Friday, August 14, 2009

The End of Denominational Christianity

It's a dream, I know, but one that seems to be getting closer to being reality. I promised to post last night on what I heard at the Celebrate Recovery Leadership Summit at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA. Sorry for the delay. Yesterday Pastor John Pollard made the whole conference for me.

He spoke most pointedly to the nearly 400 senior pastors among the 3600 participants in the conference. He told them that it was time to take off the masks, start getting real with the people in the seats and become the church Jesus intended. A church that is real, loving, accepting and serving all those broken, hurting, lost and desperate people out there. In short, a church that is anchored in recovery because everyone is broken and suffering under the burden of their hurts, hang-ups and habits. If church isn't a place where you can bring these things to find healing in the arms of Christ, what hope is there?

It was so great to hear a pastor who gets it. I've been getting messages from multiple sources over the past week that tells me the Body of Christ is reforming itself outside the traditional denominational constraints. Not only that, but this reforming is happening around the concept that we're to be serving and loving the outcasts, rejects and invisible. Imagine that...a church that actually serves as the hands and feet of Jesus operating from a place humility and grace.

I'm afraid to hope...but here I go again getting optimistic about the future of the church in America.

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