Who (what) is the church? Part 2

I’m getting more comfortable with option 3 below. It’s not the lack of structure that bugs me as much as wondering if it would happen. I’m beginning to see that it is. I would need a little bit more than an intention to get together with other followers of Christ; I would want to know when. Then again, that’s got more to do with my personality (INFJ) than godliness. I’m so excited by this. I’m a little amused by those who think that this is so threatening to pastors because what if they had to give up their pastoring, what could they possibly do then? I love pastoring – often – but who would ever choose it as a career? (I know, a lot of people, evidently.) I’d give it up in a minute if I felt God really wanted me to. I’m really not that imcompetent in the rest of life that I wouldn’t make a living. That’s a pretty poor motivation for pastoring in the first place. Believe me, it’s not the money and perks that makes it worthwhile. Not that the money’s always bad, but it would take a lot more than money to make me want to choose this. This discussion would have been almost impossible a decade ago. It’s still stretching for a lot of us (although I haven’t heard very much from the very traditional crowd), but I have to wonder what all this will look like in twenty years. We’re definitely not in Kansas anymore.