My previous post on "That Which Has True Kingdom Value... Love" received so many excellent comments that I thought it was worth posting some of the highlights. I questioned the difficulty of living lives of Kingdom love within the context of the institutional/traditional church structures:
"I believe there are better ways to live lives of Kingdom love than the institutional churches (IC). I've seen it, lived it and others have lived it in front of me. However, I think it is very difficult to go into the IC and do this. Mostly because of the way the IC is set up and run." St. Valdez
"If kingdom love is the key doesn't it make sense to focus in on people rather than programs. Why develop a form of church that necessitates our serving it instead of the people who are in it." Frank Doiron
"I have come to realize that true kingdom love happens one person at a time." Aaron
But there was an excellent balance to these comments as several people pointed out that just changing the structure of church alone would not provide more essential kingdom love:
"I realized that the house churches or other 'emergent churches' may also fall into the trap of institutionalizing church." John Gray
"The house church cannot do what is the Holy Spirit's job to do and only His job to do. Please take this to heart. Most certainly a new house church can get the feeling that all things are great in the first few month, but as the newness wears off many house churches struggle. We still carry the McDonald's mindset around......ie God will wave His magic wand and we'll be perfect or have a perfect church..
Then, what can a house church do? House church is simply a wineskin that causes the wine to flow more freely. The wine is simply Jesus and His kingdom." Frank Doiron"I think that if we strive to find any model or structure and brand it as "the" way to live this Kingdom love it will ultimately end with the same result as the IC has, for the most part...
Relationships, regardless of where or what kind of structure we are in is the key to making any kind of life transformation in those around us." St. Valdez
