This blew me away. Please read this! It may a little long, but I have not read something so true and real in a long time. This is coming from me... A "culture guy" I have been culture crazy, but I have some stuff to think about. I have been challenged by this article. Wow, I say this from my heart, this deals with what really matters.
Please comment I want to hear your opinions.
(The link is in the title)
5 comments:
i KNEW i shouldnt have started this 15 minutes before I leave to lead whorship... LOTS of things in this Kris...
"That's the whole spiritual life. It's learning how to die. And as you learn how to die, you start losing all your illusions, and you start being capable now of true intimacy and love."
I love this snippet... and I could go on for a while about the whole interview but I am out the door! I SHALL RETURN!!
God Bless!
i love the article - read it a while back and loved it. the parts i didn't agree with, was a total "It doesn't matter about culture". if you get a sense of the church he was talking about, it was a small one, and probably not thriving too well. so the church's that do have that attitude end up shrinking and not connecting in reality with emerging generations. The other comment, is that mr. peterson doesn't have to worry a ton about church life, as he took the bible, made it into a paraphrase (why do that if he isn't concerned about culture?) and made enough money to where he can now rest in his house on the lake he lives one. please understand, i LOVE the message and do agree with the most of the article. but, i don't know of churches who ignore culture and then are thriving and growing.
First of all I agree with you. That was the hardest part for me to swallow too. I think what he was tiring to do was help the church create balance. Too much focus on our "culture look" can take away from some of the things that make us as a church beautiful. Believe me anyone that knows me knows that my philosophies center around what I like to call the “relevance” factor. Be Blessed Kris
Yeah, I too thought the "culture" thing was a little off. No, we should not be conformed to the world. But we do live in it and need to learn how to relate to it in order to reach it. But many people fear anything that parallels things in "non-Christian" culture. Music, dress, hair, etc. Instead, we should fear when we allow the degredation of "non-Christian culture in - sin, compromises of immorality, etc. It's funny to me that many people cleave to the old hymns and renounce the newer contemporary Christian music as too worldy - when so many of the old hymns came from old tavern songs and such.
Anyway, onto the things I liked....
"Intimacy isn't primarily a mystical emotion. It's a way of life, a life of openness, honesty, a certain transparency."
This is so very true. We have some sort of grand mystical ideas about how intimacy with God will be, when what is really is is a way of life - weaving our daily life with Him.
"We've got to disabuse people of these illusions of what the Christian life is. It's a wonderful life, but it's not wonderful in the way a lot of people want it to be."
Yes. We do a great disservice when we focus on all the scriputures of prosperity. This is only part of the picture. There is also sacrifice, and spiritual battle, and persecution. It is the strength and joy during the journey, and the final destination, that are the reward. Not the temporarl things that we may or may not experience along the way.
"I've been a pastor most of my life, for some 45 years. I love doing this. But to tell you the truth, the people who give me the most distress are those who come asking, "Pastor, how can I be spiritual?" Forget about being spiritual. How about loving your husband? Now that's a good place to start. But that's not what they're interested in. How about learning to love your kids, accept them the way they are?"
Yes. Christians can tend to search for these grand ways to achieve spiritualy, and forget the basic principle to love each other. Families break up, kids are neglected, all because one parent is off searching for greater spirituality. They are missing the whole point.
"What other church is there besides institutional? There's nobody who doesn't have problems with the church, because there's sin in the church. But there's no other place to be a Christian except the church. There's sin in the local bank. There's sin in the grocery stores. I really don't understand this naïve criticism of the institution. I really don't get it.
Frederick von Hugel said the institution of the church is like the bark on the tree. There's no life in the bark. It's dead wood. But it protects the life of the tree within. And the tree grows and grows and grows and grows. If you take the bark off, it's prone to disease, dehydration, death."
I really like this analogy. I get SO TIRED of hearing people complain about the church because it is full of hypocrites, strife, disagreement, or whatever. Hello! No matter where you go in life - on the job - the supermarket - the bank - the world is full of sinners and hypocrites. But the church provides the structure for us to all come and strive to learn how to be more Christ-like. The church - the denominational structures - are not perfect. They are dead wood. But - this wood protects the life within. I dunno. Just a good analogy.
Okay. That's enough. :) All in all, good article. A few things I didn't agree with totally, but I understand the heart of what he is saying. And he said a lot of really good things, too.
Your so controversial! Gosh!
Love it man...
Post a Comment