Excellent. Loved listening to the podcast as well. Praying that we (through Christ’s grace and power) care better for one another in our local contexts, just as individuals care for their own body “parts.” Losing sight of the real people is what leads to digging through the ashes for signs of our loved ones. It’s total disaster to not save the people first when the fire starts. What a great illustration, Courtney. Very thought-provoking. 🧨
This is so aptly put. As someone who once had to escape a “burning house” of a Christian ministry (it was para-church, so slightly different), I was shocked by the number of people who dismissed me as bitter in favor of saving the reputation of a program that was actively hurting people.
“In some places of evangelicalism, the house is burning. And it’s a beautiful house. It’s hard to see it go. A lot of good work has happened in that house. Lives have been changed around that dinner table. Sinners were welcomed home into a family who loved them. The Word was preached. But we need to hear the screams coming from inside. The house isn’t the church, the people are, and she’s crying out for us to listen.”
So rich, so humbling.
Come Lord Jesus. You’re the only one we can trust.
I resonate with your old testament - new testament comparison. It seems much of the Church in the west is work from an OT mindset. I wonder if our structures and buildings are as needed as we think they are. Perhaps they are simply in the way of us realizing the NT reality that WE are the church, the temple, the habitation of God. After all, the church in Acts seemed to have very little of buildings, budgets, or centralized government, and it flourished.
The metaphor of the burning house really made the idea stick out for me. Who in their right mind would save the house when the “church” was actually inside crying for help. Helps to reframe what we should mean when we say “church.” Not a street address.
Excellent. Loved listening to the podcast as well. Praying that we (through Christ’s grace and power) care better for one another in our local contexts, just as individuals care for their own body “parts.” Losing sight of the real people is what leads to digging through the ashes for signs of our loved ones. It’s total disaster to not save the people first when the fire starts. What a great illustration, Courtney. Very thought-provoking. 🧨
This is so aptly put. As someone who once had to escape a “burning house” of a Christian ministry (it was para-church, so slightly different), I was shocked by the number of people who dismissed me as bitter in favor of saving the reputation of a program that was actively hurting people.
“In some places of evangelicalism, the house is burning. And it’s a beautiful house. It’s hard to see it go. A lot of good work has happened in that house. Lives have been changed around that dinner table. Sinners were welcomed home into a family who loved them. The Word was preached. But we need to hear the screams coming from inside. The house isn’t the church, the people are, and she’s crying out for us to listen.”
So rich, so humbling.
Come Lord Jesus. You’re the only one we can trust.
Very well written!!
I resonate with your old testament - new testament comparison. It seems much of the Church in the west is work from an OT mindset. I wonder if our structures and buildings are as needed as we think they are. Perhaps they are simply in the way of us realizing the NT reality that WE are the church, the temple, the habitation of God. After all, the church in Acts seemed to have very little of buildings, budgets, or centralized government, and it flourished.
The metaphor of the burning house really made the idea stick out for me. Who in their right mind would save the house when the “church” was actually inside crying for help. Helps to reframe what we should mean when we say “church.” Not a street address.