Download - A Messy View Of Church
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Myth 1: The church is
an organization
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Myth 2: The church is a building
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Myth 3: The church is perfect
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The church was God’s idea and it belongs to Jesus
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When it comes to understanding the church we need to
get it right
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A MESSY VIEW OF CHURCH
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A messy view of church devalues it instead of
prioritizing it
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Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ
did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ's love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty.
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Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of
her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness.
(Ephesians 5:25-27 – The Message)
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Let us help each other to love others and to do good. Let us not stay away from church meetings.
Some people are doing this all the time.
(Hebrews 10:24-25 – New Life Version)
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I have come with one purpose to capture for myself a bride By my life she is lovely, by my
death she's justified
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There is none that can replace her though there are many
who will try
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And though some may be her bridesmaids they can never be my bride 'Cause I haven't come for only you but for my
people to pursue
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You cannot care for me with no regard for her, if you love me you will love the church
(Derek Webb)
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A messy view of church focuses on “ME” instead of “WE”
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Your body has many parts — but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ.
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By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives . . . I want you to
think how all this makes you more significant, not less.
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A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different - but-similar parts arranged and functioning
together . . .
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The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other
part . . .
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If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the
healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the
exuberance.
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You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your
"part" mean anything. (1 Corinthians 12:12, 14, 25-27 – The Message)
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Our bodies have many parts, but these parts don’t all do the same
thing. In the same way, even though we are many individuals,
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Christ makes us one body and individuals who are connected
to each other. (Romans 12:4-5 – God’s Word Translation)
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Every church has a choice to be one of two things.
You can choose to be a bag of marbles,
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single units that don’t affect each other except in collision. Or you can choose to be a bag
of grapes.
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The juices begin to mingle, and there is no way to extricate yourselves if
you tried.
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Each is part of all - part of the fragrance - part of the 'stuff'.
The early Christians didn’t bounce around like loose marbles, ricocheting in
all directions.
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Picture them as a cluster of ripe grapes, squeezed
together by problems,
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pressures and persecution – bleeding and mingling
into one another. (Ann Ortland)
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A messy view of church settles for showing up instead of sharing life
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Two people are better than one, because they get more done by
working together. If one falls down, the other can help him up.
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But it is bad for the person who is alone and falls, because no one is
there to help. If two lie down together, they will be warm, but a
person alone will not be warm.
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An enemy might defeat one person, but two people together can defend themselves; a rope that is woven of three strings
is hard to break. (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 – New Century Version)
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The neighborhood bar is possibly the best counterfeit
there is to the fellowship Christ wants to give the
church.
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It’s an imitation dispensing liquor instead of grace,
escape rather then reality, but it is a permissive, accepting,
and inclusive place.
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It is unshockable, it is democratic. You can tell
people your secrets and they usually don’t tell others or
even want to.
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The bar flourishes not because most people are
alcoholics, but because God has put into the human heart
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the desire to know and be known, to love and be loved
and so many seek that counterfeit at the price of
a few beers.
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With all my heart I believe that Christ wants His church to be a fellowship where people
can come in and say, I’m sunk, I’m beat, I’ve had it.
(Chuck Swindoll)
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A messy view of church focuses on being a
“consumer” instead of being a
“contributor”
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Each of you has been blessed with one of God’s many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others.
So use your gift well. (1 Peter 4:10 – Contemporary English Version)
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In all the work you are doing, work the best you can. Work as if you were doing it for the Lord, not for
people . . . You are serving the Lord Christ.
(Colossians 3:23-24 – New Century Version)
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There is nothing like the local church when it's working right. Its beauty is indescribable. Its
power is breathtaking. Its potential is unlimited.
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It comforts the grieving and heals the broken in the context of community. It
builds bridges to seekers and offers truth to the confused.
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It provides resources for those in need and opens its arms
to the forgotten, the downtrodden, the disillusioned.
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It breaks the chains of addictions, frees the
oppressed, and offers belonging to the
marginalized of this world.
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Whatever the capacity for human suffering, the church
has a greater capacity for healing and wholeness.
Still to this day,
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the potential of the local church is almost more than
I can grasp. No other organization on earth is
like the church.
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Nothing even comes close. (Bill Hybels)
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Let’s Pray