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This recent post from Alan Creech's blog re: "Why Church?" grabbed my eye...

"We have looked and we have seen the deep lack of real transformation going on in the Body of Christ. We aren't - we haven't been - being changed into the people we were created to be. And we have seen that the context of our Christian lives has had a good deal to do with this lack of transformation."

Also read "Detoxing from Church" by Jason Zahariades.

"Imagine what you would have left after you remove from your life everything connected with the organizational church. I mean everything. I've discovered the hard way that living most of my adult life in cultural Christianity has formed my entire identity as a Christian. And when everything in my life connected with the church is gone, including sixteen years of professional ministry, I'm confronted with the true raw status my personal faith."

I can identify with that statement! Doris and I were confronted with similar realities after leaving the Vineyard and "worshipping solo" for 8 months. We "cheated" too, and would attend churches here and there from time to time. Perhaps we need more time off from "institutional church" to detox further?

"What is the Church? It is a community of people who are each following Christ into his divine life and love here on earth. They are learning how to become by grace what Christ is by nature - the full and complete emptying of self in order to participate fully in God's kingdom so as to be a redemptive force that recreates all aspects of life and creation (Philippians 2:5-16; Colossians 1:19; Romans 8:19-21). The Church is a group of Christ-followers who are sent as Jesus was sent (John 20:21). In this way, the Church is the continuation of Christ's incarnation on earth."

I've been wrestling with the "What is the Church/Why Church" questions for some time now. I know that I have hardly, if ever, fully followed "Christ into His divine life and love". I've never seen it modeled or taught as the "goal" of the Christian's life on earth.

"The Christian community is then made up of Christ-followers who encourage, challenge, pray, minister, learn, honor, love and spur each other on. But it is not the community's nor the community leaders' responsibility to program or lead others into divine life. Only Christ can do that. So while my needs remain the same, I must look not to an organization, but to Christ alone to lead me into his divine life and love."

"Only Christ is the source of divine life. Each member must follow Jesus daily to learn his divine life. Each member must shoulder the responsibility to work out his or her salvation and not expect the community or its leaders to do it for him or her. In Christ, we can learn together, serve together, grow together, love together, etc. But we must first and foremost follow Christ into his life. And to do this we must abandon the distorted and addictive version of the consumer church in order to be free to become Christ's Church."