{"id":56,"date":"2007-08-31T05:02:30","date_gmt":"2007-08-31T12:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/?p=56"},"modified":"2007-08-31T10:49:49","modified_gmt":"2007-08-31T17:49:49","slug":"a-question-worth-asking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/?p=56","title":{"rendered":"A Question Worth Asking&#8230;."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font size=\"5\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal\"><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal; font-size: 14pt\">Every once in a while I hear or read a question that really makes me stop and reflect on something worth considering. That happened recently when I was watching a You-tube video. In it the person asked the question, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do we have a church that has a mission or a mission that has a church?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"5\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\"><\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\">On first glance or hearing, that question may not seem to make much sense\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 BUT ponder it a while\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 read it aloud a couple of times\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and I hope you will agree with me that it is a question worth asking and not only that, but it is a question worth answering!<\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"5\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\"><\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\">My desire for the congregation I lead&#8211; Community of Joy Church of the Brethren&#8211; is to be a mission that has a church! This is particularly a challenge right now for us because we just bought and moved into our very first building&#8230; it is what you might call a church building, but we are choosing to call it a ministry center because we (the people) are the church, not the building!<\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"5\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\"><\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\">A<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/font><\/font><font size=\"5\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal\"><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\">ll of this and the many other things we have yet to plan or think about, will help us be on mission for Jesus! <\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\"><\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\">Being a mission with a church will keep us from doing only things that we like or want or meet our needs. Being a mission with a church means that we realize that our mission is not about us\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 but about Jesus\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 helping others experience Jesus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 love, hospitality, hope, healing, and peace (the key components of our mission statement)!<\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"5\"><font face=\"Tahoma\"><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\"><\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\">What will the church of the future look like? <\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\">There is only one answer to that question! It depends on US!<\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\">I pray that we will ALWAYS be a mission with a church!<\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-weight: normal; font-size: 14pt; font-family: Tahoma\">Thoughts???<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every once in a while I hear or read a question that really makes me stop and reflect on something worth considering. That happened recently when I was watching a You-tube video. In it the person asked the question, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do we have a church that has a mission or a mission that has a church?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,21,23,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-change","category-community","category-leadership","category-missional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}