Topic: News Items
Hi Everyone,
I found this on Scot McKnight’s Blog “Jesus Creed” this morning...
We’ve been saying for a long, long time that “emerging” is more than philosophy and theology and progressive thinking. In fact, it is about “how to do church.” Our local paper, The Daily Herald, has a front-page story about homes becoming the house of God. This is no small element of the emerging movement. The challenge for all churches is whether or not they will shift to include such groups as central to what “church” is all about. Church needs to move to the neighborhood.
Can a home be a house of God?
An increasing number of Christians are moving from cavernous churches to worship in a more intimate setting - their homes.
BY LISA SMITH Daily Herald Staff Writer, Posted Sunday, December 24, 2006
There are no pews and no altar, just six chairs arranged in a circle.
There is no pastor relating Scripture to contemporary American life, just a group of friends discussing
spirituality.
Neither bread nor wine is offered. Most who walk in are clutching cups of Starbucks coffee.
Yet the people who enter this Arlington Heights living room every Sunday morning label this gathering - and themselves - church.
“We have a deep conviction that we grow spiritually when we’re in relationships,” said Andy Padjen, 33, who has been hosting this weekly get-together for about the past year. “We feel like a lot of times there’s some structure and theology in the institutional church that limit people’s intimacy with each other. So we’re all about making relationships central, helping people to be known and loved.”
That’s something that attracted Curtis Anderson to the group after a lifetime of involvement in traditional churches. Getting to know Padjen and the others in the group has made the Lake in the Hills resident feel closer to God.
“I would say that we would all agree that we’re feeling God in a very personal way through the group,” said Anderson, 29.
Click Here to Read On...
