rabbi marc gellman wrote about the 2005 trends in spirituality in a recent newsweek magazine.
i think i am one of the revolutionaries he speaks of. i am a misfit in my culture. i see and sense things that create dissonance in my soul at many levels. if God chooses to use this dissonance in me to be an agent of change, then so be it. floyd mcclung, of ywam, speaks of this feeling that i share when he says:
After several years of deepening frustration with how I was doing church, I went to a spiritual father to ask for some counsel. I told him I wanted to do church differently, maybe even to plant a church, but the organization I worked with would not allow me to. He laughed and told me God had given me a “holy frustration” to get me ready for change.
revolutionaries are not rebellious, but they are chaordic. they are disruptive. they are agitators. they are discontented (not malcontents.) they are the seeds of change within organizations to bring about organic modification.
why do i need to be this way? i think the answer came for me this past sunday in a very strange way. i was sitting in a coffee shop having a bagel after attending church with a cousin in south florida. i was alone and this place was crawling with people emerging from a new year’s eve filled with revelry and merriment – not to mention some beverages that induce temporal changes in behavior patterns. most of the people were most probably non-Christian and i was engaged in hearing their conversations. (yes, i was eavesdropping.) as i did this, a sense began to swell in me that asked the question, “how can i reach people far from God?” what am i doing right now in ministry or life that would make a difference in their life?” preaching? no. teaching? again, no. services with really cool music? umm, think not. amazing videos? naaaaah. the ONLY thing is being part of a community and being the incarnation of Jesus Christ – a lover, a healer, a friend…and ultimately a bridge to God-life.
why do i want the church to change? because of the “how?” question on reaching people – one by one.
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