In the churches that I've been in where I've experienced the greatest level of connection and spiritual transformation, I was [with] people multiple times a week in multiple settings. This doesn't mean more meetings - far from it. It does mean being intentional. It means choosing to live in such a way that the people I church with are people I can see. (emphasis mine)

The salvation of one's own soul, or self-sanctification, or self-perfection, or self-fulfillment may well be the goal of Buddhism or Greek philosophy or modern psychology. But it is not the goal of Christianity. For someone to embrace Christianity for the purpose of self-fulfillment or self-salvation is, I think, to betray or to misunderstand Christianity at its deepest level...

Christianity must be a force that moves outward, and a Christian community is basically in existence "for others." That is the whole meaning of a Christian community. A Christian community which spends all its resources on a building campaign for its own needs has long ago left Christianity high and dry on the banks. Or all its resources on an education program or youth program for that matter. A Christian community is in existence "for others," not for "its own" (79).

posted by Peter at 1:14 AM
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