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go here to buy my stock photography Alan Creech
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aaron klinefelter
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Let me get past the controversy right quick so we can move on and not make this the longest blog post known to human kind. The purpose of the Church is NOT...
The purpose of the Church is to be the Church. What or who is the Church? The Church is the collected people who have been spiritually united with God through Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Those of us who have been gathered back under the wings of the Mother Hen. The Church is alive people - the assembly of Living People - the Resurrected ones. I've said this before (of course) in one way or another, but the whole purpose of the Jesus thing is so that we all will be Human Beings again, real ones, Alive ones, the kind we were created to be. That's IT. That's the whole thing. That's all. Everything else flows out of that. So, as we ARE the Church, our purpose is to be as fully Alive as possible - to open ourselves to the fullness of the Life of God in Christ as much as we can, and thus, be transformed into His Image. What are we then? What do we become, the more like Him we are? We become what He "was" - we become living and participatory conduits through which the Life and Kingdom of God flows into the world. We are that by being who we are. The Church, as it exists here on earth, is a transformation vessel for those who are in it. Once again, everything else flows out of that. If we focus so much on the doing of things as our purpose, I believe we will shortcut what's actually supposed to be happening in and through the Church. Sure, we'll see good things being done, but to what end? I'm not sure. Of course, I know, the Kingdom "work" is done through anything good like that. Allow me to focus on this, though. If all we do is play around with secondaries and outward-oriented activities, thinking that by doing this we are "getting something done," we may well be cutting off the nutrients needed to properly grow the plant. Go find a big tree, an Oak or something like that. What do you look at? The branches and the leaves right? Especially in the Summer or Fall. We focus on something which is secondary. We focus on the outer edges. Where does the life of that tree come from? From the trunk, the ground, the roots. Sure, photosynthesis happen through the leaves, etc., but if not for that trunk and that massive root system, the leaves would die and fall off, and the tree, in the end, would bear no real and lasting fruit. I think I'll stop there. Of course this subject matter is deep and cannot be fully worked out in a blog post, but I think I have said basically what I wanted to say at this point. Be the Church. technorati tags > the church, church, ecclesiology, active ministry, contemplative, christianity, spiritual formation, kingdom of god Labels: church, spiritual formation ::: ::: permalink ::: e-mail me :::
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daily prayer |::
ordinary time
lectionary readings |::
> today
three quotes |:: "Then, if we cannot as yet think alike in all things, at least we may love alike. Herein we cannot possibly do amiss." "Keep your eyes on the crucifix, for Jesus without the cross
is a man without a mission, and the cross without Jesus
is a burden without a reliever." "...I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be
completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self."
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