God, the Creator of Pleasure...........

OK. I don't know why this hit me while I was reading the Shaping of Things to Come. I mean, I guess I could have figured this out, after all, I know that God created all things. So, some people cannot connect God with our daily lives. Some people cannot feel God in pleasure. Is pleasure selfish and therefore sinful? God created the things in us that give us pleasure. Our taste buds, our skin, even our likes and dislikes. Here is what I think.... God wants us to feel pleasure. He wants us to enjoy our lives. Can pleasure LEAD to sinfulness? Absolutely. But that is because we fail to see God in those things that make us pleased. We fail to see our pleasure as a gift from Him, and therefore misuse and abuse it. Those are just my thoughts. What are yours???

Shaping of Things to Come....

I love, in this book, how they talk about the well in the center. To summarize, if you are a farmer and have livestock on a small farm, you would fence it in, to keep your animals with you and other animals out. If you are a farmer and have miles and miles of farmland, it is impossible to fence that in. So how do you keep your livestock from running away? Put a well in the center. Animals do not travel far from a water source. OK. Now think about church. In the past, church seemed to be the farm that put up a fence. We are in, they are out. What we want to be is a farm where you are never out, just a little further from the "well", which is Jesus and the Gospel. The closer that you are to the center well, the more Christlike your journey is. I desire to be close to that well. I pray that God leads all of closer and closer to the center. I pray that he allows us to see all of his people, not as being non-Christian or Christian, but as being a little further away from the center, never out. Gods grace reaches all over and covers all of us.

HUH?

OK. I have always been one that is true to myself, not ashamed of my own limitations and not embarrassed by most things. Can I just ask if I am the only one who is having a hard time reading this book??? It has been my understanding, in the past, that when one is defining a word, they take the word, and use smaller, easier to understand words to explain it. It seems that in this book, I get excited...like OOOO I finally get an explanation of what incarnational (just as one example) means....then they use other huge words, that I do not know what THEY mean, to define it????!!!!???? I am feeling inadequate. Maybe this book just wasn't made for the stay at home mom who hasn't read much besides Veggie Tales: The Chicken Noodle Soup~er Bowl, for the past few years!

Outside the Walls

Page 23 begins to paint this picture in my mind. They talk about a man named Brock Bingaman that opened up a shoe store (his great passion) to serve the community and to begin to blend the secular and non secular lives. A shoe store fitting people with the love of Christ and a snazzy pair of sneakers! From that point, they talk about different places doing the same sort of thing; a bar, an art gallery, etc. Moving outside the walls of the Church. Moving out of the "come to us" mindset. I cannot help but get a picture of a downtown. A street full of shops. Some owned by Christians, some not. Blended beautifully. Owners of shops getting to know the people in the community. Helping to serve their needs. What would your shop be? Help me paint this picture.

Chapter Two: The Heartbeat (The Shaping of Things to Come)

This hit me like a ton of bricks. "Mission is not merely an activity of the church. It is the very heartbeat and work of God." Our hearts beat to send blood through our bodies to keep us moving, functioning, living. Without it, we do not exist in this life anymore. So what does being missional mean? I have read through what a missional church is not.....attractional, dualistic, and hierarchical. So, where does that leave us? It seems so simple, it leaves us with the picture of what Jesus and the disciples were, what they did, how they preached, and how they lived. At least, that is what I think of and picture in my mind. But, how does that fit into where we are? How do we move from the "come-to-us" into the "go-to-them" church? What are your thoughts on this?

Chapter One (The Shaping of Things to Come)

What struck you in this chapter?

Chapter One (The Shaping of Things to Come)

I think that we all have a deep seeded desire to feel and be accepted for who we are. No one wants to put on a mask and walk around pretending to be someone they are not. That is why, I think, things like Burning Man are such a huge movement. Think about it, imagine that you are gay, or an alcoholic, or a prostitute, or a drug addict. Where do you go to feel accepted, loved? Church? I highly doubt it. Why not?

Imagine that you were in Jesus' day. Where would you go then? Maybe to Jesus? I think that I would. He never turned anyone away. He never made anyone feel unwanted or unworthy. So, if we are Christians, why are we so unaccepting of others? Why have we gotten such a bad reputation? If we are Christ followers, why do people who need it most feel that church is the last place they would go for acceptance and love? Shouldn't it be the first?

What can we do about it?

Book 2

OK. I am moving on to our next book. The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsh. I cannot wait to start this book. I will go back to the second and third books by Brian McLaren when I am done reading this one.

Anyone read this one already? Any thoughts?