Houses That Change The World

"Our bookshelves are full of Christian books and videos. We have churches on every major street, more staff workers than ever before, large Sunday school departments, cell systems, mega- and meta-church seminars. We have Christian bumper stickers, political action groups, huge parachurch ministries - and in the midst of it all, we have lost every major city in North America. Rather than rethinking our methods and challenging our own effectiveness, we try to escape responsibility for the eternal damnation of those in our communities by blaming others for our own spiritual ineffectiveness." (Page 10, Houses That Change The World)

"The image of much contemporary Christianity could be summarized as holy people coming regularly to a holy place on a holy day at a holy hour to participate in a holy ritual led by a holy man dressed in holy clothes for a holy fee. Since this regular performance-oriented enterprise called a 'worship service' requires a lot of organizational talent and administrative bureaucracy, formalized and institutionalized patterns developed quickly into rigid traditions. Statistically, a one- or two-hour 'worship service' is very resource-hungry but produces very little fruit in terms of discipling people (changing their lives)...Do we need to change from being powerful actors and start acting powerfully?" (Page xxi, Houses That Change The World)

It has been a stretching week for Jonathan and I. Much of the discussion here at the Abilene Lectures has centered around new forms of Church and the call to take Christ's call to discipleship more seriously.

Reg Cox spoke this morning from I Peter 3 about the necessity that Christians be willing to suffer for our faith, and our need to follow Jesus not only because He is our Savior, but also because he is our LORD! I am more impassioned that at any point in my 41 years about the need to be an apprentice to my Rabbi Jesus and follow Him wherever He may go. Will you join me? Are you also impassioned? What might the Spirit of God be leading you to RIGHT NOW?