Rethinking how we see church

From Neil Cole, quoted at Church Planting Novice:

We must transition from seeing church as a once-a-week worship event to an ongoing spiritual family on mission together. Then people will see church as something worth giving your life for. Honestly, people need one another more then they need another inspiring message. You would be surprised what people will do for Jesus, or for a brother or sister, that they will not do for a vision statement and a capital giving campaign.

(found via Steve McCoy's shared items)

Comments

[Ken Davis]

The first and third sentences - false dichotomies. Second sentence - sounds like the same old "I have the secret to success". Last sentence - an over generalization, although true it is a bit of straw man stuff.

[Chris in RVA]

FYI-the quote is Neil Cole's. Jonathan reposted it (as did I!). You can find the original post http://cole-slaw.blogspot.com/2008/12/youd-be-surprised-what-people-will-do.html" rel="nofollow">here. @ Ken: This is an excerpt. You may want to read the rest of the post for context. In response to your comments--I doubt Cole intended to communicate everything he believes about the church in 4 sentences. We could all come up with 500 things he didn't say. I think his overall point about discipleship is challenging and helpful.

[Ryan]

"The first and third sentences - false dichotomies." you want to expound on this?

[Geoff Henderson]

Thanks for challenging us to re-think the idea of church. Our notions need to always be examined and evaluated, and it seems like church planters are at the forefront of doing that. The direction this dude points us seems to take us back more clearly to what the church was at first: a worshiping community of disciples involved in mission. As one of my seminary professors Richard Pratt used to always say, "You can't say anything, if you're trying to say everything, because you'll always be saying everything else." I'm sure, like Chris Farley in Tommy Boy, that I butchered that quote. But it is true that you just can't say everything, or you won't be saying anything. Let's focus and be challenged on what IS being said here.

[Ken Davis]

Ryan, I can explain what I meant. How much expounding that is I can't say. The comment "We must transition from seeing church as a once-a-week worship event to an ongoing spiritual family on mission together" gives the impression that we see church as either one or the other. That is not the case. Church is both a corporate gathering of people to worship God and an ongoing spiritual family on mission together. The same thing is true for the comment "Honestly, people need one another more then they need another inspiring message." We need both and we should not think that we ought to choose. God gave us corporate worship and spiritual family on mission together. He gave us preaching as a means of growth and learning and He gave us one another. To say that we need one instead of another is to imply that we can choose what gifts to the church that are best for us. We do not need one instead of the other. We need one as well as the other. That's all I meant by using the phrase "false dichotomies".