say “church.” From here the discussion has promise of being very fruitful.