More than silentology
Without Christ, life is like a long desert journey — always longing for the next oasis and frequently disappointed by mirages.
Feelings are fickle guides jerking us around and leaving us with no foundation. Instead, I trust the risen Jesus and the written Word.
We are all capable of corruption. That’s why we need to closely follow the risen Christ. What you do reveals what you believe much more than what you say does.
A crisis is a call from God: “I have a better way whenever you’re willing to try it.” If you’re not in a crisis, ignoring the living Jesus Christ can help you create one.
The risen Christ doesn’t need podiums, platforms, and showmanship. He is looking for humble people who will follow and obey Him.
Modern Christians have been taught how to be a passive, Sunday audience, but not how to be daily, radical disciples.
We expect babies to eventually learn to feed themselves. Why shouldn’t we expect Christians to as well? Christians are able to hear directly from God a lot better than pastors realize. On Sunday mornings pastors try to hold an audience, instead of releasing the congregation to hear Jesus & do what He says.
When people are required to listen but not say anything in church, does that make it a “church of silentology?” The Sunday Christian audience hears the word but isn’t allowed to do it. Let’s let all the members of a congregation meet as players in God’s theater, rather than as mere audience members.
When Christians gather as equals to minister to one another and worship God, we’re all on stage before the Lord. To gather as Jesus’ audience, watching and waiting to see what Jesus will do, is a profound way for Christians to meet.
Pastors tend to treat congregations as customers rather than as equals and fellow ministers of the Gospel. Too many pastors make their congregation feel like the best thing they can do for Christ is go away and come back next Sunday. But I can’t find in the Bible the concept that one man is the leader, the teacher, or the commander of a church.
A pastor (and/or church hierarchy) is not your spiritual upline. Christ is!
Contemporary church needs an audience, but Christ is looking for active participants (disciples). Instead of “covering” Christians, pastors should be uncovering them so that their light can shine brighter than his.
Preachers tell what they’re going to say, say it, then tell what they said, but the congregation still forgets the sermon.
