what about the church??????

From the Pastor,
The very first thing I want to do this month is to thank all of you who helped and/or participated in the Easter week of services. I get more out of it each year and am planning to do this again next year. If you didn’t get in on helping this year let me know and I will put you down to help next year. Also ideas for worship that you are willing to help with are wonderful tools for us all. So thank you for all your help and input in worship.
The next thing is this newsletter. I have a lot of information to share with you that I have discovered and feel is important to the church. If you read books and talk with people, if you blog and search watch the news read the paper and listen you will discover that our world is in a brand new place. It is in a place that has taken what we have held onto as the key elements of life and either changed or done away with them. The world as a whole is smaller, we can hear about a bomb within and hour of it exploding, we can see the stock markets fall as they slide down. We can see a tsunami slam into a village on the other side of the world in real time.
We can see the relief efforts of many nations and people coming together to rebuild and lift up a country ravaged by war or nature. Yet I look down the street and see a child without enough food and with clothes that are tattered and worn. I can stop along the road and find an elderly person who is so lonely they cry in real pain. Our world is all, right on our doorstep.
Then there is the church and one thing about the church is it is still the same. It has not changed enough in most places for us to even notice. Sure there are praise bands and video projection. We have heat and air conditioning and nice lights. We now have cushioned pews and some have chairs in the sanctuary, but the church is the same. We do things the same way, we worship the same way, we do outreach and mission the same way.
In this edition of the newsletter I am offering you some questions and opportunities for not only thinking outside the box but for action. In a world that is moving at the speed of light, a world where bad as well as good are in front of us continually we need to be a new church. I am not offering any quick answers or any answer for that matter but am encouraging you to think in some new ways.
I began this last month with a simple question that seemed to get some stirring happening. “Does the church need a building to be the church?” In this newsletter there are more questions and thoughts about this same subject. “What makes us the church and what does that mean?”
Enough of me rambling on look and read what is here. Then let’s engage in some discussion and see what comes. Open yourselves to the work and direction of the Holy Spirit.
Grace and peace,
Pastor WaynO

This letter is contained in a newsletter with thoughts and posts from many of the blogs I read and participate with. Still the question remains as to what the church, the body of Christ should look like, act like, move like, breathe like??????????????

Can't move on

Boy this seems to really have a hold on me. I started out to develop a mission statement and got side tracked to something maybe far off but maybe not. I just can't seem to get past the thoughts I have aquired about church and religion and faithful disciple. I am not even sure what I mean by all that.
Thanks to those who read and walk with me through this maze I have found myself in. I have now added another ember to the smoldering fire that I am quite sure will erupt at the worst possible moment. A local church has been participating in the "Dare 2 Share" project. It is filtering into the groups I am responsible for and I am not sure how to respond.
The first thing I noticed when watching a video at one Sr. High group is that this is right in line with so much I have been reading and thinking. It pits religion and relationship with Jesus against each other. Then one of the old members of that group gave a book from there to my wife who used to be her youth leader and said she should read it as it is what my wife used to tell them in the youth group.
I have thought about taking the groups from the churches I serve to one of the conferences just can't seem to get adult volunteers to help out.
This is good stuff I think but it leaves me a bit confused as the church that is using it is or at least has been in the past all about growing their numbers. They have the reputation of being sheep stealers and I personally know they at one time they said at least the church I serve did not use the Bible. It came from them that I would not allow the leaders of the youth to tell the kids they needed to commit to Jesus. That may have come from my difficulty with "Got Saved" which the D2S says is not enough it is only a beginning, which is my struggle.
I am at a loss this evening, flu all day, sermon due am, time change, youth stuff, member who had 2 surgeries in one week and needs more. I feel like I am complaining but not really, just trying to make sense of a call from God to serve here or maybe something else.
Sorry to dump it out here but any thoughts would be helpful.
Pastor WaynO