I am persuaded that God has again, in this book, provided a great service to His servants in the Church.
“The purpose” is re-emphasized and the process for achieving the “Great Commission” is clearly laid-out for any and all who wish to serve the Lord.
Even while I am convinced that all believing “church leaders” will benefit from this book, I am more convinced that this book should be in the hands of the “laity”, i.e. the vast numbers of individual members of the body of Christ who evangelize at the water cooler or the construction site food catering trucks, but only when they know their purpose.
Please also read this essay, The Power of Parishioners, by Dr. Rick Warren, which coincides with the Rainer/Geiger findings in Simple Church.
The leaders are not the power of Christ’s Church; rather it is the vast army of committed volunteers who understand a “Simple” message with an understandable goal, which is preached from the Simple Church that Jesus established on Pentecost a few years ago.
The power is not in the Pastors, deacons, and preacher/evangelists.
“The purpose” is re-emphasized and the process for achieving the “Great Commission” is clearly laid-out for any and all who wish to serve the Lord.
Even while I am convinced that all believing “church leaders” will benefit from this book, I am more convinced that this book should be in the hands of the “laity”, i.e. the vast numbers of individual members of the body of Christ who evangelize at the water cooler or the construction site food catering trucks, but only when they know their purpose.
Please also read this essay, The Power of Parishioners, by Dr. Rick Warren, which coincides with the Rainer/Geiger findings in Simple Church.
The leaders are not the power of Christ’s Church; rather it is the vast army of committed volunteers who understand a “Simple” message with an understandable goal, which is preached from the Simple Church that Jesus established on Pentecost a few years ago.
The power is not in the Pastors, deacons, and preacher/evangelists.
The power is instead from the Holy Spirit within the hearts of those who believe that Jesus can and will save.
God bless,
DSM
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Do the next right thing….. Opus Dei.
Anonymous,
Thank you for coming by and especially for posting. Obviously, I enjoy most any post that implies one has actually read something that I wrote, even if the post is a brief seven words, and somewhat cryptic.
Nevertheless, I suspect that I should be unambiguous as to the use of the term “laity”.
I do not intend to imply that there should be, nor that there is any true distinction between “Church leaders” and “laity”.
That is, in-fact, the very reason that I placed those terms in quotes. I understand all disciples of Jesus Christ to be ambassadors for the Kingdom of God, yet only in different roles, as per the gifts that are given by the Holy Spirit.
Furthermore, the artificial distinctions that have been established by “ordaining” special classes of people to be “priests” and “pastors” appears to be in contravention of the New Covenant pattern as expressed in the Acts of the apostles & various epistles of the New Testament. I would cite the Revelation of John to underscore the point that there exists no true “laity” in the true holy Church of God.
Revelation 1:5-6
5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 5:9-10
9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
My experience is that when men & women see themselves as ‘higher’ than their fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord, then there becomes an inherent attempt to remove, from those ‘lesser’ disciples, the freedom to serve Jesus Christ in faith.
This is also coupled with an inherent attempt to abdicate divine authority, by those ‘lesser’ disciples, a.k.a “laity”. The failure is not in the “Clergy”, but rather in the carnal mind of all disciples of Jesus.
I believe that there is far too often, an unseen attempt to recreate the tabernacle of the Old Covenant, with its courtyards, and holy place and finally most holy place. Yet, this is an affront to the fact that the curtain of the Temple was torn when the Lord closed the gulf between all humankind and God.
Mark 15:37-39
37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.
38 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.
39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.
So, there is not a need for the Opus Dei. Christ has already done what the Opus Dei purports to do.
God bless,
DSM
Opus Dei is “the Work of God”. It is the laity doing THE WORK in their daily lives. Simple church…as you are going.
Thanks for clarifying your point.
I understand and agree.
Yet, the possiblity of the organization of Opus Dei (à la The Da Vinci Code) made me wonder if I should “keep an eye out” for a malevolent albino.
God bless,
DSM
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