escapingbabylon.com

Just a quick link to an article I found interesting.

They Love The Church But Not The Institution: parts one and two:

I am not anti-institution. I am not one of those rabid fluid-organic-anti-linear-pomo-loosy goosey-anti-establishment church people. I believe structure is necessary. Structure is good and even God-ordained. We see organization and structure from the very foundation of the church in Acts. But these structures always existed to serve God’s people in the fulfillment of their mission. Today, it seems like God’s people exist to serve the institution in the fulfillment of its mission (which is usually to become a bigger institution). Most of the curricula available to pastors on spiritual gifts and service focus on getting people to serve within their institution. Rarely does a church recruit, equip, and release saints to serve the mission outside its own immediate structure. (Imago Dei Community in Portland, Oregon, is a refreshing exception.)

This is the heart of my dilemma. I sometimes feel the energies and time I pour into the institution doesn’t translate into God’s people being more equipped for the ministry of loving God and neighbor. Could my spiritual and personal resources bear more fruit if poured into real people (the church), rather than into the institutional trough they feed from on Sundays? I’m haunted by that question.

It’s worth a read.

And like Ariah, I shall use a list.

• How brainwashed are you? It’s not the name of the quiz, but it’s a good pseudo-name. I sadly got 89%. You should take it and tell me your score in the comments. Be honest in the taking and the reporting
• I may have figured out my personal political descriptor when it comes to American politics. At the moment I am an Optimistic Centrist. Centrist because there are things on both sides (of American politics)that I support and that I think are God-honoring. Optimistic because I much prefer to find and/or vote for the better good ideas than to pick apart and/or vote against the bad ones. I still am unable to vote in the states, so this is all theoretical anyway.
• I will be in Trinidad for at least a week in the summer. I’m considering blowing off a particular annual summer commitment to be there for two weeks, but we shall see.
• The sad part is that my being in Trinidad may affect my being in Atlanta for Atlanta:08 which would be horribly sad.
• I need to stop being a 26 year old in a choir of teenagers. I’d much rather work to empower the tenors to stand on their own than be their crutch keeping them upright. We’ll see what happens next 5th Sunday (which, by my count is in June)
• The question of what country/job/life situation I will be in come October is still very much up in the air (but descending slowly) definitely pray for wisdom guidance about it.
• WordPress 2.5 is really pretty nifty so far.
• Web stuff in process – check out www.thereforegointl.com

Ok here ends the update. I’m going to bed now