Guh.
Article that must be read
“Regardless of what the New Testament says, most Christians are materialists with no experience of the Spirit. Regardless of what the New Testament says, most Christians are individualists with no real experience of community. Let’s pretend that you were all Christians. If you were Christians, you would no longer accumulate. You would share everything you had. You would actually love one another. And you would treat each other as if you were family. Why don’t you do that? Why don’t you live that way?”
He goes on to talk about our incredibly self centred attitudes, not just in daily life and how we as Christians are so reluctant to actually give up our pursuit of objects and possesions, but also in our spiritual lives, somehow thinking Christianity is all about us.
I was at a conference most of this weekend, the Promise Keepers 2005 Awakening, and this could be seen in spades (both in myself and in the nature of the conference). Men from all over Canada go there, buy up a tonne of books, sing a tonne of songs, all expecting to be 'filled,' as though thier spirituality and relationship with Jesus and with others was nothing but a cup that occasionally needed to be topped off. And what does that say? We buy the books for ourselves expecting to be 'blessed' by reading them, and sing songs expecting to get a certain 'godly feeling.'
It's crap.
Worse (or possibly better), was the irony behind what the speakers were saying. Some of them touched on these point exactly. K.P. Yohannan, in his sermon, talked about this directly. He really attacked us for being so selfish and not thinking about others, for only going after this 'godly feeling' and for buying all of these countless Christian Self-Help books.
His words were revolutionary, I thought. But right after he left the stage, the announcer came out and 'directed us to the resource tent where we could purchase our 'dog tags,' stock up on t-shirts and hats, and buy K.P Yohannan's books -- I'll be clear on this though. Yohannan's books are NOT the cheap self-help. They are deeply convicting works that call us to give up our lives. If you want to read one, I've got his "Road to Reality" that I'd be happy to lend out.
Bruxy Cavey also spoke with another truly revolutionary sermon about how Christ came to abolish religion, and instead we've made a religion out of Him. He talked about the stumbling block that is 'religious dogma' and 'church tradition.' And yet, here we are, at Promise Keepers, one of the most institutionalized conference I've ever been to (and by institutionalized, I mean, they don't stray from a pattern that they feel 'get's them to god' and thus gets stuck in tradition).
If you don't go to church becuase you can't stand the hypocrasy, great! Jesus can't stand it either. If you don't go becuase you can't deal with the all the 'religion' to it, great. Jesus can't either. If you're holding off on the whole Christian thing becuase of the judgementalism, the superiority complex, the ridiculous social cohesion, perfect. You're more Christ-like than many people who are sitting in the pews.
“Regardless of what the New Testament says, most Christians are materialists with no experience of the Spirit. Regardless of what the New Testament says, most Christians are individualists with no real experience of community. Let’s pretend that you were all Christians. If you were Christians, you would no longer accumulate. You would share everything you had. You would actually love one another. And you would treat each other as if you were family. Why don’t you do that? Why don’t you live that way?”
He goes on to talk about our incredibly self centred attitudes, not just in daily life and how we as Christians are so reluctant to actually give up our pursuit of objects and possesions, but also in our spiritual lives, somehow thinking Christianity is all about us.
I was at a conference most of this weekend, the Promise Keepers 2005 Awakening, and this could be seen in spades (both in myself and in the nature of the conference). Men from all over Canada go there, buy up a tonne of books, sing a tonne of songs, all expecting to be 'filled,' as though thier spirituality and relationship with Jesus and with others was nothing but a cup that occasionally needed to be topped off. And what does that say? We buy the books for ourselves expecting to be 'blessed' by reading them, and sing songs expecting to get a certain 'godly feeling.'
It's crap.
Worse (or possibly better), was the irony behind what the speakers were saying. Some of them touched on these point exactly. K.P. Yohannan, in his sermon, talked about this directly. He really attacked us for being so selfish and not thinking about others, for only going after this 'godly feeling' and for buying all of these countless Christian Self-Help books.
His words were revolutionary, I thought. But right after he left the stage, the announcer came out and 'directed us to the resource tent where we could purchase our 'dog tags,' stock up on t-shirts and hats, and buy K.P Yohannan's books -- I'll be clear on this though. Yohannan's books are NOT the cheap self-help. They are deeply convicting works that call us to give up our lives. If you want to read one, I've got his "Road to Reality" that I'd be happy to lend out.
Bruxy Cavey also spoke with another truly revolutionary sermon about how Christ came to abolish religion, and instead we've made a religion out of Him. He talked about the stumbling block that is 'religious dogma' and 'church tradition.' And yet, here we are, at Promise Keepers, one of the most institutionalized conference I've ever been to (and by institutionalized, I mean, they don't stray from a pattern that they feel 'get's them to god' and thus gets stuck in tradition).
If you don't go to church becuase you can't stand the hypocrasy, great! Jesus can't stand it either. If you don't go becuase you can't deal with the all the 'religion' to it, great. Jesus can't either. If you're holding off on the whole Christian thing becuase of the judgementalism, the superiority complex, the ridiculous social cohesion, perfect. You're more Christ-like than many people who are sitting in the pews.
posted by Barron C @ 6:41 p.m.
3 Comments:
At 8:57 p.m. ,
Anonymous said...
I think thats a bit harsh. the point of Promise Keepers was for Christian men. It is to wake us up to the fact that we are needed out there, to revolutionize our thinking. but Alas, like everything man-made there are certain flaws to it. The trick is to not focus on it, but to focus on what God intends for it. Promise Keepers, as I see God intends for it, is for Christian men to get something that has been lost for centuries. The fact that God calls us to be spiritual leaders, it is to reawaken the passion, the sense of sacrifice, and the sense of adventure, we get while serving God. That has been lost due to what we have been conditioned to believe. That we must save our money so our children will have a future.
So yes, Promise Keepers may be instituionalized(I can agree with you on that) but again, focus on what God intends to use it for(which I believe is to raise men to be all that they can be for God, although the material stuff and worship display went a bit overboard at times.)
At 1:25 a.m. ,
Barron C said...
You're right, and I realize that God did do great things through promise keepers, both in my own life, and in the lives of all the men that were there.
But I disagree that we should ignore the flaws. I think the article makes a valid point about things that both I and the church and promise keepers (as well as many organizations) are guilty of. I also think these points are critical. To ignore them is to ignore what Christ wants for us, and that I think would be wrong.
By the by, how the heck ARE you Hansen??? What's up? lol!
At 10:27 a.m. ,
Anonymous said...
Haha, Barron, I'm actually doin pretty great...except for the fact that you never reply when I message you:P hoser. haha, naw, I'm just joking. How are you doing Barron?
Yeah, you do make some good points, and I believe, due to me being tired...like as in, I slept at 12:30 and woke up at 6 in the morning yesterday tired, my words would may have been muddled (just a bit or a lot, thats up to interpretation)
and I do agree to not focus on the flaws(especially within us, and then the church, and other conventions) is wrong. to the point where it becomes pharisee-like. Just be careful that thats not all we focus on, is probably what I was trying to get at.
In Christ,
Hansen
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