:: STUMBLING TOWARD FAITH ::
I discovered Renee Alston's book on Andrew Jones web site. Here is what she's posted there:
my name is renee. i'm the author of stumbling toward faith, and this is my message for much of the church.
(thanks andrew! for the opportunity)
i want to talk about the things that people don't want to think about. i want to talk about power, and how it has potential for unspeakable damage. i want to talk about pain, and how we spend countless breaths trying to force it away; to fix it. i want to talk about grace, and what it has meant to and for me, underneath my pretending.
i believe that much of institutionalized christianity and its christian bubble culture has created a world that will inevitably leave us less human. the church has become a place that justifies its treatment of people with (in) the name of god. the church has a short tolerance for grief, for brokenness, but it has a timetable for treating it. the church has an instant answer, a heavenly prozac: the lord jesus himself.
i know that for me, on some days, i can't get out of bed in the morning. i'm no less a believer than i was the day before. i'm no more a sinner than i was before i awakened. but healing, and trust, and moving on, is a journey. it's a cycle. it's one moment after one breath after one sigh. and somehow, i don't understand it, and some days i don't even believe it, but god is there in those moments and breaths and sighs, and god waits with me in my sadness.
when will the church be willing to enter into its people's brokenness? when will it learn the value, the necessity, of holding a friend's hand and being silent? when will it allow people their own journeys through their pain? their own timetable for being well? when can the church truly believe, and accept that even in sorrow (and perhaps, especially in sorrow) itself we find god?
Please, READ MORE!! on Andrew Jones blog site...
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2 comments:
"when will the church be willing to enter into its people's brokenness?"
This is easy to answer: When the leaders are prepared to sacrifice their reputations and their egos and their incomes for the sake of the congregation. When they are prepared to humble themselves and show their people how to do it. Two elements essential to the transformation of church life:
1. The public and demonstrated and courageous humility of it's leaders when they screw up.
2. The public and demonstrated and courageous doctrine of forgiveness flowing back and forth between borthers and sisters, between congregant and leaders.
Essentially, most churches major on the minors and minor on the majors. Spiritual dissonance.
Some majors being minored are the core elements of the Gospel, such as forgiveness, grace, love, faith, hope, etc. (Simple concepts that confound the wise)
The minors being majored are tithing, Sunday morning preaching, church "business" meetings, announcements, building programs, etc.
Church as we know it has it "bass-ackwards" and cart-before-the-horse.
"when will the church be willing to enter into its people's brokenness?"
This is easy to answer: When the leaders are prepared to sacrifice their reputations and their egos and their incomes for the sake of the congregation. When they are prepared to humble themselves and show their people how to do it. Two elements essential to the transformation of church life:
1. The public and demonstrated and courageous humility of it's leaders when they screw up.
2. The public and demonstrated and courageous doctrine of forgiveness flowing back and forth between borthers and sisters, between congregant and leaders.
Essentially, most churches major on the minors and minor on the majors. Spiritual dissonance.
Some majors being minored are the core elements of the Gospel, such as forgiveness, grace, love, faith, hope, etc. (Simple concepts that confound the wise)
The minors being majored are tithing, Sunday morning preaching, church "business" meetings, announcements, building programs, etc.
Church as we know it has it "bass-ackwards" and cart-before-the-horse.
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