How authentically family are our church gatherings?
Do we enjoy coming together with our brothers and sisters in Christ? It seems that the early church had a real, authentic family flavour about it. Family & friends meeting together in houses, conversing over food & drink and celebrating Jesus together.
How authentically family are your church gatherings?
Do we enjoy coming together with our brothers and sisters in Christ? It seems that the early church had a real, authentic family flavour about it. Family & friends meeting together in houses, conversing over food & drink and celebrating Jesus together.
How authentically family are your church gatherings?
Perhaps our Sunday gatherings appear to look 'authentically family' but maybe they are actually like a lounge or dining room set up at an IKEA or Freedom Furniture Showroom??? It looks like a lounge room where family can enjoy gathered & great times, but everyone knows it's not 'the real thing' and they never really settle or get comfortable because they are afraid of a shop assistant telling them to remove their feet from the coffee table.
2 comments:
I think "Authentic" is a slippery concept, Beaz.
For example, I know the difference between an "authentic" experience of worship in song and an an "inauthentic" experience of the same thing in my own life. To an outside observer who tends to be more exuberant than I do, they might both appear "inauthentic" at the surface, because neither of them involve jumping up and down with my hands on the air... know what I mean?
All that is to say, an authentic expression of the church is going to look different for different people. A worship service that feels like Ikea to you or me may function "authentically" as the Real Thing to another person - it all depends on the heart of the individual.
This is true Cheney. I guess my hope from this post was rather than looking at expressions of worship(maybe my authentic line didn't help with this), but actually look at whether our Sunday gatherings are truly spaces to experience real relationship and community with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Or whether or not they might just 'look' like they do this but in actual fact they are not.
All I know is that at times some gatherings may look like the real 'lounge/ family room' but no real community is happening so they may be better described as an IKEA lounge room.
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