We Christians are not transformed simply by hearing sermons week after week. We are transformed by regular encounters with the Lord Jesus Christ. – Page 100

Every Sunday you attend the service to be bandaged and recharged, like all other wounded soldiers. Far too often, however, the bandaging and the recharging never takes place. The reason is quite simple. The New Testament never links sitting through an ossified ritual that we mislabel “church” as having anything to do with spiritual transformation. We grow by functioning, not by passively watching and listening. – Page 77

Somehow we have been taught to feel holier when we are in “the house of God” and have inherited a pathological dependency upon an edifice to carry out our worship to God. At bottom, the church building has taught us badly about what church is and what it does. It is a contradiction of the very nature of the ekklesia – which is a countercultural community. The Church building impedes our understanding and experience that the church is Christ’s functing body that lives and breaths under His direct headship. – Page 42

If the truth be told, we Christians never seem to ask why we do what we do. Instead, we blithely carry out our relgious traditions without asking where they came form. Most Christians who claim to uphold the integrity of God’s Word have never sought to see if what they do every Sunday has any scriptural backing. How do we know that? Because if they did, it would lead them to some very disturbing conclusions that would compel them by conscience to forever abandon what they are doing. – Page 5

I was sitting around with some friends and family and told them of my new purchase. Joking, I said I was going to bring it to “church” with me and read it during the sermon, so I won’t be bored. Then something happened, a number of people said, “that’s what I do.”

What they meant was, they *usually* open their Bibles during the Sunday sermon and start reading. Some of them said they will read a completely different book/chapter/verse, some said they read the same book/chapter/verse but still ignore/half-listening to what the speaker is saying. To be honest, I do this regularly. Most of the time, though, I read the same book/chapter/verse, but read it in context and then wonder how in the world Joe Blow got his point from that text. Anyways, the impression I got was, that these people generally don’t get anything from the teaching part of the Sunday service, so my question is, why go?

If y’all remember, the last time I taught, during a Sunday service, I was told that I went above the heads of most people in the audience. Apparently it was frowned upon to teach the “meat”. What was funniest is that I had a number of people come up to me and tell me what a great job I did and how much they learned. One lady even showed me a full sheet of notes that she took. By the way, the majority of these people were in the same demographic that I was told wouldn’t understand what I said. I wonder, at what point did we all become stupid? Was it when we walked into the building? Or is it the fact that the teacher is just smarter than everyone else?

In a more recent conversation, a close friend of mine was explaining why she doesn’t go on Sunday mornings. Her complaint, “I just sit there and don’t learn anything new”. I agree. How many times can you be told what the Bible says? I know what the Bible says. For the most part, even when I don’t know what the Bible says, I still know what God would say about a certain topic. This same girl decided that she has better things to do with her time than sit around listening to some guy feed her milk. So she asked herself, “Why Go?” and stopped going.

As far as I can tell, the best answer to “Why Go?” is that these buildings are full of other believers on Sunday mornings. So it is the best possible place to meet other believers. The problem is, most of these meetings are sit-n-go’s. We all sit, listen, and go – fellowship only exists in hand-shakes and smiles.

Why do you go?

The book, Pagan Christianity, is all about answering the question, Why do we do what we do? As many of you know, I am a big fan of asking this question. From what I’ve been told and have read about Pagan Christianity, Viola (and now Barna) provide excellent research that can and will help us answer some of this often hard hitting question.

Of course this book has also caused a huge stir among those who are not interested in questioning their traditions. As you can imagine, there has been much mud hurled at Viola and Barna. Whenever I see traditionalists getting a little ancy, it peaks my interest.

As soon as I am able to get a copy of the book I will write a review of it. I am not sure when I will get a copy, but when I do, I think I’ll review each chapter. Until then, here are some links to other blogs talking about and reviewing this book.

The M Blog – “Pagan Christianity” by Frank Viola and Georga Barna

Kingdom Grace – 2 Weeks of Pagan Christianity

The Assembling of the Church – Living in the necessary

Robbymac – Frank’s World

Kruse Kronicle – “Pagan Christianity” Book Review

01. “what’s a handbasket and why do we got to hell in one?” – Isn’t it obvious?

02. should christians believe in santa claus – Yes.

03. muslim vs. baptist – The fight of the century!

04. i need molds of the ten commandments – Don’t we all.

05. how to have church without programs book – I recommend the Bible.

06. help, i don’t want to go to church – Help?

07. thigs to be thankful to god for – Google, peanut butter, and two-ply toliet paper.

