It has been one third of a year since we BLOGGED!

I can hardly believe that anyone will look at this blog as we have been quiet for so long! The days have rushed past and have been full. I (Kevin) have endured six weeks where an arthritic pain in my shoulder required some medical treatment and then twelve weeks of Physiotherapy. We have been learning in practice to '...be still and know that I am God...'

Time to be still has also been time to read and reflect. It was really encouraging to read the book, "Pagan Christianity" by Frank Viola and George Barna. The book explores a historical View of God's Church. It highlights places where men and women have seen things that God has revealed and then allowed their fingerprints to obscure the revelation of God with the ideas of humankind.

"Pagan Christianity" exposes the mistakes we have made as God's People through out the last 2000 years and explains that the Biblical material suggests that the
shape of the Church is best described as

"A grassroots experience that is marked by a face-to-face community, every-member functioning, open-participatory meetings, non-hierarchical leadership, and the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ as the functional leader and head of the group. Put another way, organic Church life is the "experience" of the body of Christ."

In answer to the question, "what are the signs of a healthy church?", Viola and Barna state:

"some of the signs of a healthy organic Church are:

• the building together of sisters and brothers into close-knit, Christ-centred community.
• the transformation of character in the lives of the members.
  
• meetings that express and reveal Jesus Christ, and in which every member functions and shares.
  
• community life that is vibrant, thriving, authentic and where members grow to love one another, more and more
• a community of believers who are magnificently obsessed with their Lord,
  and are neither legalistic nor libertine in their lifestyle

The authors highlight how we have moved ahead, as God's Church, with our eyes fixed clearly, on the past and often built on the places where grotty human hands have disturbed our view of the things God says will grow within his church. Others have written on this theme before, but the footnotes of each page make this book a great resource for all we who have been called In to Fathers family

If you'd like to see more of "Pagan Christianity" or read chapter one, check the website.