Theology after Google is not centralized and localized. Likewise, the church cannot be localized in a single building. We find church wherever we find Jesus-followers that we link up with who are doing cool things. This point is huge. Denominational officials and many pastors have not even begun to conceive and wrestle with what it means to work for a church without a clear geographical location.
There is a place online where I have been a member for years. I don't think I would be wrong if I said I am now the longest-running member there, or at least among them. I joined in 2002, very early in that year. It was actually under another name at that time, and has gone through a few incarnations, though I have kept the same user name and other information throughout.
It somehow actually has several names. I think the official name is Crosswalk, though I usually go to it as the Christianity.com forums. And I've found it under other names, too.
It's been an interesting time, being there. I've been in some really good discussions--the really eye-opening and intense exchange with a follower of Christian Science, the many and varied debates with Partial and Full Preterists, a couple of private conversations with followers of another world religion that led to discussions of Christ, a few humorous discussions, a lot of political jaws. Oh, and the occasional heated debate about Benny Hinn, and lately the ones over emergents.
I've learned a lot, and given my own few cents worth more than a few times. There are people I've gained a bit of an acquaintence with for whom I have respect, and once or twice something like friendship.
But it's not a church.
I'll be among the first to say that there are many good things about the Internet. But the Internet is not a church.
Just as TV and radio preachers are not really good substitutes for local pastors. And even if we acknowledge that some people have problems, like health or injury or lack of transportation or work hours, which keep them from attending a church in person, the things they substitute in for that are still more like using crutches to more around rather than walking on one's own. In the same way, listening to podcasts of sermons--one own pastor's or someone a thousand miles away--may be helpful, but it isn't church.
I do not think it is an accident that Paul tell us to not forsake the assembling of Christians together, and especially warns against it as the end draws near.
2 comments:
the church, in its simplest usage, denotes the "called out ones". during the time of christ, those who supported the kingdom of god were "called out" from the kingdom of caesar/rome. thus they become the "church"who lived by a different political system - nothing to do with coming under the rule of a dominant preacher/pastor/priest/minister etc in some kind of "private gathering" or "private kingdoms" in the thousands which do not serve the political kingdom of god on earth.
--during the time of christ, those who supported the kingdom of god were "called out" from the kingdom of caesar/rome
Can you please show me one Scripture where the NT tells believers to stop being Roman citizens? I can point to Paul making use of his citizenship a couple of times--once in Jerusalem to avoid a beating, and once during his sham of a trial to appeal to Caesar. I can also point to where the NT writers told the people to live lawfully, pray for leaders and respect them.
--thus they become the "church"who lived by a different political system
Again, there is no place in the NT were believers came under a "different political system".
--nothing to do with coming under the rule of a dominant preacher/pastor/priest/minister etc in some kind of "private gathering" or "private kingdoms" in the thousands which do not serve the political kingdom of god on earth.
The NT is quite plain that the church is not a non-heirarchical free-for-all. It is not chaos. Pastors were shepherds, leaders.
Sorry, but your rhetoric does nothing for you arguments.
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