Renaissance Innovation

Some highlights of an online conversation from our movement.

EugeneB said…
Hermann I like what you have done so far and I cannot wait for our next meeting. What can we do to break down the layers that culture and tradition have put on loving Jesus today?

9:24 AM

Hermann/Adel said…
Eugeneb

I believe that we should not see ourselves as Christians any more, but imitaters of Jesus and His way of life. We should not tell others that we are Christians, but that we are people trying to live the values that Christ lived while He walked the earth.

Then we should watch out for all the pitfalls of the Christian sub culture. We are not better or less sinfull than anybody out there! We need the grace of Jesus like anybody else. We are all broken…

We need to start talking and acting differently and there should be more integrity in our actions.

I have learned a lot from the AA in this regard. Please go check out the website www.alcoholics.org.za This is a powerfull movement where all are equal. We as followers of Christ need to learn to see others as equal, because Christ loves them the same.

In short, we need to break down those layers by not judging, but accepting, like Jesus..

5:51 PM

EugeneB said…
I had a coversation with a friend over lunch the other day, he felt that what makes it difficult to have a relationship with Jesus was the feeling that he was just not good enough. The perceptions in his mind of what a Christian should look like does not fit with his perception of himself. His desire was to have a relationship with Jesus but he had no desire to become part of a church, nothing church offer appealed to him. What does a relationship with Jesus look like to you outside of Church?

5:13 PM

Hermann/Adel said…
Eugeneb

Church as an institution I believe offers very little for your relationship with Christ.

Church as a body with movement and momentum offers all the benefits as originally intented by Jesus and Paul.

To answer your question: I think a relationship with Jesus outside the insitutional church is most probably more authentic.

Most people confuse their relationship with Jesus for a relationship to an institution/church. That’s why if people move away from the church/intitution the relationship is most probably more authentic. If there is a relationship when they leave the church.

This relationship could be charactarized by more time alone with God and less time in church activity. We are the Church, the people, so if we gather, maybe once a month, then it is a church gathering, but if we leave there, we stay the church, moving around in the world spreading the Kingdom.

Does that make sense?

2:10 PM

EugeneB said…
I feel lately that life is moving at an incredible pace and I wonder if it is the way God intended it to be, we have segmented our lives to not live one day at a time but from one event to the next be it weekly monthly or annually. Is it not sad that we so look forward to our December breaks that we wish precious time away? What do we do in the movement to help people experience God daily and not one day a week?

3:32 PM

Hermann/Adel said…
Eugeneb

I think you are so right.

We are chasing wind! I see this everyday with my clients as they work long hours to afford a December break!!!!!!

One of our core values in the movement is simplicity. It is a value that we need to live and proclaim. We have made life very complex! We need to simplify.

Jesus lived in and with simplicity. We should become more uncluttered. This is a very tough process for me though as I try and meet all demands. The reality is I can’t, you can’t, that’s why we need to simplify. Henri Nouwen as an author has taught me a lot about simplicity.

I think simplicity helps us to focus and prioritize. I wish I was further down the road of simplicity, but I am not. It is something I pray for……..

10:44 AM

Anonymous said…
Guys

How are we talking to the others about the movement? How do we answer their questions?

9:40 AM

EugeneB said…
At the core of the movement is our love for Jesus and our desire to imitate his way of life. I think we should try and keep it simple when we tell others. We should try to break down barriers and not create new ones. The question to me is what is the most basic structure needed to follow Jesus? How do we ensure that the hunger for a relationship with God does not get consumed by the comfort that a structure may offer?

10:00 AM

Hermann/Adel said…
Eugeneb

We should never take the responsibility for other people’s growth. We should try and help people, but never make them so comfortable that they become co-dependant.

The movement is a place where you can give and develop yourself to live the calling placed on your life. It is not a place where you will recieve and keep recieving. You are the movement, you need to be responsible for your journey with God.

The structure should be minimal and flexible. But we need structure. But the goal is not structure, that’s why it needs to be flexible.

And somehow we need to keep people uncomfortable, other wise they fall into comfortzones. We need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, this brings growth!

11:15 AM

This entry was posted on Monday, November 6th, 2006 at 4:16 pm and is filed under Life, Mission. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.