A couple of cool things
I came across an interesting quote: "The church fathers (and mothers) insisted that outside the church there was no salvation because participation in the life-giving and salvation-conveying Spirit of God could not be understood apart from direct participation in the life of the believing community."
There is little doubt that the author is right. The early church didn't think you could practice Christianity apart from being committed to other Christians. The question is... where they right?
I'm coming to a hardline position on this. I don't think you can be Christian apart from Christian community - at least not when there is choice involved. I know churches aren't perfect and can be nasty places, but we are also places of redemption and grace.
In that spirit - we had an amazing weekend at the International Church of Bangkok.
(1) We participated in Living in Bangkok. That meant we got to talk to a lot of people about our church. Most attendees didn't seem that interested though.
(2) We had people go to Klong Toey and help finish a renovation for a microenterprise bakery. The hope is it will make enough money to support a family. Then they can hire staff and it will support more families. Finally - (we hope) it will turn a big enough profit to be able to make grants to more neighbors to help support THEIR families. This could be big. Four or five ICB families turned up to help! That's awesome. I heard they had some excitement too. A fight broke out in the alley while they were working.
Two of the ladies from the Slum sent food back to the church for coffee hour the following day. So we had rich people doing manual labor with poor people to renovate a microenterprise. Then we had poor people sending food and feeding the rich during the church coffee hour. Isn't that just like God?
(3) We took kids from Elisha Children Home to lunch and the planetarium after church.
There is little doubt that the author is right. The early church didn't think you could practice Christianity apart from being committed to other Christians. The question is... where they right?
I'm coming to a hardline position on this. I don't think you can be Christian apart from Christian community - at least not when there is choice involved. I know churches aren't perfect and can be nasty places, but we are also places of redemption and grace.
In that spirit - we had an amazing weekend at the International Church of Bangkok.
(1) We participated in Living in Bangkok. That meant we got to talk to a lot of people about our church. Most attendees didn't seem that interested though.
(2) We had people go to Klong Toey and help finish a renovation for a microenterprise bakery. The hope is it will make enough money to support a family. Then they can hire staff and it will support more families. Finally - (we hope) it will turn a big enough profit to be able to make grants to more neighbors to help support THEIR families. This could be big. Four or five ICB families turned up to help! That's awesome. I heard they had some excitement too. A fight broke out in the alley while they were working.
Two of the ladies from the Slum sent food back to the church for coffee hour the following day. So we had rich people doing manual labor with poor people to renovate a microenterprise. Then we had poor people sending food and feeding the rich during the church coffee hour. Isn't that just like God?
(3) We took kids from Elisha Children Home to lunch and the planetarium after church.
