I read this in Exiles by Michael Frost.
My thoughts as you read this are that for ordained clergy lets also include gifted leaders. Lets also remember that lots of New church guys in the 60's and 70's got a lot of flack for breaking away and now they are firing the flack themselves......
We Make It Too Hardby Michael Frost
Why can't we imagine being a community of Christ's followers without a building or formally trained or accredited clergy? Whenever I raise this issue in seminars, people regularly remind me that house-based groups of 15 or so without proper accreditation and training can lead to heresy and cultish practices. But the fact remains that nearly every major heresy that has beset the Christian church has come from recognised church bodies whose leaders were properly accredited by their sponsoring hierarchies. Conversely, virtually every new movement among people hungering for a deeper knowledge of God has been rejected, quashed, or destroyed by the "church" of it's day, and it's leaders have been famously excommunicated or martyred for following the missional impulse of God.........
4 comments:
I get what you say about the clergy, but I think buildings are needed, just as you have a building. But isn't that the point, what is the building? The same as the small group thing, isn't it a call for more intimacy, which is harder for groups as they get bigger, but must be put at the forefront. I think it is hard to talk about these things as, people defend things that is not their right to defend and maybe they forget where they came from, change needs to happen, not for changes sake, but following the spirit.
This is the just a snippet from the book, I liked it probably I thought of it more in the context of older leaders who strived themselves to establish new things and now hold other people back. Buildings are goo, families need homes, I also love Frosts stuff on a third places which you may have heard me mention on this blog.
I love this quote from Frost, especially about the hot-bed of heresy.
I agree that today the building is not always necessary, in fact it many times is a hindrance. I also agree that in a post-Christendom culture where more and more people are less and less interested in activities of the church, it is increasingly important to connect with people in places of neutrality, or common "third places."
EXILES is such an excellent book, rammed full of good stuff.
peace & blessings
J
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