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Are you an ecclesial dreamer? |
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Written by James Mills
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Saturday, 12 June 2004 11:54 |
Knowtown is the work of James Mills and is intended to be an online presense and collection of emerging Christian resources. It is more an ongoing "Corps of Discovery" of spiritual journey than a place you can find on a map. Nevertheless, it is very real. It is the home of Christ followers and ecclesial dreamers and friends of the Emergent Village who view life as an expedition. This expedition is different for every follower, but ends at a common destination: finding the surpassing value of KNOWING Jesus Christ. Knowtown values that destination by being committed to the journey. Although the decision to follow Christ must be made personally, our journey is meant to be lived in the context of community. When we combine our paths with those of other committed Christ followers we can experience the Christian faith in fresh new ways without becoming novel.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 16 July 2006 21:08 |
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What is an ecclesial dreamer? |
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Written by James Mills
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Sunday, 16 July 2006 21:52 |
"We must not be afraid to dream the seemingly impossible if we want to see the seemingly impossible become a reality." --Vaclav Havel
My name is James Mills, and I am an ecclesial dreamer. But what is an ecclesial dreamer? The word “ecclesia” is the English transliteration of an old Greek word that is found in the New Testament scriptures. It basically means assembly but in most contexts the majority of English Bible versions have translated it into the word, “church.” So at a bare minimum, an ecclesial dreamer is one who dreams about church.
But why would anyone want to sit around and dream about church? Certainly there are better things one could do with their time. We could actually go to church for starters. But this begs the question, “what exactly do we mean when we say ‘go to church?’” For some, it means going to a building with a steeple that has a cross on top to sing songs and listen to someone preach about the Bible every week. Others may see a small group of friends who meet together regularly to study the Bible and encourage one another in their spiritual lives as “their church.” Then there is a growing group of people who will argue that we, as professing Christians, do not go to church because we are the church.
But no matter how we answer that initial question, we are immediately faced with several more. Which church, out of the vast number of possibilities should one go to, or be? Why are there so many different kinds of churches anyway? And perhaps, the most important question of all—Why don’t all the different kinds of churches get along? If they cannot all agree on what it means to “be church” than maybe we don’t want to go after all. We have enough conflict in our lives as it is to go around adding just a little bit more.
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Written by James Mills
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Wednesday, 07 July 2004 11:54 |
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The new Emergent Village website is now live.Check it out at www.emergentvillage.com |
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 08 November 2006 07:05 |
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