An Ordinary Guy

Lately it seems that the more truth I seek, the more mystery I find. The more I read and study the Bible the more the denominational and doctrinal “truths” I had learned and adhered to get blurred, and in some instances erased, and it tends to be frustrating to part of me… But then another part of me embraces the idea of mystery!

I think that is what a lot of people are experiencing, I think that is why the emergent church has grown, I think that is why home churches are becoming the norm in today’s Christianity, I think that we as humans were made to embrace mystery.

Kind of like in the Matrix (I don’t remember which one), the machines made life for the humans into a utopia, but our human minds couldn’t handle everything being so perfect. So the machines started putting a little bit of conflict into the “program”.

Western Christianity, with its black and white, objectified, McDonaldized efficient, this is this and that is that, type of religion has gotten some people, ( I think it is those who are still curious about God) upset, they sit in the pews and get fed “truth” and they don’t want to be fed, they want to out there searching and seeking and learning and discovering and chasing the mystery!

Belief vs. Faith

Maybe that is why we see belief and faith as the same thing. We have pushed mystery (the mystery of God) away in favor of nice, clean, sanitary, easy to adhere to sets of belief, rules (read laws) and demand (for our salvation) that we adhere to these sets of rules, doctrines and creeds, (this is this and that is that) and so we believe, based on the rules and doctrine. All the dots are connected, the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted, packed, labeled and sold like a product.

Faith however is not belief, when you have faith, there are dots that do not connect, yet you still follow, there are T’s left uncrossed and I’s left un-dotted and you still have faith, there is evidence of things unseen and things hoped for, but we still see the glass darkly, we know in part yet we still have faith that God is who He says he is…We have faith…and that is part of the mystery.

So embrace the mystery! After all Paul does call us “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor 4:1)

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Tony Morgan Paraphrased an article from Outreach Magazine.
When I read the list, it struck me as to how true it is. I guess when you come out of a church situation like that hind site is 20/20. Here is the list, tell me what you think.

1. The pastor doesn’t go on a vacation for any significant length of time. And, when he does, it isn’t announced.
2. When the pastor doesn’t preach, the attendance drops.
3. Unspoken fear that if something happened to the pastor, the church would be in trouble.
4. The pastor is unwilling to listen to and consult other team members. The staff and volunteers are there to carry out the directions of the pastor.
5. There’s no succession plan in place; therefore, leadership development isn’t happening.

Number 2 was so true in the last church we served at. The attendance would drop nearly 50% when the senior pastor was not preaching.

Good sermon preparation and maybe the use of an outline or notes stops you from rambling and repeating yourself to us for over an hour…

could you do your job if you were in another room or in the back and not seen? If not you need to think about some stuff

it really is not about you and your skills and guess what, even though they treat you like a rock star YOU ain’t