Lightening your Load
One of the things I enjoy reading is a book that challenges
my preconceptions and gets me thinking. I have just read one such book.
The authors suggest that reading the book requires courage,
not because of what the book says, but because of what you, as a follower of
Christ, should do in response to what you have read.
This is not a book that is designed to undermine faith in
anyway, far from it, if anything it sharpens one's vision and faith that the
church can rise to the challenge of being who she is in Christ.
The authors’ view is that many of our church practices have
their origins not in the Christian community but in the world beyond the Church
and in fact the pagan world this they suggest includes.
- Our focus on buildings
- The way we order our service
- The way sermons are delivered
- A focus around a professional clergy rather than the ministry of all church members
- Dressing up for church and clergy attire and gowns
- The way we finance our churches
- The way we have diluted the sacraments
- Our systems of education
- Much of what goes as bible study
In one sense, I think the authors have gone too far, as one
thing that has enabled the church to be so successful in the past, has been its
ability to adapt to a changing culture and to baptise what is good even if it
comes from a pagan world.
However, the point is that some of the practices that may
have been appropriate in the past have become entrenched; and perhaps we need
to hold them more lightly. We can then adapt to a changing world and bring the
message of Christ to people of our generation; while not being encumbered with
methods which belong to the mission of the church in previous generations.
One thing is clear to move forward we have to let go of
things from the past that hold us back.
This book will assist us in lightening our load and to be
fleet of foot and help enable the church to be the body that she is called to
be in this our generation.
