Provocational living!

Ok, so I have been through the absoring of the Xbox, made it through the other side and then disappeared to a youth worker retreat this week!

Peace



Only joking, but that does pretty much sum up the last fortnight for me. However, I want to discuss the retreat I was on...there was loads of stuff unpacked at it, and I would like to share a few things!

The key speaker was Tony Jones, who writes books and takes part in an emergent church! I honestly think he was class, but he seemed to provoke some negative reaction from some of the people there!

He spoke about spiritual practices, but the main controversy seemed to come from his views on church. He was asked on more than one occasion about his view of mainstream denominational church (it was Anglican and Methodist youth workers!) and he said his view should be fairly obvious, as he had already chosen to opt out of it by becoming part of an emergent community...smart guy!

This made me think about my own (and my colleagues) objectivity. At the end of the day, we are paid by the Church, and therefore can we claim to be objective about its negative things?! Maybe we can; however, we need to recognise that just as people like Tony don't have all the answers (indeed he doesn't claim to) neither to we!

There was one question I asked during one of the many times of open discussion that was picked up on by more than a few people who approached me about it (not in confrontational ways, but more to discuss) and it was this; 'Is the Church Christian?'. What do you think of this statement/question?