Turning into Virtual Temples or Reinventing Church

I mentioned a little while ago that Ephesians 2 was bugging me and I'm pretty over the whole Sunday morning service thing. The idea in Ephesians 2 that the spirit of God is now dwelling in the church (as in the people ) is a radical change from the fixed temple where God dwelt. Looking at many churches I'm wondering if they have become virtual temples with people only gathering in a building once a week. Other activities like Bible studies are usually things non Xns cannot engage with. At the moment I feel like God sends Jesus, Jesus sends the Spirit, the Spirit sends us and we go into a building. I wonder how well would Jesus fit into our churches? Would he be happy singing romantic love songs to God or would he be doing something closer to turning tables?

Previously I have said that inviting someone to church is much like inviting someone to a nudist colony. No matter how good the music, how great the coffee or how talented the speaker is it is going to be very hard to get them to come. It's pretty easy to bag out big church meetings and lament about how great things would have been for the first month after Pentecost. As much as I have enjoyed small house church type things that I have been involved in previously I don't think "lets all do small house churches" is necessarily the answer. There is nothing wrong with being big and eventually any infectious group will get bigger. The question is how do we get big and what do we look like when we get big?

My latest thought is we divide a church into 3 levels

Individuals, Small missions and a Collective gathering. Usually we ten to start with the collective gathering and then try and get small groups happening and then try and usually not pay too much attention to to individual action. This certainly makes sense as far as economies of scale go. Rather than start from the big and work down I'd like to try starting from the individual and working up to the collective gathering. This is what I'm thinking at the moment...

Individuals

All members of the church to the the same rhythms together (this idea is pretty much from Mike Frost and Small Boat Big Sea). They are things that the group agrees to do as individuals. They need to be tangible achievable things, so "grow closer to God" doesn't count.

• Read the Bible (all members reading the same things - of course you can read more)
• Pray (all members praying for the same things - of course you can pray for more)
• Do 3 acts of kindness a week

This way everyone in the church is wrestling with the same part of scripture and praying collectively.

Small Missions

These are not bible studies as most small groups are but rather missions and really the heart of the church. These are small groups (that everyone is a part of perhaps even more than one) about actively and collectively living out faith. The focus of the small groups will be to collectively live out faith with a focus on creativity, justice or evangelism.
So these could include a group that does...

• A bread run
• An art group
• A playgroup
• Visit prisoners
  
• An amnesty letter writing group
• Windsurfing with the aim to reach out to the local windsurfing community group
• Walking their dogs in the local suburb with aim of reaching out to the local community

Apart from the doing of the activity members would get together too...

• Plan / talk about the mission
  
• be accountable to each other about the individual rhythms
• Anything else like wrestle with particular issues or listen guest speakers (virtual or real)

Collective Gathering
So this is the big Sunday Service replacement... Once a fortnight perhaps or so...

• Eat a shared meal
• Share stories of the mission / group
  
• Pray for each other

I'm sure I will change my mind about all this and realise that it's really impractical. Anyhow the thought process has jumped to constructive and that's a start.

Tagged? - National Day of Secularism

National Day of Secularism
May the 26th

If you're a really cool blogger then it looks like you get "tagged" for different things Arthur at Five Public opinions has tagged me for The National Day of Secularism. As far as I can tell my obligations are to tag 5 other people and write a post "about the separation of Church and State in Australia". Well I'm not going to tag anyone else, sorry. But I will post something.

Looking at who else Arthur has tagged I'm probably one of the few Xns who has been asked to post something. As a Xn I absolutely take a stand against Theocracy. I do however believe Xns need to be involved in politics and society The Big Question is How?

Our Xn Heritage?

I think that Xns can agree that our "Xn heritage" is at best debatable and at least checkered. Just because most of the first settlers in 1788 might have ticked Xn on the religion box doesn't make us a Xn nation. To say that it is our heritage rudely ignores the Indigenous population that was here long before the English arrived and other non Xns who have arrived since.

None the less even if it was true that Australia did have a Xn Heritage (what ever that means) I cannot see how it would be in any way helpful even to mention this. Firstly, it tries to completely invalidate any other way of thinking solely because from 1788 to federation (or there about) most people would have ticked Xn on the religion box of a census. Secondly, it ignores that we also have a racist (white Australia) heritage and a criminal (convict) heritage which we ignore and rightly so, because issues of ethnicity and law should be debated purely on their merits. We do not refer back to history for precedents when we make judgements about them.

