I have been reading another great book. It is called Dirty Word - The Vulgar Offensive Language of the Kingdom of God - by Jim Walker.
This is one of those books that really kicks me around and makes me think. It makes me think about the way we do church and ministry. I like people that make me think.
In the book is a passage from a book by one of my hero's, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In his book Life Together, he has a quote:
"God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary idea of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own laws, and judges the brethren and God Himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he see the community going to smash. So he becomes first a rejecter of his brethren, then a rejecter of God, and finally the despairing rejecter of himself."
Walker uses this in talking about building community. He ask the question, "How do we conjure up authentic Christian community? We don't. Because frankly we cant. He says that it happens naturally. It happens when we are surrendered and humbled. Koinonia will take place naturally.
Challenging.
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Ooooh. I like those thoughts. Kevin and I have talked a lot about this very subject in the past couple of years, and it seems like some people are just making it too hard. We love each other, we give and serve sacrificially, we open our hearts and homes to each other. We forgive. Biblical and simple. Not easy, though. Maybe that's why people feel the need to 're-invent'....
Have you ever been in church and seen all the church stuff going on and asked yourself, is this what Jesus died for?
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