Here's an interview with Donald Miller in Chrstianity Today. Miller is the author of Blue Like Jazz a book I reviewed earlier. The quote below is one of several that could be rather provacative.
I don't think about how we should do church. I love my church, and I love my pastor. But there's been a length of time where I did not feel like I fit in church culture in America. My theology is not run through the grid of self-help formulas. It's run through the grid of relational dynamics. There is a stark difference between the way the church in America is communicating faith and the way the Bible is communicating faith.
Does the church in America run it's theology through the grid of self-help formulas? Are we too focused on the results rather than the relationship? Is there "a stark difference between the way the church in America is communicating faith and the way the Bible is communicating faith"?
1 comment:
I agree with Miller. There is a difference between the way the church in America communicates faith and the way the Bible communicates faith. Brian McLaren's "Generous Orthodoxy" is possibly the most coherent on this topic when he talk about the Seven Jesuses he encounters in different churches (or denominations). There are some "Jesuses" being communicated by the American church and the "Christian" political machine that don't line up with the ethical, practical, ministerial, interpersonal life of Jesus Christ.
Personally, as a Youth Pastor, I'd rather teach "Blue Like Jazz" to my youth group and young adults than any other book (aside from the Bible) I've ever read exactly because it points out that the Church is *not* the answer. The only other book I've had more success with is "Letters from a Skeptic" by Greg Boyd. Both books point out that as humans, we're imperfect, and we don't have all the answers. We focus on the wrong things because that's human nature--to be wrong. God's nature is to be right. To be truth. We should expect that from him, and not assume it for the church.
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