Comments on: True Christian Community: The Real Building http://virtuallypaul.com/2006/10/24/true-christian-community-the-real-building/ the blog that never makes sweeping generalisations Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:10:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Virtually Paul » My Attitude Problem http://virtuallypaul.com/2006/10/24/true-christian-community-the-real-building/#comment-187 Virtually Paul » My Attitude Problem Thu, 16 Nov 2006 05:45:52 +0000 http://virtuallypaul.com/2006/10/24/true-christian-community-the-real-building/#comment-187 [...] Issue 3: What’s the church?The word ‘church’ has been misappropriated to so many different things, even just in the last 50 years, that its meaning within popular culture has been diluted into an array of stereotypes that range in their connotations, from confusing expressions of ancient religious liturgical practice, to a fundamentalist Christianist lobby group that attempts to influence Government policy for conservative ends.  Even within the ranks of those who regularly participate in the church, I’m not sure how many of them could tell you what it actually is.  If you asked ten different people what the church exists to do, you’d easily get answers that emphasised any number of different things:  community, evangelism, family values, charity, prayer. [...] […] Issue 3: What’s the church?The word ‘church’ has been misappropriated to so many different things, even just in the last 50 years, that its meaning within popular culture has been diluted into an array of stereotypes that range in their connotations, from confusing expressions of ancient religious liturgical practice, to a fundamentalist Christianist lobby group that attempts to influence Government policy for conservative ends.  Even within the ranks of those who regularly participate in the church, I’m not sure how many of them could tell you what it actually is.  If you asked ten different people what the church exists to do, you’d easily get answers that emphasised any number of different things:  community, evangelism, family values, charity, prayer. […]

]]> By: Jason http://virtuallypaul.com/2006/10/24/true-christian-community-the-real-building/#comment-174 Jason Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:49:15 +0000 http://virtuallypaul.com/2006/10/24/true-christian-community-the-real-building/#comment-174 Community isn't about an event either though. Sure, meeting together helps :) But isn't church community a church community whether it's 7pm at Essendon, 5am in Lincoln Park (wherever that is), or a few people meeting during the week for coffee or otherwise hanging out and interacting with each other on a spiritual level? In fact, I'd argue that the latter is more so because there's real interaction going on rather than being passive like it's so easy to be in a big meeting. But that's possibly going off-topic from where you were going :) Community isn’t about an event either though. Sure, meeting together helps :) But isn’t church community a church community whether it’s 7pm at Essendon, 5am in Lincoln Park (wherever that is), or a few people meeting during the week for coffee or otherwise hanging out and interacting with each other on a spiritual level? In fact, I’d argue that the latter is more so because there’s real interaction going on rather than being passive like it’s so easy to be in a big meeting.

But that’s possibly going off-topic from where you were going :)

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