08. notes on how to have to be a good pastor wife – Amen.

09. is it biblical to pay church volunteers? – Volunteer?

10. god bless me just a little – Me too.

11. churches say they will forgive if you pay us money – Me too!

For a while I have been desiring certain features in a Bible, such as, Greek and Hebrew along with a solid English translation; perhaps with or without Chapter and Verse divisions; maybe it would have cross references; a single column rather than two columns; room to write notes.

What about changing the book order, especially in the Old Testament?

Remove all transliterated words like “baptism” and “deacon” and replace them with their translations like “immersion” and “servant,” respectively.

What are your thoughts? What do you want in a Bible that you can’t get now?

The reason I ask is because I have thought about creating my own Bible. With direct printing services available from companies like Lulu.com or Cafepress.com this is definitely a real possibility. Of course it will take a lot of work and time, but I think it would be worth it… at least for me.

Here is an excerpt from the book (p. 168-170):

Our Narrowed Understanding of the Church

That we have in fact suffered this narrowing process can be illustrated by examining two statements we make repeatedly about the church. Both statements are usually made with all the confidence of someone who is uttering sacred writ. The two statements are as follows.

• The local church is God’s primary means for accomplishing the Great Commission
• Parachurch groups were raised up to do what the local churches should be doing, but aren’t.

What do we mean by that first statement, “The local church is God’s primary means for accomplishing the Great Commission”?

What other means does God have at His disposal in drawing people to Himself? Well, there are many. He uses His creation. He uses calamity and judgment. He uses the Old Testament prophets, rulers, and historical events. He uses His Word, the Holy Spirit, and His people. Now which of these is God’s “primary means?

Well, we reply, that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about our part in accomplishing the Great Commission. It has to do with ministry. So what we mean by the statement is, of all the forms of ministry Christians get involved in, what goes on in the local church is primary.

But we’re still in trouble. Is not the diversity in the body God’s idea? The apostle writes, “There are different kinds of gifts . . . different kinds of service . . . different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.” And did he not say, “There should be no division in the body, but . . . its parts should have an equal concern for each other”? Are we making value judgments and comparisons between different members of the same body? Well, we reply, that’s no what we mean either.

When it gets down to it, the phrase is usually intended to mean the following: “There is no other authoritative structure in the New Testament for doing God’s work other than the local church. Any work of the church must be under the headship of local, recognized spiritual leaders.” This quotation came from my notes from a lecture. It could have come from any number of sources, as this position is common. In a similar vein, people will say, “I believe in the local church.” That sounds simple enough, but what they often mean, but leave unsaid, is, “I don’t believe in anything else.”

Our difficulties, at this point, lie in the fact that our entire discussion is based on assumptions we have picked up along the way in the course of church history, rather than on the Bible. The Reformers, remember, struggled with the question “How do we know a local church when we see one?” Since the “church universal” was too abstract to do anything with, their practical definition of the church inevitably had the local church as its starting point. Today we still tend to view the church through an exclusively local grid. This has a debilitating effect on the local church. A church that sees its own appointed leaders, staff, or majority vote as the sole source of spiritual leadership becomes an increasingly inward-looking church. Without the cross winds of other spiritual leadership, it ends up talking to itself. It will lack the range of vision and the experience needed to break out into the world.

The second statement, “Parachurch groups were raised up to do what the local churches should be doing, but aren’t,” reflects the same problem. It has its origins in the same ecclesiology as the first.

This ecclesiology begins by asking the question, “When is a church a church?” Our answers usually describe the church as consisting of believers who meet in a certain place where certain things happen. There is corporate worship, teaching of the Word, the sacraments, and there is leadership. A certain structure is implied.

Since these are not the central activities of parachurch ministries, they don’t fit readily into our commonly accepted ecclesiology. So, we reason, such groups aren’t really church. Come to think of it, we’re not sure what they are! So, for many, a cloud hangs over this whole issue of parachurch. Parachurch and paramedic – handy to have around at times, but make sure it’s a real doctor who does the surgery on me!

To say the parachurch groups exist because the local churches aren’t doing the job again reveals the limitations of our prevailing understanding of God’s people. it reflects the assumption that a really good local church is supposed to be doing everything. But any local body that attempts to do everything will simply fail in critical aspects. That is because a local body, like an individual believer, is a part of a great whole. A local body needs to understand its sphere of ministry, its contribution — and the limits of that contribution — if it is to be effective.