Xns do not have a monopoly on morality, kindness or social responsibility.

This is something I think is really, really important for Xns to recognise. The reality is that much evil has been done in the name of Xy and that many good people have not been Xn, Gandhi is but one example. Phillip Adams is a good current public example of a moral atheist with a strong social conscious. Because of this Xns can learn a lot of great stuff from non Xns. We can learn how to love better and how achieve justice to ignore non-Xns in any conversation about morality, kindness or social responsibility would be like taking the Samaritan out of the story of the good Samaritan.

What political issues should Xns get involved in?

Personally, I think that it is important that Xns are engaged with politics. However, I tend to engage with politics on a different level to many other more prominent conservative Xns. I can even remember my wife (who one this occasion voted the same way as me) being told by a conservative Xn representing the Christian Democrats that she was going to be voting for the enemy. What I think he meant was that my wife would be primarily voting about justice and not personal morality.

The overriding principal for all my political involvement is to defend someones right to freewill and freedom. The reason for this is this is the one thing that God gave us in the garden of Eden regardless of the consequences. So, I will fight to give someone the right to freedom of thought, like the freedom to celebrate a day of Secularism and will also fight against anything that impinges on someone else's freewill. This is how this manifests itself in particular issues.

• I will be pro legislation for homosexual marriage and legislation that gives homosexual couple the same legal rights as married couples. I see this as someones freedom to do as they like and it does not affect any one else's freewill.
  
• I will be pro legislation that eliminates third world debt or alleviates the third world like conditions Aboriginal Australians live in. I see this issue as about the freedom for all people to have the same freedoms as everyone else in the world and that the colour of their skin or the religion that they were brought up in having no effect on their quality of life.
  

Finally I will never argue that something is the "Xn thing to do". I will argue something on it's the merits of humanistic value. To me, if someones only argument is that it's "God's will" or that it's the "Xn principal" it's usually a red flag to say they are clutching at straws for a decent argument.

Getting in bed with the state?

I work for a Xn organisation that receives money from the state, which I am happy to do. However, the idea of chaplains receiving money makes me nervous. The difference between the tow is that my overriding principal is that the money received from the state is to carry out a task that could be done by anyone. It just so happens that the Drug and Alcohol organisation I work for is working in areas where no one else wants to, but if another organisation was to take over (apart from losing my job) I would not mind. I don't think most supporters of Chaplains in schools could say this and this is because one of the roles of a chaplain is usually some kind of spiritual guidance. If a church is not happy for anyone to receive this funding and not to be positively discriminated because they are Xn then we should not accept the money.

Well there you have it a bit of a rushed post because I had to do it all in one sitting, which is unusual for me, so apologies if it's a bit hard to follow.

Thanks Arthur for tagging me and always having a great blog.

Big W Responds

It has taken two months for Big W to respond to the letter I sent them, Target and K-Mart. A copy of the letter I sent is in the Asking Companies about the products they sell post. After two months I'm surprised that all they could send me was a letter, without a letterhead (see letter below - click on image to enlarge), saying that they couldn't assure me of anything apart from "we strive to only source products that we sell from proven and reputably suppliers" (their grammar mistake). Looks like Target still wins.

15 Years since Neil Young Blasted Digital

It's now 15 years since Neil Young blasted digital CDs in Guitar Player magazine. So I was a little surprised to see him giving exclusive content to iTunes recently, who only sell there music at a lousy 128 bit rate. Here is part of what Neil said 15 years ago.

Digital, CDs - I hate them. Digital is a disaster. This is the darkest age of musical sound. ... Digital is a huge rip-off. It's completely premature and completely wrong. It's a farce. Digital has to be taken three or four levels higher. Sampling rates have to quadruple - at least - to get to where analog was. And digital music has a very limited therapeutic effect, if any, whereas real music has an incredible effect for the calming of nerves. Any therapeutic application of sound HAS to be analog, or it won't get results. You can search around, but the sound isn't there. Let me use a window as an illustration. When you look thru the glass, imagine that's sound out there. And then look out thru the screen. See all the little squares in the screen? If you get right up on them, all different kinds of colors come thru the screen holes. Well, that has to be averaged out to only one color per hole for digital. That's all you get, the dominant one. They've got sampling enough now so that when you 1st start listening, you say, "Hey, that's music." But your brain and your heart are *starved* for a challenge. There's no challenge, there's no possibilities, there's no imagination. You're hearing a simulated music. Your brain is capable of taking on an incredible amount of information.... That's why these records have got to be remastered from the *analog* originals every time there's an improvement..... technology is just not there for that kind of sampling rate. It's a real shame, because music is not being captured. It's an insult to the brain & heart & feelings to have to listen to this and think it's music. I've been making records for 26 years, working in the studio... and I'm telling
you: From the early '80s up till now and probably for another 10 to 15 years is the darkest time for recorded music ever. We'll come out the other end and it'll be okay, but we'll look back and go, "Wow, that was the digital age. I wonder what it really sounded like? They were so carried away that they didn't really record it. They just made digital records of it." That's what people will say - MARK MY WORDS.

