charlieDEAN’S Blog

I don’t really believe that the ethos of a church can be summarized in a statement or written about. It really needs to be experienced. However, as we proceed with creating a new church, there are some underlying directives that guide how we think and process. So, for the next couple of weeks, I’m going to lay these out here. I’m sure that we’ll continue to “wordsmith” these, so here’s the first:

Everything – we believe that all of life – food, friends, work, money, pleasure, sleep – is spiritual. We do not fragment our lives – we live with a growing understanding that everything we do relates to God.

Obviously we’re using some of Rob Bell’s language here — “Everything is Spiritual” — but really the idea is much older than Rob Bell.

One of the features of modern life (I think it has it roots in the Industrial Revolution) is that we fragment our lives. We have our “personal life,” our “work life” our “spiritual life,” etc. But the truth of Scripture is that ALL of life is spiritual. God isn’t interested in having my attention for 1 hour on Sunday mornings. I am not a fragmented person. I don’t turn on or turn off my spirituality.

So here are some implications for Imago Dei:

• teachings and spiritual formation in our church has to go beyond “that was a good service” to practical and applicable on Mon – Fri as well.
• the “church” is not the sunday morning gathering. The church does gather on Sunday mornings, but the church is always a reality… church is always in session — over coffee, around tables, celebrating births, mourning at funerals, playing in swimming pools…everything relates to God.
• everyone is spiritual — if we define spirituality as the sense that there’s more to our existence than what we taste, hear, smell, touch — then everyone is spiritual, and the role of Christ followers is to help “spiritual” people connect with the real Spirit.