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Building Lives… Living Dreams…
By Fred | Thursday, July 22, 2010
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This chapter deals with the perceived need to “dress up for church” on a Sunday morning. Again, the authors trace the history of the phenomenon. Not much to say about this chapter. It’s bang-on all the way through. The strongest statement they make is that “[w]earing our ‘Sunday best’ conceals a basic underlying problem. It [...]
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By Fred | Saturday, July 17, 2010
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The next chapter in Pagan Christianity deals with “the pastor.” The authors claim that the contemporary version of “pastor” comes from “an implicit desire in people to have a physical leader to bring them to God.” This desire, it seems, stems from “the Fall” (p. 108). They trace the history of church leadership, which, with [...]
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By Fred | Saturday, July 10, 2010
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“Culturally relevant” is what some people might call “seeker sensitive.” I use it in terms of “speaking the language of the culture around us.” There is a blurred boundary between “church” and “world.” We are in the world but not of the world. We speak the language of the world. This has been supremely modeled [...]
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By Fred | Friday, July 9, 2010
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I’m just finishing a book called The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions. It reveals a contrast between liberal theology (represented by Marcus Borg) and conservative theology (represented by N.T. Wright). Christianity says of God that he is both “immanent” and “transcendent.” Transcendent means that God is “above and outside” the universe. He is the Creator [...]
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By Fred | Tuesday, July 6, 2010
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The tradition that Viola and Barna attack next is the Sunday morning “sermon.” I have my own issues with it. I remember taking a Homiletics class in Bible college (i.e., the “art of preaching”). At one point I asked the teacher why we “preach in church.” I asked me what I meant. I said, “The [...]
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By Fred | Friday, July 2, 2010
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The next topic dealt with in Pagan Christianity is the “order of worship.” Viola and Barna rightly trace the elements of our “order” throughout history. Generally speaking, a church service is structured around singing and then preaching (they also add “closing prayer or song” (p. 50), although I’m not sure it’s a given; at best, [...]
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By Fred | Monday, June 28, 2010
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(This is a break from the Pagan Christianity blogposts, which will resume later.) The recent activities of protesters in Toronto during the G20 Summit have raised numerous issues close to the hearts of many – the economic crisis, the environment, international policy, to name just a few. The actions of a minority of violent people [...]
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By Fred | Friday, June 25, 2010
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The Argument The first subject that the book addresses is the church building. The basic premise here is sound: the church is not a building. The church is people. It took a few hundred years for church buildings to be built. Christians met in homes. Viola and Barna’s conclusion is that church buildings shouldn’t exist. [...]
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By Fred | Thursday, June 24, 2010
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Does it Matter? Going back to the introduction of the book, George Barna addresses the question, “Does it really matter how we practice our faith, as long as the activities enable people to love God and obey Him?” (p. xxviii) With a little thought, I think the obvious answer is, “yes.” He then says, “Does [...]
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By Fred | Wednesday, June 23, 2010
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I read an interesting and informative book a while back called Pagan Christianity, by Frank Viola and George Barna. Frank Viola is a strong proponent of the “house church movement” and George Barna is the “Gallup” of North American Christianity—a researcher who conducts objective information gathering through polls and studies. This book investigates the roots [...]
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