Now more than ever with people converting from CD to MP3 the analog digital divide is even greater. Neil is still right. About 10 years ago that I was in possession of both a decent turntable and a vinyl and CD copy of U2's the Joshua tree. I used to play them both simultaneously and see if people could pick the difference. Before playing them I explained that both vinyl and CD have imperfections. Vinyl is like looking at a painted picture of the Mona Lisa with a scratch on it. CD is like looking at a digital image on your computer. Which is fine from a distance but becomes pixelated and horrible when you start looking. Mostly they would look at me like I was born 20 years to late and that they would easily be able to pick the superior CD sound. Then as I played both formats every person who I played them too were amazed at the difference. The could hear the Edge's finger scrape across the strings they could hear Bono's breath. There was a beautiful presence that just wasn't there on CD.

Ten years later the difference between CD and MP3 is that the quality (like pixelation in a photo) is even worse. After listening to analog or even CDs MP3s just sound mushy. For example, it's hard to distinguish a strum on an acoustic guitar from the snare drum if they are happening at the same time. Recently I recorded myself in 24bit rather than the usual 16 bit the difference was huge there was a presence there that made is sound more like I was actually listening to someone speak rather than just listening to a recording. If only instead of going from 16 bit CD to MP3 we went to 24 bit or 32 bit CD. It's a real shame I think convenience is fine and I own an iPod with MP3s on it but in the same way you don't get rid of every restaurant and just have fast food joints. We should do all we can to preserve the beauty of the record. That is the record of the event of people playing music in a room.

God changes her mind

This has been a difficult post to write. So apologies if it's not super coherent. A few weeks a go I mentioned I've recently discovered the hilarious Mr Deity. Part of the humor of the show is based tension between two ideas, one that that God is in control of everything and knows the future and two that the world can be a pretty painful place to live. The way the writers explain the tension between the two is by presenting God as a fumbling, absent minded depressive who doesn't always have great help. One of my favourite examples of this is where his assistant Larry asks him who will "go to hell" and Mr Deity miss hears this as who "will do well" to which he answers the Jews (his chosen people) and homosexuals (who have great design sense).

One of the reasons I don't find Mr Deity offensive is that I don't feel like it is showing up faults in my theology of God. I don't think of God as in control of everything and knowing the future. The two reasons for this are that I think God changes his mind and that God is not outside of time. These two ideas have been two very critical and very liberating ideas that have not only helped me but have often been a big stumbling block to many non-Xns I know who ask really sensible and obvious questions like. "If God knew the future and he has the power to control everything then how come the Tsunami / Holocaust / 911 happened?" Below I have tried to outline my thoughts and why I think they are important.

1. God changes his mind.

Aristotle (Ancient Greek Philosopher) saw God as "the unmoved mover" that God is perfect love loving himself perfectly. He saw God as unchangeable unmovable and unaffected by human wisdom, thought or action. Aristotle saw that God is in ultimate control of the universe. That is it's going exactly how God wants it or God is executing his perfect plan. Furthermore, God won't change his mind because his plan is perfect in the first place. Although perhaps worded a little bit more starkly here these are probably similar sentiments to things you might of heard many Xns say.

None the less this is not what we find in the Bible. For example...

• Exodus 32:9-10 vs 32:11-13 God relents and doesn't destroy (Ex 32:14)
  
• Jonah 1:1-2 and 3:1-10 God relents and doesn't destroy (Jonah 4:2)
  

In these passages we see God is affected by humanity. God reacts, interacts responds too and is influenced by creation. The Hebrew word often translated as relent is the very same word translated as repent. Our English bibles often translate it as relent as repent has sin connotations.

Other times were God repents are...

