Separation and The World as God's Sanctuary

This past Sunday I talked about the fact that God thru his word: 1. Separated to form a world that is hospitable to life. 2. granted and filled the world with life. Separation is key to life with God. So we as Christians are to live separated from the world. Now I grew up in a conservative Baptist church. They took this too far--don't wear shorts, women wear skirts, men no hair on collar, no cards...etc. What does it mean to be separate? What is too separate? What is not separate enough?


Another point I made is that the entire world is God's Sanctuary. We need to be separate or different in our whole lives not just at church (or in the sanctuary) on Sunday morning. In fact when we do things different on Sunday morning but not during the rest of the week, we give the church a bad name. People think the church is irrelevant---because it doesn’t make a difference in their everyday lives. Further people think the church is full of hypocrites because people act different on Sunday than they do the rest of the week. Does our church have a problem with this? If it does explain why you think so? Have you met people that feel this way about the church in general in the US? Can or should the church do something to change this perception that the church is full of hypocrites and doesn't make a difference in everyday life?

The Need for a Missional Ecclesiology Part 1

Once again Dr. Brisco has an excellent post on the missional church. It explains why the leaders of so many churches are afraid to make hard decisions and think only of making the congregants happy.

In this post he quotes Hunsberger who suggests 3 views of church in the US and the West that have contributed to a consumer church. The first view he mentions is called the "Reformed Heritage" view, and it naturally developed into the second view which he call the "Contemporary Variation". Our Church falls into view 1 and because of our consumer driven culture have morphed somewhat into view 2. However, we are not alone--most churches in the West have developed form this reformed heritage. This is why I believe the church in the West needs to recognize and lament what it has become--see my Tears, Persecution, and Connection with god blog--so we can envision a new tomorrow and be the church God wants us to be: view 3 which Hunsburger calls "Missionary vision".

Here is Brisco's Blog:
http://missionalchurchnetwork.com/the-need-for-a-missional-ecclesiology-part-i/

Here is my Tears, Persecution, and Connecting with God blog:
http://davesmcmusings.blogspot.com/2009/06/tears-persecution-connecting-with-god.html

Shared via AddThis