Good Reads
wow… there have been so many good blog posts written lately. Here are a few that I’ve enjoyed:
Lew at “The Pursuit” tricked me into filling out a sermon outline in his post “Sermon Outlines – A Better Idea“. I agree with him – the sermon would be more interesting if we could fill in the blanks ourselves.
Jeff at “Losing My Religion: Re-Thinking Church” marks several points in his life when “moments of truth” changed his life in his post “Life-Altering Moments of Truth“. I’ve come to some of the same conclusions. What were those “moments of truth”? Well, check out his post.
Chris at “Filtering Life Through the Cross” made the mistake of reading Roland Allen, and writes about it in “What are we so afraid of“. Read Chris’s post, then read Roland Allen.
Alan at “spermologos” questions “The Professional Church“. He asks some very powerful and provocative questions, and realizes that the church doesn’t really serve people.
Dustin at “Grace in the Triad” talks about “Pastors leaving church” – especially rural churches. I agree with Dustin that this is simply one symptom of a much bigger problem.
Alan,
I must confess that at times I am rather sad about the state of what we have traditionally labelled “Christianity”, but blogs such as yours, your recent posts and the links have brought much joy, and confidence for the future witness of the Church Christ is building.
Thank you for the links!
What struck me in reading these is that most of them are struggling with the problems inherent in our current “church” system, which I see as only loosely based on the New Testament. Will our churches survive? – Undoubtedly some will, but many probably will not, as we have seen happen in Europe.
Some of us feel God has called us to something different than the traditional church system. We need not invent something new. The basic outline is in the pages of the New Testament.
The decline we see in the church in America is sad, but then again some of us have grown weary of trying to prop up a continually declining institution that many feel has lost its voice in our culture. Depending on one’s point of view, we are either headed in the direction of worse days ahead, or better days. I choose the latter.
BTW, have you figured out a way to comment on blogs such as Dustin’s, which require a Google or Blogger account? Google is the ultimate “Big Brother†in America, and many of us will not sign up for anything with them.
Aussie John,
They bring me much joy as well… as do your comments. Thank you.
Sam,
I don’t think Dustin allows anonymous comments, which means that you need a google account to leave a comment on his blog.
-Alan
I know this is off-topic, but what is the purpose of not allowing anonymous comments? You can enable “comment moderation” on Blogger, correct? My friend has his Blogger blog set up that way, and he can still see an amazing amount of info. on people who comment. If you require that the commenter have a Google/Blogger account (Blogger is really part of Google), do you get more info. about the commenter?
With the kind of topics you and Dustin post, I would assume that enabling comment moderation would be adequate, since you probably don’t get nasty comments. Correct?
I ask because my friend wants me to help her set up a blog. Several people have told her to go with Blogger, but I do not trust it because it is part of Google, and those folks want to collect your info. and sell it, per what I have read.
Sam,
There are many reasons that a blogger would not allow anonymous comments. Spam is one of the reasons.
-Alan
hi Guys
That’s why I choose to comment using my longstanding nickname ‘Goblin’. That way I hope people judge what I am actually saying without being prejudiced by first seeing who it is who is saying it!! However, I am always more than willing to explain who I am and what church i’m part of if people want to ask me.
Enjoy Grace!