• Gen 6:6 Just before flood God repents of having made humans
• 1Sam 15:11&35 God repents that he has made Saul King
• 1 Chron 21:15 God repents of sending a plague to Israel
• Psalm 106:45 Talks of God repenting in
  
• Jer 18:7-8 A promise that God will repent
  
• Jer 42:10 God repents of disaster he inflicted on Israel
• Joel 2:13

When God repents God changes his mind. This is what repentance is. Just like if someone repents from sin they decide not to sin anymore. In Genesis God repents because he wishes he hadn't made humanity so he sends the flood. In 1 Samuel God wishes he hadn't made Saul King so he makes David King. In all the other occasions God repents from a right or just thing to a loving graceful thing.

So why is God changing his mind so friggin important?

• If you understand this you will find Mr Deity funny and not offensive.
• Prayer: It's actually worth praying. It's hard to pray to God if everything is already decided in a perfect plan.
• You don't have to believe that the world is going perfectly to God's plan and that disasters and tragedies are not part of God's plan.
• Our future is completely undecided. God can change his mind about it. This is something I talked about in the God's plan for your life post.

The one logical consequence from believing that God genuinely changes his mind is that God is not outside of time. If we are truly to believe in freewill and that God changes his mind then the logical consequence is that God is outside of time and doesn't know the future.

Again the idea that God is not constrained by time comes from ancient Greek thought. So unlike Mr Deity who checks the script of the future God is not doing that. As the idea of being outside of time is not an idea in the Hebrew writers mind there is nothing to suggest this in the old Testament and also nothing to deny this. Passages like 2 Peter 3:8 (a day is like a thousand years) just as reasonably suggests that God often forgets to look at his watch as it does that God is outside of time.

One of the biggest bits of evidence that none of the New or Old Testament writers thought of God as "outside of time" is that none of them go through the theological gymnastics that are needed when you believe God is outside of time.

The theological gymnastics includes explaining how...

• God appears to change his mind he hasn't really because he knew he was going to but it just appears that way to us.
• God knows exactly what you are going to do for the rest of your life who you are going marry and who you will have lunch with today, but you do have free will it's just that God know what that is.

So why is God being outside of time so friggin important?

• If you understand this you will find Mr Deity funny and not offensive.
• If God doesn't know the future we truly have free will and we truly have a mutual relationship with God.
• Despite what some may first think this actually makes God more powerful rather than less powerful. God doesn't know the future because he's seen the end of the movie rather God has plans that he has promised to carry out.

If you've got this far thanks for reading I hope it helps.

Futher thoughts on wagging Church

Wagging Church on Sunday is symptomatic of where I am at the moment in life. I’m feeling like I’d like to be doing more in my life and contributing more to the world and a Sunday morning service is just not cutting it. I feel like I’ve used up half of my life and I haven’t had as significant an impact on the world around me. Part of the problem is I have no idea what exactly I’d like that impact to be. Social justice is important to me and although that is what I do for work I often feel like I’m putting in a lot of effort for little reward, a bit like shoveling jelly with a pitch fork. Part of the problem is that this is just the nature of helping volunteers with limited time to work with the marginalized who often have big problems. I thought starting The Space would do a lot for me, and in one sense it has, I get more out of it than any church service I’ve been to in the last 10 years. Perhaps it has filled that “church shaped hole” in me and I’m keen to get on with how I might serve the world around me. A second problem is that as I age I find myself feeling more and more like a social recluse than ever. The more I feel like a recluse the more I’d like to help people. Today I'm starting to pray that God will help me to work this all out.

Bible Fight

Here's something you can pass on to all your peace loving Anabaptist and Quaker friends, Bible Fight. What else would a bunch of major Bible characters do if they were all in the same place but fight to the death!

On a slightly more serious note, after about 2 minutes of playing this game it just felt really really wrong. Getting Jesus to violently beat up anyone, even Satan was just so incongruous with his peaceful non violent way of the cross. I think it would be interesting to get any Xn who doesn't have a problem with war and violence to play this game and say that violence fits neatly with Jesus in the Bible.

Time to Wag?

It's Saturday night and I'm feeling pretty tired today, having got up for a strange work phone call at 1:30 am . The last thing I feel like doing is going to church tomorrow morning. I'm not rostered onto do anything so I'm going to wag. I go through cycles but at the moment I'm finding particularly hard to work out what the point of meeting as a large group is. I'm becoming more and more convinced that church is about as communal an experience as watching a movie. Having listened to Ephesians, Micah and a couple of N. T. Wright sermons on my iPod I'm in the mood to connect with God maybe via meditation. I'm keen to reflect on Ephesians 2:19-22.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord;

What does it means that the church / people of God is where God dwells when often I just don't feel like hanging out with Xns and doing the kind of things that Xns do when they get together.

