nakedpastor

I’m sorry I haven’t posted for the last couple of days. I have been attending the regional Vineyard leaders conference. I always dread going to these things but am always glad I went. It’s not the political, strategical, organizational stuff that interests me at all. The talks are good probings into what’s going on and what may come. The music worship is good. All that’s fine. But for me it is the fellowship… getting together with my friends. This, actually, is what it is all about.

I think the church is heading in that direction anyway, necessarily. I believe we are heading to a place where organizational, institutional, political and purposeful church will be meaningless. I suspect I think and feel like the disenfranchised from Christianity and the church. I realize I don’t look like it, being a paid pastor of a church with a building which is part of a denomination which is recognized as being within Christendom. But I am not interested in what all this means. I am not interested in the future of our denominational organization. I am interested in the people within it. I am not interested in securing my salary from my community indefinitely. I would love to make my living through, say, my art or writing or cartoons while continuing to be involved in this community. I am not interested in the longevity of our way of doing church in this building. I am interested, painfully lovingly so, in the people of my community. This means a great deal to me. Anyway, I intend to write more about this. I have to pack up and go for the final day of the conference. Stay tuned.

Is it possible for people to gather in complete freedom? I continue to put this question because it is vital to the freedom of the individual and to the community. I am passionate about exploring this issue. I also think it is crucial that the question remains open because as soon as someone thinks he has the answer the results will be catalogued, published, then legislated.

People get upset over such cartoons as I published earlier to day. Some are upset because they are convinced that the church as it is does need reform… that it must either change or die. Others are upset because they detect an undertone of disdain for the church. I have come to the conclusion that church reform is useless. I appreciate the Protestant principle, the Reformed tradition, its theologians and ideas. But the proposal that the church is reformed and always reforming reflects the endless cycle we are trapped within. It betrays the fallen condition we are not necessarily consigned to as free men and women or as communties. This will not nourish or protect our personal or corporate freedom.

Is there a way we can become entirely free as individuals? Perhaps it isn’t even a “way”, but a reality that is ours which we must instantly realize and enjoy. Then, can free people gather in such a way as to respect one another’s freedom and not impair it, but to give it the opportunity for fullest expression in the context of community? Of course, this implies love, which necessarily implies mutual surrender, sacrifice and service. But can it be done? Can we gather free of designs, visions, plans, goals, purposes, expectations and conformations? Can we gather in love with love itself as the means and the end?

I have not yet seen it on a consistent basis. I have seen glimpses of it. They are beautiful moments beyond words. But these are just momentary states, not a permanent stage as yet.