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The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
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a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
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Church: Why Bother? |
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Today has been a real 'aha' day for me. Firstly, in church this morning we looked at a passage from Matthew 6 on giving, prayer and fasting. This led to a quick look at a passage we had explored recently on 'true fasting' from Isaiah 58, and much discussion. When I came home I picked up this book by Philip Yancey and started reading it over lunch. The points made by Yancey jumped right out at me. Both in my place of work, and at the church I attend we have been exploring the meaning of spirituality and what 'church' should mean and be. Yancey takes the reader on a journey from church as he knew it, growing up in the 'deep south' of the United States, to church today for him. He describes his emergence from Southern fundamentalism as casting 'off not just the shell of hypocrisy but also the body of belief.' He describes his return to the Church and belief, as a recognition that faith cannot be purely intellectual and internal, but that it must be lived in community. He talks of the diversity of people in the Church much as one would describe a family (in a 'you can choose your friends, but not your family' type of way), then uses Paul's image of the Church being like a body to describe what he feels is important in Church today. There is a need for churches to look outwards and serve their communities in 'no strings attached' kinds of ways, as well as to be inward looking, absorbing Godís grace and putting it into action. As I sit here at my computer reflecting on an afternoon spent pleasantly reading and mentally going 'aha', I now have a challenge ahead of me - that of putting what I have read into practice. This book is THAT inspiring! In fact it's so inspiring that even the foreword by Eugene Peterson was great! |
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