Mere Churchianity

On holiday recently I took a journey with Michael Spencer the late writer of the blog "The Internet Monk" by reading his book Mere Churchianity
.

Michael had many difficulties with the established church. So as I read sometimes I felt like shouting at the book NO. It seems like Michael's' experiences in "church" had caused him pain and disappointment and some of his comments were barbed to say the least but at the same time he also communicated great truth.

The Church and each of us have a Divine mission and somehow we seem to settle for something way less than the Jesus road. Michael would suggest the establishment that has become the church of today actually hinders people from taking up this mission in totality.

He would suggest that churches and church leaders have become more obsessed with attendance at events rather that the development of Jesus shaped disciples.

So although I found many of his conclusions hard to digest I felt God talk to me from the pages of this simple book about the focus of my life to be a Jesus shaped disciple.

Here are a few quotes from its pages:

"Jesus is not going to leave your idea of God alone until He is your idea of God."

A Jesus shaped truth invasion brakes into that safe place where we keep our long held ideas of God, and breaks them into pieces."

"Our biggest problem with Jesus is that we want to control things and He turns out remarkably difficult to control."

"Are we followers or fans of Jesus."

"You will learn most about Jesus when you are standing on life's diving board and He is telling you to jump into the water you have always tried to avoid."

"Jesus was not clearing the road so I could ride victoriously through life. He was becoming the road that would carry me through all the garbage, falls, failures & disasters that were the inevitable results of my existence."

A few more of his thoughts tomorrow.