Top Ten Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained

10. A man's place is in the army.
9. For men who have children, their duties might distract them from the responsibilities of being a parent.
8. Their physical build indicates that men are more suited to tasks such as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be "unnatural" for them to do other forms of work.
7. Man was created before woman. It is therefore obvious that man was a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment, rather than the crowning achievement of creation.
6. Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. This is easily demonstrated by their conduct at football games and watching basketball tournaments.
5. Some men are handsome; they will distract women worshipers.
4. To be ordained pastor is to nurture the congregation. But this is not a traditional male role. Rather, throughout history, women have been considered to be not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more frequently attracted to it. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination.
3. Men are overly prone to violence. No really manly man wants to settle disputes by any means other than by fighting about it. Thus, they would be poor role models, as well as being dangerously unstable in positions of leadership.
2. Men can still be involved in church activities, even without being ordained. They can sweep paths, repair the church roof, and maybe even lead the singing on Father's Day. By confining themselves to such traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the Church.
1. In the New Testament account, the person who betrayed Jesus was a man. Thus, his lack of faith and ensuing punishment stands as a symbol of the subordinated position that all men should take.

Hope this makes up for the 15 biblical ways to acquire wife post. Taken from Virtually Paul who got it from Maggi Dawn who got it from Serena and I'm not sure if she wrote it.

My Generous Wife

Recently Matt Stone had a post about Street Beggars and asked about whether we should give money them or not . I said...

I usually give, my wife always gives and I'm trying to be more like her. As far as I know no one has become a millionaire by begging for money. Even if they are using it for drugs or alcohol I’m not sure that is more morally reprehensible than half the crap I spend my money on? I try to ask myself if there was $10 on the street who should get it? Me who is not in need and will spend it on luxuries, or the person who is need but I suspect might spend it on luxuries. I can’t help but feel I should give every time.

It's moments like writing this response that I realise how much of a positive affect her kind and generous spirit has had on me and how much I still have to learn from her.

15 Biblical Ways to Acquire a Wife

1. Find an attractive prisoner of war, bring her home, shave her head, trim her nails, and give her new clothes. Then she's yours. (Deuteronomy 21:11-13)
2. Find a prostitute and marry her. Hosea (Hosea 1:1-3)
3. Find a man with seven daughters, and impress him by watering his flock. Moses (Exodus 2:16-21)
4. Purchase a piece of property, and get a woman as part of the deal. Boaz (Ruth 4:5-10)
5. Go to a party and hide. When the women come out to dance, grab one and carry her off to be your wife. Benjaminites (Judges 21:19-25)
6. Have God create a wife for you while you sleep. Note: this will cost you a rib. Adam (Genesis 2:19-24)
7. Agree to work seven years in exchange for a woman's hand in marriage. Get tricked into marrying the wrong woman. Then work another seven years for the woman you wanted to marry in the first place. That's right. Fourteen years of toil for a woman. Jacob (Genesis 29:15-30)
8. Cut off 200 foreskins off of your future father-in-law's enemies and get his daughter for a wife. David (1Samuel 18:27)
9. Even if no one is out there, just wander around a bit and you'll definitely find someone. (It's all relative of course.) Cain (Genesis 4:16-17)
10. Become the emperor of a huge nation and hold a beauty contest. Xerxes or Ahasuerus (Esther 2:3-4)
11. When you see someone you like, go home and tell your parents, "I have seen a woman; now get her for me." If your parents question your decision, simply say, "Get her for me. She's the one for me." Samson (Judges 14:1-3)
12. Kill any husband and take HIS wife. (Prepare to lose four sons though). David (2 Samuel 11)
13. Wait for your brother to die. Take his widow. (It's not just a good idea, it's the law). Onan and Boaz (Deuteronomy or Leviticus, example in Ruth)
14. Don't be so picky. Make up for quality with quantity. Solomon (1 Kings 11:1-3)
15. A wife?...NOT!!! Paul (1Corinthians 7:32-35)

No idea where I got this originally but it's not out of my head.

