LET…. MY…. PEOPLE…. GO !!

Chapter thirty-two

Wayne Jacobsen: “I have been on a life-long journey to sort out what it means to live loved by the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and enjoy helping others find traction on that journey as well. It is the reason why I maintain Lifestream.org and host a podcast at TheGodJourney.com.

Finding the joy of being love by him, we also discover how to love others, not only fellow members of his family in the world, but also how to be a better vessel for God’s compassion to find its way to those who don’t know him yet.”

Finding Church, Wayne Jacobsen

Chapter 1: Because it is easy to blame people for their lack of commitment and outside forces for seducing them, few pastors are taking an honest look at how local congregation might be a part of the problem. Instead of inviting people into a compelling engagement with God, they have resorted to pressure.

Chapter 1: If you share my frustration with the disparity between the church as Scripture talks about her and what we see reflected in our religious institutions, you’re not alone. You’re standing in a long line that includes the likes of Francis of Assisi, John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, John Wesley, and nameless others who dared to ask the difficult questions and struggled with the uncomfortable answers.

Chapter 1: What if he is actually behind this move away from institutionalized Christianity? What if he is inviting people into a simpler and more effective way to express the reality of his family? What if that church has been growing since the Day of Pentecost, and we’ve missed it–not because it wasn’t there but because we were so distracted by human attempts to build our own version of the church that we missed the more glorious one Jesus is building?

Chapter 1: To embrace that reality, however, we’re going to have to see the church as he does, not how we’ve been taught to define her. The longing to find a church that fulfills the promise of Scripture is God’s gift, drawing you toward a greater reality than you’ve yet seen. I know how frustrating it can feel when your tastes of it seem to fade like a mirage in the distance, but his church is alive and well. She is not and never has been the building on the corner. Evidence of her may be there, but she’s far more glorious than our institutions or denominations could possibly contain.

Quoted by permission of Lifestream (lifestream.org). Finding Church: www.findingchurch.com