Re: Re The Church that gives up their life for my sake...

[Darren Wright]

Thanks Tom, I'd like to stay away from that box, a church of 400 young people looking inwards is still not a church i want to be a part of.  In this particular email I'm talking martyrdom not mission, so perhaps I'm not thinking about a Thriving Church at all... not in this email anyhow. I was thinking that one of the things that was going for the early Church, especially around Paul's time was that they were thinking that the second coming was going to be very soon, they weren't concerned about how the church would survive for the next 30 or 50 or 100 years. They acted in faith and with great urgency, they didnt worry about heritage buildings or if they could pay back a loan or if theyd have the roster finished by the end of the month... I'm just having some grief moments after watching the church make a lot of  decisions based on economic rational thinking. which i see as not wanting to live the whole martydom life.  I can't help but think that we've lost the urgency, we think we need to make sure that theres a church for our children, we've lost hope that the kingdom is at hand. Our predecessors didnt worry about the church dying, it was all or nothing, whilst we're always trying to find new ways of prolonging our life rather than bringing the kingdom. Yes, I'm angsty at the moment, I'll get over it... maybe -- Darren Wright Fool Youth and Family Worker UCA NSW Synod Presbytery of Canberra Region GPO Box 221. Canberra. ACT. 2601. [EMAIL PROTECTED] 02 6248 9311 (office) "The Gospel must be constantly forwarded to a new address, because the recipient is repeatedly changing place of residence." - Helmut Thielicke