Daughter's Dedication

Today was my beautiful daughter's dedication and first birthday party. It was a great day and one which happened outside of a church and was conducted by a very wise and spiritual Xn friend who has no formal theological qualifications. Originally it was going to be overlooking the ocean, but with the threat of rain we moved it too our backyard. We were keen not to have a baptism as we felt that was something that reflected a decision to be Xn and that's something we wanted our daughter to decide for herself. I was particularly keen to make some promises about how we would raise her and have some kind of recognition of the start of her spiritual journey. The day was fantastic and by the end of it she had already found her true spiritual calling. Walking around dressed as the great Jedi Master himself, Yoda. (Thanks to two great friends who were also responsible for part 2 of this)

Click to see larger image

On a slightly more serious note. The order of service for a dedication were really hide to find so, we ended up pinching some ideas from a friend some from church and making most of it up ourselves. Here is what it looked like...

Welcome

Parent and Parent would like to welcome you to Child’s dedication.

Opening Prayer

Creator God, we give you thanks and praise for the gift of this child. We thank you for creating Child in your image, and breathing into her the breath of life. We thank you for the love which Parent and Parent have for each other, and for the welcome they are giving to Child. By the power of your Spirit, fill their home with love, trust and understanding through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Presentation

What name have you given this child?

Child’s name

Will you promise to:

Encourage Child to explore challenge and question issues of faith
Encourage her to seek truth even when this challenges your own beliefs
Explore all of creation with her, with its gentle beauty and harsh reality
Share your lives with her with all it’s joys and sorrows
Show her how to love deeply with Gods compassion and to extend kindness to those around us including the oppressed and marginalised
Encourage her to discover Gods love for her and her neighbour

We will

Will you promise to:

Imitate Christ in all that you do
Live Simply & Love Deeply
Love Justice
Do Mercy and
Walk Humbly with God
Love God with all your heart and show love to your neighbour

We will

Will you gathered here promise to support Parent and Parent in this?

(Everyone) We Will

The Blessing

Child, may God grant you grace to grow in wisdom and understanding, (touch head) to work with Jesus for justice in the world, (touch hands) and to walk with the Holy Spirit in the ways of peace, (touch feet) and the blessing of the Holy One, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be upon you this day and forever more.

Child, we present to you with these three gifts.
A Bible so you can discover the Christian faith for yourself
Prayer Beads to remind you of the prayers and promises that have been made to you today.
A Candle, a symbol of God’s presence and reminder that God is always with you.

Prayer of the Parents

Lord, we ask that you make Child an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let her sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy;
Grant that she/he may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen

"Do Not Call Register" Arrives

At last has Australia has a Do Not Call Register. So if you don't like being interrupted by a really great deal during dinner then register.

Christians meeting in Large Groups?

Monday night some friends and I spent some time lamenting over the Sunday morning service, both as a concept in general and what it's like at the church we attend. We talked about much of the usual stuff I have whinged about here before. Including...

• How church excludes those under 18
• How the sermon is not a great way to learn
• How it's a lot of effort by a small number of people
• How basically the whole thing is some kind of compromise that, in the end, means everybody is unhappy with the final result but at least as unhappy as each other.

I mentioned my Connect Grow Serve idea. Where there are basically three areas of things that I try to do in my life as a Xn (1. Connect with God 2. Grow as a Xn / human 3. Love / serve others). I think this is pretty much true for all Xns and some of these things we do as individuals, some in small groups and some in large groups (examples of this here). This all sounded fine and dandy until someone asked this simple question...

What's one thing that Xns do better in a large group?

This got us thinking with no good answer. After a little bit more thought (post conversation) I started thinking things like...

• Action for social justice (like all protesting in the one place for the one issue)
• Listening to a world famous speaker (just because it's more efficient, then again podcasting is probably even more efficient)
  

None of these are things that happen at a regular church service, and everything that usually happens at a regular church service is probably done better by a small group anyway.

So why do Xns pursue with big church? Could it be simply that it makes it really easy to just sit up the back and not be involved. This makes it as easy to go to church as it does to go to the movies. This in turn makes it as easy to invite someone to church as it might be to invite someone to a movie. The problem with this is that all this makes Xy look like something that requires as much commitment as turning up to the movies on a regular basis. It makes it look like something that is more of an inner thing than requiring any action, something that apart from a regular Sunday morning commitment won't interfere with your life. Is this what Jesus said to the rich young ruler? (Mark 10:21) Is this what Xy is about? Is it time we started pushing to scrap the Sunday morning service?