We made a major mistake when we first admitted the term parachurch into our vocabulary. How can one part of a body be “para” to the other parts? This awkward division of local and parachurch structures has resulted from our narrow understanding of the church. This narrowing costs us dearly, as it leaves the unbelieving world in no-man’s-land.

What do you think?

He Loves Me is all about God’s love. Jacobsen’s uses the example of the old childhood game, “He Loves Me” as an illustration of the game we play with God. When things are going bad in our lives, we think we need to be better so God will love us again and start blessing us. When things are going good in our lives, we feel like God loves us and we are fine. Jacobsen shows that the He Loves Me theology is not an accurate description of both our lives and God’s love. I highly encourage you to pick up this book. Even if you think you understand everything about God’s love, I think this book will come as a surprise to you… a pleasant surprise. He is releasing the second edition of this book on September 1st, so you may want to wait before reading it. But if you decide not to, I read the first edition and look forward to reading the additions in the second.

Here are a few select excerpt from this great book.

How I wanted to interrupt my conversation and join theirs. I used to think that too. All that matters to God is our obedience. Weren’t we all taught that?
I’ve since come to discover it isn’t so. Certainly God wants us to be obedient to him, and Adam and Eve would have saved us all a host of grief if they had obeyed him. But God knew their disobedience was only a symptom of something he cared about far more.
Since he created us so that we could share in the relationship that Father, Son and Spirit have shared for all eternity, then we have to engage it the same way they do. Their unity flows from the fact that they absolutely love and trust each other. You can see it in the way they talk to each other and how they act together. It only makes sense that God’s invitation for us to share in that relationship must be based on that same trust.
One can obey God, and yet not trust him, and in doing so miss out on a relationship with him. One cannot, however, trust God and be disobedient to him. For we shall see that all disobedience flows out of mistrust in God’s nature and of his intentions toward us.
Thus the experience in the Garden wasn’t to demand their obedience but to incubate their trust. He knew that the first step might well be a step away from him in disobedience. He knew the lesson would be painful and costly—for him most of all—but he chose it because he desired people who would relate to him in love, not obey him in fear. It would have been far easier to accomplish the latter, but God knew that love could only flourish where trust does; and that real trust could only emerge where people were free to reject it.
– Pg. 95-96

“Of course we are saved by grace, but that doesn’t mean we can just sit around and do nothing. God is a loving Father, but don’t take advantage of that because he is also a severe judge. We are not saved by our works, but we still need to live a life that pleases him.” The latter usually consists of some mix of Bible reading, prayer, church attendance and righteous deeds.
By embracing this “but” theology we end up right where we began, with a performance-based relationship to God. We have to live every day concerned about whether we have done enough to be a good Christian and judge others around us with the same standards. It not only takes all the joy out of knowing God, but also all the encouragement out of our relationships with others.
Whenever we add anything to God’s work on the cross, the message is distorted and we rob it of its power. Paul made it clear that the cross alone had totally transformed him. “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14).
– Pg. 150-151

But God has taught me over and over again in this journey that he knows best about everything. The way I would solve my problems and help other people would do more damage to us all than he would allow. When he denied me the thing that I wanted it was because he had a better way not only to deal with my circumstance but change me in the process. In almost every situation it seems that what God is doing is the opposite of what I would do.
When he wanted to teach me to trust him more, I prayed he would fix things so I wouldn’t have to.
When he wanted to lead me into the fullest participation of what he made me to be, I prayed he would just make me happy.
When he wanted to change my character so I would represent his heart to others, I wanted him to leave me the way I was and not allow me to be caught in situations where the “old Wayne” would surface.
I’m so glad he won, more often in spite of my prayers than because of them. I want him to continue, I really do. I want him to use everything in my life to shape me to be more like him so that he can fulfill in me the purpose for which he made me.
– Pg. 183

This book is a story of the fictitious character Jake Colsen. Jake is frustrated with “church” when he encounters a man who really challenges him. This book is the story of Jake beginning The Journey and all the struggles that he faces. Although the story is fiction it reflects those things that many experience while on the journey.

So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore is an excellent read. It was one of my favorites in ’06. I would highly encourage anyone who has started the journey to read this book.

You can purchase the book from Amazon or if you are poor like myself, you can download the book in PDF format for free from http://www.jakecolsen.com/.

I remember now that I had written about this book after I had originally read it. I wrote the small post on September 1, 2006 called A delayed blessing.

Let me know if you decide to read the book. I would love to hear what you think about the book, good or bad.