A church service idea: the space. Sounds intriguing, although I think to try it in a mainstream church you would have to make a special time for it, rather than remix an existing service time: the sheer amount of change would be too much, I fear, for people to be comfortable with it.
Hi Dave,
Just read through the link you quote, and I have to say what a lot of nonsense this emerging church stuff is!
With respect, this has nothing to do with feeling comfortable or not, and everything to do with avoiding good Bible teaching, replacing it with weak, self-focussed, ‘feel-good’, wishy-washy “connect time”.
This is NOT church. It bears no resemblance to the church of the N.T. or the church of today (which I gather the authors are trying to avoid) in it’s content or purpose.
There’s no talk of the gospel (that which brings Christians together), and no serious attempt to spend time in the word.
What a waste of time and effort.
You sound half convinced though – would you care to post why you think that?
Cheers
Neil,
Thanks for your response. I certainly wouldn’t see this replacing a church gathering on a regular basis, more of a one-off thing to try with a congregation. Why a congregation? To have a cross-section of ages and backgrounds, and gather a few extra points of view.
I see it as useful in terms of having people develop in their relationship with God: to spend time in prayer, and in thinking about a particular bible passage.
I’m not entirely persuaded of the usefulness of the various “stations” that are described, but more the idea of sitting quietly and thinking about a passage of scripture, and then sharing the results at the end, in some kind of church-morning-tea context.
Having re-read the article, I think I see what you’re saying a bit more clearly. If I was going to put something like this together, the prayers I would use would be quite different: I would use more gospel-centred prayers that explain why we are able to approach God in a setting like this… I think my initial reading of the prayers assumed a more solid gospel basis than was actually present.
I’m not advocating a regular gathering that doesn’t have a sermon, but I do think that getting people together, and giving them space to reflect on a bible passage, and spend time in silence and prayer would be a useful thing, and might help counteract the tendency that some ways of doing church have that emphasise academic knowledge at the expense of relationship with God.
Is that any clearer?
Thanks Dave – for taking my stirring in the right way. 😉
I’m glad you are thinking more critically about the issue than it *appeared* you were!
I agree, time for reflection and prayer is a useful thing, and we do some of that here (Springwood Anglican) at Factory Night Church.
I stand by my frustrations with much in the emerging ‘church’, because so much of it appears to be a knee-jerk response to what church currently is, and yet rarely offers anything better – in fact it’s usually a lot worse.
I would most interested if you get to try some of what you suggest…
Cheers