What do you mean no one is here....

I am so humbled and honored at the outpouring of both love, friendship, encouragement, honesty and everything I have found in the comments to my last post. It made me realize what a ministry this is to me! This IS a church of sorts…with a really stanky’ ‘building’ I might add!

You thought I was leaving? Good heavens no! While my posting may be a bit less regular, in terms of a daily jotting, it will still exist and reside here in this extremely faulty and unreliable world, until such time as the whole thing crashes completely (which looks like it may just be forthcoming sooner than we anticipate or desire). Everyone think good BLOGGER thoughts today! I also like to think God is helping me in my endeavor because let me tell you I had NO idea how “licked” I was by this thing, until I tried to spend a solid 24 hours away and putting the time to GOOD use, instead of moping around about my lost ‘blog”. (Lord I HATE admitting weakness!)

This space will hopefully be morphed and matured into a more Bible study-ish space, with some occasional ranting and useless banter that is the maturity and totality of me.

Okay, so I was studying the past few nights which prompted some thoughts this a.m. about Paul. You’ll read much about Paul in the future at this site, mostly because I can probably most identify with his methods and madness. I do not mean my husband Paul, though he has some of those qualities, he is Biblically much more...Andrew-ish.

I was re-reading Paul’s letters written from prison, no less, and it got me thinking about pastors in general. So Paul consistently, throughout the N.T., reprimands the various ‘churches/cities’ in efforts to redirect them to Christ-like living. I really pondered Paul’s words to the Galatians, “…you foolish Galatians, how quickly you have forgotten the hope with which you were called…” (I figure the Greek word for FOOLISH was somehow stronger). In the NIV, it says “I am astonished…” I love that word, it sounds like something I would say.

I looked up, in “Strong’s”, the root and definition of “foolish” and it appears to be from the word “Moros” which means: foolish; impious, godless. This is some pretty strong language to the Galatians, to be called godless!

It made me think about my own course and mis-course, not only recently but in life in general. I imagine Paul had the type of relationship with these various cities that my pastor does with us. I imagine it was with loving concern that he reprimanded them. It has got me thinking about the role of pastor and how it has ‘evolved’.

Here was my line of thinking: “I wonder why Pastorman doesn’t do this to us?” You know, reprimand us for lack of service, seeking, discipline, etc.

My ‘other self’, you know the one most related to the “bad girls of the Bible” said: “DUH! Like we’d keep going to church if we were going to get yelled at! We can so get that at home!”

So when did this part of the pastors role die? I understand that our flesh will obviously be at odds with being told what to do and what not to do and being reprimanded or redirected by a pastor does somehow seem a bit archaic, but isn’t that part of the role? Does the shepherd let the sheep run wild in the valley, I think not! Does the pastor let the flock run wild and out of control, it seems perhaps, yes, he does! So to my own Pastorman, if your out there, just know that I DO NOT expect this from you…I’m just wondering, that’s all! LOL.

I just wonder a bit about the evolution of this new freedom we congregants have gained and to whose benefit, aside from our own. Would the church cease to exist if we had a leader as Paul? It seems in that culture there had to be some semblance of order and expectation because so much of the business was lost by the Christians due to their decision to follow Christ. Which made me wonder, would I still be a Christian in areas of Asia where it is NOT the norm? Would I still maintain my beliefs, or would I have FOUND my beliefs if it were against a law? If my safety or my families safety was threatened?

What do you know/think about this? I am going to dig deeper into the history and evolution of church as I have spent some time studying the future of church, we all know those who don’t learn history are destined to repeat it! It may be we are headed back to a time of church = community = city = people…and it may be a time of church = building = dissolution.

Oh...and all you that "delurked" yourselves in the comments, yeah, you, I'll be visiting each and every ONE of you as time allows to see your own story! so there! oh and thanks for being here (she said with a shy smile and heartfelt gratitude).