Over the past few years I have become increasingly disatisfied with the traditional Pentecostal church lifestyle. When I first got saved was in the Mid 1990's around the time of the Toronto blessing and the Pensacola Revival and I miss the relative freedom of the services that we used to have during that period.
But it is also more than that, being a very analytical person who values truth and honesty highly I have been unable to ignore the difference between the way we where following Christ and the way that the bible seemed to say that we should be following Jesus.
The bible tells me that Jesus has given me a gift to help me serve the Church and show his love to a dying world, yet I get very little chance to exercise this gift within the traditional church structure. I'm mostly relegated to roles that are more concerned with natural gifts and have nothing to do with my spiritual role in the Body of Christ.
As a consequence of this dissonance between the bible and the traditional church and the inability to use the gift that God has given me I had become increasingly depressed and considered either changing churches or withdrawing from fellowship. It would have been easier than continuing the way I swas going.
But God came through just in time and I read Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices by Frank Viola and George Barna and I'm free. That's the only way that I can describe it. It's like I've been living in Jail for the last ten years but considered it just normal.
In the book they explore some of the traditions of the traditional church and where they actually come from and how the church today bears little resemblance to what it was in the first century. Never before have I been able to see a vision of the Church as it was designed to be but after reading the book I can see it and I haven't even read the book that comes after where Frank Viola explains his vision for an organic living church.
So the book is highly recommended and I can't wait to read the next book Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity.
And no I don't know what comes next but I know that God has lead me down this path and he will reveal the next stage at the right time. But I truly wish that my current church could see the church as I now see it, it's nothing short of gloriously beautiful.