sunday's scuds (august 19, 2007)

Unfortunately, while on vacation, I wasn't able to offer scud reviews. Yesterday was my first Sunday back, so we'll pick things up right there.

Dwight brought part two of a message series called All Access. Here's a bird's-eye view of what he shared: He basically said that most people don't have a problem with God. After all, lots and lots of them show up at church for Christmas and Easter. But, unfortunately, people do have a problem with the church. He shared how, basically, for as long as there's been a "church," church people have made Christianity so complex that people simply write it off as irrelevant and/or confusing. He even showed us how this problem surfaced in the early days of the church, how they dealt with it, and what we can learn from from it.

Here are the scuds:

• "Years ago I told God, I want to be able to pastor a church that I would want to attend. Many pastors lead churches they wouldn't even want to go to."
• "Your system is perfectly designed to give you the results you're currently getting."
• "The church is the only organization where its members give up rights...the members exist for others rather than themselves...when you join, you actually surrender your rights."
• "Popular opinion is that church is for church-people. That would mean that Christianity is only for church-people...that Jesus is only for church people. That's not true."
• "Jesus came to be a bridge...but the church has left slats in that bridge missing."
• "Jesus did not come so you and I can have a cool little Christian subculture."
• "Our mission is to build a bridge that's strong enough to bear the weight of the truth we have to share."
• "Traditions cause us to respond emotionally."
• "What typically happens is that we get hung up on traditions and because of that we end up making it difficult for people to come to Christ."
• "There's nothing wrong with traditions but when traditions are the first, most important thing, we're in big, big trouble."
• "I'm afraid that the American Church is more in love with their traditions than they are with Jesus."
• "Do I value traditions? Sure I do...but not if they stand in the way of people coming to Christ."

Scriptures to read and consider:

• Acts 15:1-31
• 1 Corinthians 9:19, 22-23
• 2 Corinthians 5:13