I have been doing quite a bit of follow up work on Off the Beaten Track, and as ever when I start doing talks and workshops my thinking develops. I am thankful for community as it helps me think and grow. However I have had a thought that just won’t go away and the more I chat about it the more angles I see.

When I was reading the parable of the rich young ruler the other day I was struck by how Jesus’ word in verse 29 and 30 resonated with John 10v10 “life in all it’s fullness.”
This was my start point for the question Is church the rich young ruler? I could argue the similarities throughout the passage. One issue for me is that like the rich young ruler the church has sought to keep the commands all it’s life, but still we know something is missing, and if we are not demonstrating life in all it’s fullness by keeping these, what is it that is hindering us? What do we need to take off?
Will we get through the eye of the needle as we are?
Do we need to the challenge to go away disappointed for a while so we can recognise where we have gone wrong?
Does our wealth and new initiatives that come and go hide our disappointment to well?
The Rich Ruler
18A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
19“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good–except God alone. 20You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”
21“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
22When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
23When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. 24Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
26Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”
27Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”
28Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”
29“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.”

Ben raises some good points (see comments on last post) and the praxis issue got me thinking. Thanks Ben I love your input keep it coming. So two points.

1. Ben raised a great point about people doing the restorative kingdom thing and that maybe that can only be described/labelled as church. But in someways Bens description of this, reinforces the need to move beyond labels that are used for shorthand. He laid out a case and his description of church is quite long, needs unpacking and processing through an irratative praxis that roots out what is really meant. This will lead to diversity, and growth.
2. I agree with Ben about the need for praxis, but just as the process (in bens terms the need for a powerless revolution) can change or corrupt the label, the DNA of the reflective cycle will mean the label can equally change or corrupt the process.

So are we back to the need for the long hand, labelless approach that starts with a clean sheet process, rather than a labelled process? Is this back to the post on constructive deconsruction? Hope all that made sense I have just got back from a retreat.