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so i used to be this big “house church” guy
really thought “simple church” was it
now…
not so much
now i see it as but a step in the right direction
it is but a step toward erasing the lines between the clergy and the laity, the sacred and the secular, the internal life and the external life
i have some questions that have brought me to this place
1. why is there a difference between what happens at our dinner table on sunday and what happens in the living room immediately afterwards?
2. why are the most important communal spiritual experiences i have happening at times other than sunday morning? even though i’m sharing those times with some of the people i see at “church”…
3. why does the word church, when applied to a specific time or place, actually seem to diminish the authenticity of the experience?
4. and is it just me?
i mean, the bride is the bride all the time
right?
it seems like labeling a time or place “the bride” actually diminishes our ability to actually experience the bride
so i’m wondering why we continue to do this
many people immediately quote this “run home to momma” passage, forsake not the gathering of yourselves together as if it is a mandate to go to “church”
but isn’t hanging out with brothers and sisters over burgers and beers on friday night gathering?
isn’t going to the park to do a little bouldering on the side of the public restroom gathering?
isn’t sitting down with your family to eat gathering?
why is it that the most fulfilling and encouraging times of our lives have been excluded from the definition of the gathering?
how is it possible that we can go to church when we are the church?
what about birthday parties, golfing excursions, garage sale-ing, cigar smoking, mall walking…
do they count as gathering?
and if they do, do we still need sunday morning?
these may seem like trivial questions born of a simplistic view of scripture, God, and life in general…
but i am convinced the impulse that prompts them is born of this sense that something is terribly wrong
and their answers are keys to a different approach to life and the world
i am convinced that the answers will reveal that there is no difference between worship
and life
as with the Father so with the Son
as with the Son so with his bride
or something truly is terribly wrong
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Scott Bartchy is a radical. He believes in a subversive system that embraces those on the fringes of our society and seeks to establish a new way of life that goes against the status quo.