Bible Reading Plan

FYI, we now have a link to our bible reading plan on the website.
Please do us a favor and give us some feedback on the site.
Can you find your way around?
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Let us know how we're doing and how we might improve.
Thanks,
G

http://www.connectionschurch.ca/bible/

A Disillusioned Generation

I sometimes forget i can just pass on interesting stuff through my blog, instead of alway having to find time to write. Here's one such interesting article. Check it out if you have 5 minutes.

Dear Disillusioned Generation

The 'failed experiment' called the church still looks better than the alternatives.

Katie Galli | posted 4/21/2008 08:45AM Christianity Today, April, 2008

The following article is located at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/april/28.69.html

If you've talked to 20-somethings lately, you've probably noticed we're disillusioned about almost everything—government, war, the economy, and most things having to do with The Man. We're especially disillusioned with church. Somewhere between the Crusades, the Inquisition, and fundamentalists bombing abortion clinics, we lost our appetite for institutionalized Christianity. A slew of recent books addresses this growing disenchantment.

An oft-disillusioned (and hopelessly idealistic) 20-something myself, I picked up Life After Church: God's Call to Disillusioned Christians (InterVarsity), and Dear Church: Letters from a Disillusioned Generation (Zondervan). I figured that I'd find writers who share my frustrations. But I was also hoping they would push me toward a deeper and richer relationship with the church—and in this, I was left unsatisfied.

In Life After Church, Brian Sanders writes specifically for "leavers"—people who are committed to Jesus Christ but often view church as a "failed experiment." They feel that following Jesus and staying in a local congregation have become mutually exclusive. Likewise, Sarah Cunningham in Dear Church writes for those who "question whether attending a local church has anything to do with a person's faith."

Both authors focus on local congregations as the primary source of disappointment. Sanders says leavers find Sunday morning services irrelevant—they're repetitive, they don't address issues that really matter to them, and they fail to provide meaningful outlets for service. Leavers often feel that they've outgrown what they perceive as simplistic, seeker-oriented messages; nor do they find churches conducive to deep community. Cunningham says 20-somethings are uncomfortable with overly cool, overly polished churches "whose onstage dress code seems to keep designer clothing stores in business." She also wrestles with the socioeconomic and racial homogeneity of local congregations.

Both authors identify a variety of complaints with the church. But naming a problem isn't the same thing as addressing it.

Sanders and Cunningham suggest drawing on a "clean canvas" what it means to do church. Sanders looks to Acts 9, which describes the apostle Paul's calling following his conversion, in order to propose an "ecclesial minimum" of worship, community, and mission. He writes, "As easily as we have formed churches around cathedrals and buildings with steeples and stained glass, we can form churches around pubs and laundromats, parks and coffee shops. … Simply inviting believers and nonbelievers into our homes for the purpose of worshiping and sharing Jesus transforms our homes into churches."

Obviously it is essential that we as Christians intentionally build relationships with nonbelievers in pubs and laundromats, because that is where they are. But that isn't church. Church is much more complex than "worshiping and sharing Jesus."

Cunningham cites various New Testament passages that deal with early Christian communities. She mentions Matthew 16 a few times—where Jesus appoints Peter to be the rock on which the church will be built—as the biblical grounds for her understanding of church. Ultimately, though, she shies away from any notion of the church as an institution (the closest she comes is saying that the church should be "a permanent fixture in society"). Jesus, she says, "did away with institutionalized religion and instead championed a real-life faith where he hung out with his followers in a way that was perhaps reminiscent of Eden."

I'm unclear on how one can create a "permanent fixture in society" and not create an institution. Cunningham seems to suggest that "real-life faith" is stifled by institutions, so we should avoid them at all costs. I'm not sure it's possible to sustain real-life faith without institutions.

For those who leave the institutional church, the focus seems to be on alternative communities. In "A Leaver's Manifesto" at the end of his book, Sanders says that the foundation of this new movement is the home church. He is so committed to this idea that he writes, "We can affirm the larger gathering for worship and celebration, but we can't call it church."

There is no question that home churches can facilitate powerful, deep community. Indeed, worship, community, and mission are all part of what it means to be the church. But I suspect there is a reason the institutional church has incorporated from its beginning liturgy, catechesis, creeds, and ordained offices—not to mention the sacraments. Over time, we discovered these were vital elements of church. As much as these things can sometimes feel rote, it would be naïve to wave them off as unessential.

In trying to make church relevant again, the authors focus on rethinking the Sunday morning service. In the process, they suggest how culturally trapped many in my generation are. "Too often," Sanders writes, "churches have failed to create an experience that serves and nurtures people at each point on that journey." Cunningham quotes a 20-something who declared, "I'm really tired of the pulpit-pew congregation style because it doesn't transform lives in the same way as one-to-one communication does." She quotes one pastor whose rule of thumb is, "If it doesn't help someone live out their faith Monday through Friday, it's not worth saying."

