REVIEW: MAKING SENSE OF CHURCH chapter 1

So I wanted my blog to have something useful in it. Now is a good time to start. After all, I've only had a blog for 8 months.

I hope to sparingly give feedback on books I'm reading, music I'm listening to, movies I've seen, as well as share ideas and insights related to worship, youth ministry and anything in between.

The weekend of Easter, my wife and I found this outlet mall in Aurora that had this discount book store. I found a plethora of gems inside. Among the 24 cent CD's there were some good books that I have been anxiosly waiting to start and finish.

Reimagining Spiritual Formation: A Week in the Life of an Experimental Church
by Doug Pagitt {completed last week: review coming soon}

Postmodern Youth Ministry
by Tony Jones

The Search to Belong: Rethinking Intimacy, Community, and Small Groups
by Joseph R. Myers

and...
Making Sense of Church: Eavesdropping on Emerging Conversations About God, Community, and Culture
by Spencer Burke
{you can read portions of the book HERE}


Here is the start of my chapter by chapter review of:
MAKING SENSE OF CHURCH
chapter 1 - Reality Check: metaphors for transition
[i guess this is more of my thoughts that have come to the top as a result of reading this book]

One of my primary goals in writing Making Sense of Church is to connect people in the established church with those who are “emerging.” - Spencer Burke

There has been much debate on the thought of "should the church be relevant?" This is a question that I have admittingly flip-flopped on. There was a time a few years ago that I would have said "Heck Yeah!" But a few months ago I began to question myself again. One of the conclusions I came to this time was this: without love, the body of Christ can not be relevant. [more thoughts on this HERE]

Burke points out in this first chapter that being postmodern with our faith only means that we are willing to think long and hard about why we do the things that we do. This goes for the established church and (more importantly) how we live our daily lives. He equivicates a postmodern faith as one that does not attack, but "unwraps".

"Postmodern Christianity ultimately will retain at least one absolute: Jesus Christ."

He goes on to briefly set up the idea of PLAYING BY NEW RULES & EXPLORING NEW IDEAS meaning one must respect the past (learning from those who have gone before: Constatine, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, etc.) but at the same time embrace the future. Sort of a "you can't know where you are going if you don't know were you've been" type mindset.

[more thoughts on MAKING SENSE OF CHURCH and other books, etc. to come]