3 part DNA

One idea that has emerged from Organic Church (it's pushed in the book as THE way to go about things, but I think it's more a helpful summary) is that church should have three components:
1. Divine Truth (Bible, Jesus)
2. Nurturing relationships
3. Apostolic mission

And the problem is (and I suspect he's right here) is that we often create separate meetings to deal with them: we hear teaching on Sunday, get fellowship at a small group, and form an evangelism team and events.  All three need to be together...

Whilst we're not all reading the same thing...

...I've broken Organic Church into sections, so might quote some bits here....

We speak more about our church 'style' and 'model' than we do about the Lord of lords who reigns within it.  We tell people why our church is different from or better than other churches in town, thinking they will be attracted to it, but instead they are uninterested.  If only we return to our first love and let Jesus be our focus, then many will be drawn in.  they will be compelled to gain Christ rather than attend a religious service.   p7

Words

There's too much to quote fro the final reading.  I just wanted to say I found this section on words deeply confirming, affirming and helpful.  It describes much that I feel, but have found hard to define.


I've really enjoyed reading this book.  I don't always get what Peterson is aiming at in his writing, but this has been the most meaningful to me and came at the right time.   And I've enjoyed reading it with friends.  Thanks!

anger

Peterson has got me nailed this afternoon. Yes, Jonah eventually obeyed, did what he was meant to do. But he became angry when his expectations weren't met. Me too.

He is petulant because things didn't turn out the way he expected. His program was not fulfilled. No matter that in his preaching God was heard and believed; Jonah was ignored. And so Jonah was feeling sorry for himself, quarelling with God under the unpredictable plant. So easily had he confused the biblical vocation by which he was called into God's work for a religious job in which he used God as an adjunct to his work (and when God didn't do the job he was supposed to do, dressed him down good).

Laundry

Attention to detail because this is reality and it matters, is something I learned from CS Lewis, but his was a joyful discovery of the Christian life;  Peterson's is the realisation that this wonder also has to be the weave of pastoral work:

...I prayed my lists:  this is best-seller material.  This is my Jonah work:  giving loving and leisurely attention to the everyday geographical details of my Nineveh life and at the same time living in the urgency of the eschatological.  Eternal souls are at stake here, precious lives at stake.

Humility

Just struck by the quotation on p.139

You have (wrote Peter Forsyth) but a corner of the vineyard, and cannot appeal to all men;  humility is a better equipment than ambition, even the ambition of doing much good.

Prayer

...walls are not the critical factor in praying or not praying.  What is critical is an imagination large enough to contain all of life, all worship and work as prayer, set in a structure (askesis) adequate to the actual conditions in which it is lived out...

If we do not understand the pastoral life vocationally as a life of prayer, then askesis will only be a cubbyhole for devotional narcissism.   To put it differently, if we understand the life of prayer as anything less than the comprehensive interior of the pastoral vocation, then any askesis we construct will be no more than a stage prop for a religious performance.

The reason this passage strikes me is two fold.  First, because a few years ago I realised (I mean really realised, not just thought I realised) that without consistency in prayer things were going to be hollow in church life.  And secondly, because I think I began to foolishly treat this first realisation as enough;  but now I have experienced being brought totally to the end of oneself, to truly realise one has no inherent resources for the situation.  And this means there is only prayer:  as the confession of one's utter dependence on God, and with it, the lack of sufficiency about everything in oneself.   

The question is:   can we truly hold onto this?  Can we hold on to it having confidence that it is enough for all things so we need not crumble?  Can we hold onto it, and not start to reassert ourselves in the wrong way....?