I Got this today from the Henri Nouwen daily meditation
Often we hear the remark that we have live in the world without being of the world. But it may be more difficult to be in the Church without being of the Church. Being of the Church means being so preoccupied by and involved in the many ecclesial affairs and clerical “ins and outs” that we are no longer focused on Jesus. The Church then blinds us from what we came to see and deafens us to what we came to hear. Still, it is in the Church that Christ dwells, invites us to his table, and speaks to us words of eternal love.
Being in the Church without being of it is a great spiritual challenge.
Great Quote richard. It leaves me wonder if the task for the church is to get unchurched?
absolutely. Back to Daves Wiles quote who says “he spends half his time trying to get people into the church and half his time trying get people out of church into the world”
It reminds me of that old quote from Howard Snyder, “Jesus came to comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable” – To move church people from the church is a huge task because the church is a comfortbale place to be – people in the church become part of a sub-culture, using special language, symbols, ethics, music etc. For a person to leave this and to engage in another culture is extemely challenging and risky and most of us don’t want to do it. Your orgiinal quote does make me wonder what the emerging church is all about. What is it emerging from – has there been a death?? Is it just reinventing the wheel? If as I beelive we are, going through a cultural and religious pardigm shift – don’t we need to go to the ‘desert’ and wait before soemthing new, really new will emerge!!! , something completely different.
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