You See Bones, I See an Army (cont,)

I'm about 1/3 way through this book and am loving it!  Here are my highlights from Chapter 1 titled Five Beliefs that Changed the way I Do Church, by Floyd McClung.

Perhaps one of the reasons we have lost our relevance is because we spend so much time and energy thinking of ways to make the sacred hour on Sunday more attractive to saved people, rather than equipping saved people to take the church to world.  Amen!

God created us to need a challenge so big it changes everything we believe and hold dear.

...church is not an institution but an army.  Believers in the rest of the world are not devoted to doing church in religious buildings but to gathering anywhere and everywhere they can to study the words of Jesus and to pray and worship.  The participants in this revolution believe they are at their best when they meet in twos and threes, not two and three thousands.  And they don't see their small gatherings as the purpose for church but as the means for them to be encouraged in their longing to see more people know Jesus.

...but I do believe the more complicated we do church, the more difficult it is to reproduce.  Complicated ways of doing church are overwhelming and difficult to feel part of.  How many people believe they can start or lead a megachurch?

They key to starting churches that reproduce spontaneously is to be Jesus to lost people.

But the fact is that the bigger and more complicated a local church becomes, the more people and the more money it takes to lead one person to Christ.

I concluded many years ago that all followers of Jesus interpret the teachings of Jesus and the impressions of the Spirit via an inner set of core beliefs that, for better or worse, guide their lives.  These five guide my life:

1.  Simple church
2.  Courageous leadership
3.  Focused obedience
4.  Apostolic passion
5.  Making disciples

I believe the effectiveness of any movement that makes a lasting impact will be measured by how effective it is in fostering a culture of discipleship that thrusts its members out among the lost.

Yes, the lost.  Those people.  The unlovely.  The dirty, the smelly, the homeless, the addicted, the middle-class upper management ladder-climbing folks who can do all things through themselves.  Your neighbor, your sister, your father, your child.  It's time we stop hoarding the greatest gift we've every been given and start giving it away.  Afterall, it was free to us, and is free to everyone else.

Blessings on this beautiful fall Monday.