Estimated reading time: 2 minute(s)

I’m catching up on listening to some old podcasts while I work today, and just thought I’d take note of (and share here) something that was “just” said on The God Journey podcast.

“You get the idea that this didn’t begin with management. It began with life. And that life expanded among a group of people. And that’s how I see it now. I think what the church is is the fruit of something, not the cause of something.”

That was from the show titled, “The Wonder of Real Community” posted on Aug 7th. The discussion centers around life together as the church and how many things can get in the way of open, honest relationships with other people living life with Jesus. Good stuff as always.

I think the part that stood out to me was how quickly we took something that came out of real relationship with the real God (in Jesus) and have attempted to build it, manage it, control it, reproduce it, etc. The problem lies not only in the verbs previously used, but in the word “it”. I’ve said before, as soon as whatever we are part of becomes an “it” then “it” starts to become the focus rather than the life that is found in Jesus, and shared with his church.

I’ve been encouraged by reading through the stuff I wrote a few years ago now in my There’s The Steeple… Here’s The Church book, and the guys who do The God Journey podcast have also been an encouragement along the way. Check out either of those links, I think you’ll enjoy them.