“I’m convinced that we clergy have an unconscious but vested interest in not teaching people true contemplation because, frankly, it makes our job unnecessary. Job security is [dependent] upon [people] coming back on Sunday morning. I’m fine with church. I have mass. I’m a good priest. But we’ve made it into a business whereby we need the people to keep relying upon us.”
- Richard Rohr
"The church of Jesus Christ is not a meeting to attend, but a worldwide family you belong to, and God can give expression to her however and whenever he desires."
~ Wayne Jacobsen
"Wherever we are connected, in right relationship—you might say “in love”—there is the Christ, there is the authentic “Body of God” revealed. This body is more a living organism than any formal organization."
~ Richard Rohr
I fear we live in a similar time. Our culture is in danger of forgetting that God exists.
But God’s intention was that the church would be the sign that would help people never to forget. This is why some people talk about the church being “the hope of the world.” Technically, the church isn’t the hope of the world – Christ is (Col.1:27). But the church is the sign, the last hope for a world suffering from spiritual amnesia, saying “God exists.”
Michael Frost. Australia
“There are many who agonize over the church. The good news is that the church Jesus is building is alive and well. It is the religious system that is unraveling before our eyes.”
~ Don Nori Sr.
"Two people excited about the same thing are the beginning of almost everything new, creative, and risky in our world. Surely this is what Jesus meant by his first and most basic definition of church as “two or three gathered.”
(Richard Rohr. The Divine Dance)
"For me, everything is about Jesus and Father and the Holy Spirit, and relationships, and life is an adventure of faith lived one day at a time. Any aspirations, visions and dreams died a long time ago and I have absolutely no interest in resurrecting them (they would stink by now anyway). I have finally figured out that I have nothing to lose by living a life of faith."
(Paul Young)
“Such are the lives of those who haven’t the courage to risk: solutions are generously provided by God, but people always seek complicated explanations, and end up doing nothing.”
( Paulo Coelho: Warrior Of The Light)
"There was obviously flexability about the order of service in the Early Church which is now totally lacking. There was clearly no settled order at all. Everything was informal enough to allow any man who felt that he had a message to give to give it. It may well be that we set far too much store on dignity and order nowadays. It may well be that we have become the slaves of orders of service. The really notable thing about an early Church service must have been that almost everyone came with a sense that he had both the privilege and the obligation of contributing something to it. A man did not come with the sole intention of being a passive listener. He did not come only to receive, he came also to give. Obviously this had its dangers for it is clear that in Corinth there were those who were too fond of the sound of their own voices: but nonetheless the Church must have been in those days much more the real possession of the ordinary Christian. It may well be that the Church lost something when she delegated so much to the professional ministry and left so little to the ordinary Church member; and it may well be that the blame lies not with the ministry for annexing those rights. but with the laity for abandoning them, because it is all too true that there are many Church members whose attitude is that they think far more of what the Church can do for them than of what they can do for the Church. and who are very ready to criticize what is done but very unready to take any share in doing the Church's work themselves."
(William Barclay. Letter To The Corinthians)
Yes..... Oh what we learn from the despised ones...... "Those at the edge of any system and those excluded from any system ironically and invariably hold the secret for the conversion and wholeness of that very group....
Only as the People of God receive the stranger, the sinner, and the immigrant, those who don’t play our game our way, do we discover not only the hidden, feared, and hated parts of our own souls, but the fullness of Jesus himself. We need them for our own conversion." (Richard Rohr)
"We don't seek to abolish the idea of clergy, we want to abolish the idea of laity."(Christopher Dather)
"Multitudes of Christians within the church are moving toward the point where they may reject the institution that we call the church. They are beginning to turn to more simplified forms of worship. They are hungry for a personal and vital experience with Jesus Christ. They want a heartwarming personal faith. Unless the church quickly recovers its authoritative Biblical message, we may witness the spectacle of millions of Christians going outside the institutional church to find spiritual food."
-- Billy Graham (1965)
We have been told for so long that we can’t possibly be all that God wants us to be without a properly ordained minister, or without a purpose- built facility, or without the support and assistance that a denominational leadership structure can offer us. Of course, it should be no surprise that we’ve been told that by seminary professors, ordained clergy, and denominational leaders. Many people have too much to lose if we rediscovered what the church around the Southern continents is discovering. Let me make myself clear on this matter. I am not suggesting that there is anything inherently wrong with seminaries, denominations, church buildings, and the rest of the massive infrastructure that the church in the West has at its disposal. What I’m saying is that our reliance on them is limiting our spiritual growth. We are not fully realizing our calling to be the church of Jesus Christ as long as we rely on money, buildings, and paid experts.
-- Michael Frost "Exiles"
"I believe in gatherings that are small, because we need the support, encouragement, and deeper growth that comes from this type of community.
I believe in gatherings where everyone is known so that no one gets lost.I believe in gatherings where we can learn from each other’s personal lives and stories (not just head knowledge) so that growth and discipleship takes place in the context of genuine, healthy relationship.
I believe in gatherings that are participatory because this involves and engages the entire body of Christ.
I believe in gatherings that call the body of Christ to take responsibility for its own spiritual life and stop relying on mediators, events, or someone else to “bring us the goods” because we need to grow up.
I believe in gatherings that are simple so that we are free to spend time with nonChristians and have the time to invite them into our lives.
I believe in gatherings that are easily multiplied, so that we can see people released to reach people anywhere, disciple people everywhere, and start “churches” at any time in any place.
I believe in gatherings that are inexpensive so that money is freed up for apostolic workers and the needs of the poor.
Is there one particular “model” that all of this fits into? Not necessarily. I think God will constantly challenge, stretch, and re-shape our man-made attempts to “do” church gatherings. And I think that is good. The point is to keep focusing on maximizing our life with Him, our partnership with His purposes, and our spiritual growth.
"I believe in knowing people and not letting them or myself get lost. I believe that I must participate and allow for the participation of others so that we grow beyond the depth we had yesterday. I believe that I am my brother's keeper and he is mine. That I am to look not only to my own interests, but also the interests of others. We are all called to pursue the likeness of Christ. That is the business of life. "Church" exists that we can help and get help in that business. We are all mediators. I don't think we need to gather corporately to achieve these ideals. We need to get to work living these ideals."
"Something that has been incredibly important to Felicity and I over the years. The first church we started was at Bart's hospital back, you know in the early 70's. And One of the principles the Holy Spirit taught us then was that we are never to build enough structure into something that it can survive without the Holy Spirit. That's remained a guiding principle for us. We don't want to build something that can still survive with or without God."
(Tony Dale Felicity Dale. Nomad Podcast Interview)
"We had to learn that success in Gods ideas is not measured by what we do, but it's measured, really, by how much like Jesus we become." (Tony Dale)
"We had to learn that it's just as good to be abased as to abound. Both are part of the pathway. God's free to do what he wants. The pot doesn't say to the potter, "You are not allowed to do this". (Tony Dale)
"Simple church is no panacea for all ills. And certainly in the states where huge numbers are moving into simple organic type structures. One of the challenges is they are are bringing a lot of their preconceived ideas about church with them, and we see a lot of what we describe a lot as, "Honey, I shrunk the church." And, I think we work with the light we have. It's not that people are doing something wrong. But their perhaps not realizing they are just bringing a whole lot of baggage with them that just doesn't apply in smaller settings, more informal settings where we are really trying to live church to be church, rather than to "Do church"." (Tony Dale).