Of course, local congregations should encourage and disciple their members, help them to serve one another in practical ways, and offer opportunities for meaningful community. But just because those things don't happen on Sunday morning doesn't mean we're not being the church when we gather for worship.

Yes, we're Americans. We multitask all day long. Efficiency is one of our top cultural values. I, too, am pragmatic. I'd like to use Sunday morning to worship God, to get a few pointers on how to improve my relationship with Jesus, and to reconnect with community. But every Sunday, the first words heard at my institutional church are, "Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." And I'm reminded that we gather weekly not to hear a practical talk on how to better live out our faith or to provide a venue to tell our friends about Jesus. We gather corporately to worship God, to celebrate the redeeming work of Christ on the cross, and to remember that our lives are not about us.

Sanders and Cunningham don't completely disagree. Each spends some time giving a kick in the pants to the disillusioned, and Cunningham's warning hits home: "This kind of unexpected idolatry—the obsession with living in despair over what is wrong with the institutionalized church—creeps up on you (like most shifty little idols do). … Criticism becomes what we end up worshiping." She encourages 20-somethings to have a little more grace and patience with the failures of the church and ends her book with a love letter to the church.

The church can indeed be bureaucratic, inefficient, and, at times, hopelessly outdated. It remains one of the most embarrassing institutions to which one can belong. But it has also given us a 2,000-year legacy of saints and social reformers, and a rich liturgy and theology—the very gift 20-somethings need to grow into the full stature of Christ.

Katie Galli, a barista and a member of an Anglican congregation in Glen Ellyn, Illinois

Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Life after Church: God's Call to Disillusioned Christians and Dear Church: Letters from a Disillusioned Generation are available from ChristianBook.com and other retailers.

Studying God's Word

Series: Signs of Belonging
George J. Saylor
April 20, 2008

A collector of rare books was talking with a man who told him he had just thrown away an old Bible that he found in a dusty, old box. He happened to mention that “Guten-somebody-or-other” had printed it.
"Not Gutenberg?" gasped the collector.
"Yes, that was it!"
"You fool! You've thrown away one of the first books ever printed. Depending on the condition that book could have been worth millions!"
"Oh, I don't think this book would have been worth much," replied the man. "Some guy named Martin Luther wrote all over it.”

Not many people are bible scholars, but most of us would know enough not to throw out a Guttenburg Press bible, especially one that had been owned by Martin Luther. But as valuable as that bible would be, the real value of any bible is simply found in one thing- reading it.

So here’s the point today- I want you to read the bible. I want you to be a student of God’s word. Now if you can promise me you’ll read your bible, we can wrap this up really quick and all go golfing.

Why read the bible? In the context of our signs of belonging, we have established this: we belong to God- he made us, he redeemed us, he loves us, he wants to us to know we are his and he is ours- we belong. And so we worship him. That’s the start. The way we worship him without ceasing is by embracing our role as stewards- we talked about stewarding our time, talents and treasures last week. Now here’s where being a student of God’s word fits in- because he loves us, because we belong to him, because we are to worship him, because God wants us to be stewards, he has not left us in the dark wondering how to do all this. He has literally given us a book so that we can know the story of his love for us. So we can know how to worship him, so we can know how to be stewards. Why read the bible? Because God loves us enough that we are not left wondering how to work all this stuff out.

Read the whole sermon at cccsermons.blogspot.com

www.connectionschurch.ca

I need to blatantly plug our web page any way I know how- because it's awesome.
www.connectionschurch.ca
We now have a video window where you can watch our promotional videos.
And you can now listen to sermons online, or even subscribe to our itunes podcast.

A special thanks to Steve for the audio recordings.
To Ben for the video.
To Will for figuring out how to put them on the website.
And Steve, our original website designer and host.

I humbled and awed by the talent and devotion of these guys.
They have all done excellent work out of no other motivation than their love of God.

I am humbled and awed by the commitment and work of so many in this mission.
It's awesome to see a teams of people working together to grow this ministry.

So enjoy the new and ever improving website.

Stewarding God's Gifts

Series: Signs of Belonging
George J. Saylor
April 13, 2008

Last week we started by talking about our first sign and the foundation of finding true belonging- finding our belonging in God. We were created by God, we have been saved by God through Jesus, and we are called to belong with God in the community of Christ-followers, the church. And we express this great sense of belonging in the thing called worship. We start our week Sunday morning, Soaring in Worship, then we live it throughout the week.

But how do we do that, really? How do we live a life of worship? Through this thing we call Stewardship.

Today we go deeper into what it looks like to life a life of worship. And we believe that this idea, this practice of Stewardship is the start. And it’s as simple, and complex, as saying “God, in worship of you, everything I have, everything you’ve given me, belongs to you. And I will use it for you.” Stewardship is embracing this idea that you are not your own, and your stuff is not your stuff alone. But really that you belong to God, and your stuff belongs to God- all your stuff- your time, your talents, and your treasures, as we’ll get into it.

Read the whole sermon at cccsermons.blogspot.com