Kingdom Gospel 3

This is a link to an article I found in Newsweek back in a March issue. It is entitled 'A Christian by Any Other Name' and discusses how many have abandoned the title "Christian." It goes into talking about how "followers of Jesus" do not want to be associated with titled denominations or even "Christians" anymore. In terms of the Kingdom Gospel... it frustrates me that following Jesus in its terminology has become such an issue. If we are striving to enact the Kingdom, why are we so divided as followers over what we call ourselves? As you have said, its become far to individualistic and I think that this is another example of that.

This gospel is deconstructing the church, making the church little more than a Sunday morning option for those who want to follow Jesus

I think the comment above confuses the Church with what happens on a Sunday. As one who has left a manipulative Pentecostal church, ran a home-based fellowship for a year, and is currently uncomfortable in a fairly progressive Reformed Baptist church, the distinction is very clear in my mind.

Although I may think of the organisational church as optional (or even undesirable), I have a high view of the catholic (little c) Church as the Bride of Christ. Much higher than when I was part of the Pentecostal church. In fact, ironically, it is the excesses and manipulations of the Pentecostal church I left that helped form my high view of the Church.

This may seem a little bit of a sideways shift in the discussion topic, but it is not to me. The gospel is a message of God restoring community into the Church and my changing view of what the Church is has very much affected my view of what it means for me to invite people into that community.

Scot, you mentioned that a trip to Austria was the first of three experiences that helped you shift your understanding of the gospel. Do you think that American individualism has contributed to this individualistic emphasis on the gospel? Perhaps that rugged pioneer spirit helped foster this. However, many of the pioneers found a nice mix of their individual work with a community spirit.

The Evangelical Alliance in the UK has just launched a 'square mile' initiative, which asks churches to think of what difference it would make to the square mile around them if they just disappeared. That sharply focusses the discussion on the church as the agency which brings the kingdom.

Even tho we're high on inerrancy in the evangelical camp, we don't pay enough attention to the form of Scripture do we? The earliest NT documents, the epistles, were written to communities, not individuals. The gospels were shaped by the needs of the communities of Matt, Mk, LK, and John. The OT is written for the community.

And don't we need the gospel everyday?? A wedding ceremony is not the end, it's the beginning of a marriage. Our initial reception of the gospel is not the end/goal, it's the beginning as we enter into the marriage of Messiah and His bride.

Of course communal worship is optimal---and is something God wants and encourages. The problem with church/religion is that humans impose "rules" on the pure worship of God, rules which vary from religion to religion and thus from church to church. From Catholicism to Mormonism, each religion considers itself "true" and condemns the rest.
The "rules" of each church are human-made; God is only tangentially evident. A profound relationship with our Creator is an incredibly powerful, intimate, and, yes, individual thing. To share that love with others makes the relationship stronger and pleases God. But the human aribiters of the "rules" of any religion discourage the thoughtfulness God desires of his children. Homosexuality, for instance, was never mentioned--not once--by Jesus Christ. In fact, there are a mere two admonitions against homosexuality: one in Leviticus and one in Paul's letter to the Romans. Those who profess to follow the teachings of Christ ignore the fact that He, in fact, made no mention of homosexuality (in addition to the fact they are cherry-picking one law from Leviticus while ignoring or decrying the hundreds of other laws governing behavior.)
If God creates gay and lesbian human beings, are we not required to consider the possibility that such sexual orientation is not sinful? If Jesus Christ, God's own Self on Earth, mentioned not even once this God-created yet unambiguously condemned genetic state, doesn't that suggest that sexual orientation itself is not, in God's mind, central to the question of what it means to be righteous in His eyes?
And that is only one, albeit one of the most inflammatory, issues which both govern the operation of a church and cloud the waters of God's intentions--which are not, religious law notwithstanding, absolutely obvious.
God bestowed on the human race brains capable of abstract thought and a nature both blessed and cursed with free will. "Religion" does not trump belief and worship of God. Churches are not necessarily bastions of truth nor specially endowed with an exalted understanding of what God expects and desires of us, his creations, his children. Yet religions, and the churches that serve them, would have us believe they know best and that we must obey and think as a group about complex and equivocal matters.
There are few things lonelier than going it alone, worshipping alone. But loneliness is the price I pay because I cannot abdicate my responsibility to think for myself.
I am one with my Heavenly Father, my Lord, my Creator, my beloved Christ. Sadly, I cannot say the same about other human worshippers. The divisiveness of religion is simply a manifestation of our most primitive instinct to form tribes and pit ourselves against one another. Until and unless we recognize the reality that, yes, there is more than one path to reach God and do His bidding, devout believers like I will be unable to "belong" to a church or consider myself a "member" of a specific religion.
Which is not to say I have given up seeking a church that is pure, that does not overlay with human invention the simple beauty of Christ's words.
I hope and pray I find a community of worshippers to which I can belong without betraying my own freedom of thought and personal relationship with God. But I cannot be hypocritical. I do not need a hierarchy of priests, cardinals and Pope to connect with or be forgiven by the Lord. I am not a sinner if I vote, have a blood transfusion or drink coffee. I am not choosing to believe what is convenient; I am being faithful to God's desire that I obey Him in all things.
Thus, I disavow tribalism in all its forms. Even religious tribalism. And I continue my spiritual quest for a community in which I can worship with the rest of the Body. I know God will answer my prayers and provide me with that sustanance.
In the interim, I do God's bidding, have no church, and endure the loneliness.