Oh, yes, the Lord has blessed our labors through

the years, because He is the God of grace

and mercy. But what greater blessings have

been all withheld or simply put beyond

our reach because we choose the course of drift

instead of sailing in the Wind of God,

according to His Word?

It’s not necessary to sell all our buildings and scrap all our programs to begin recovering some of that spiritual power which fueled the early Christian churches. But we must face up to the reality that our approach to “doing church” has little resemblance to what we see in the New Testament. Only as we acknowledge this can we begin to halt the drift that we have experienced for so long. Here is Part 5 of our blank verse essay, Absimilation.

Many Christians found it impossible to adjust to the growing focus on buildings and personalities that began to characterize the Church in the fourth century. They fled to the deserts or the walls of monastic foundations to be free of what they considered the distractions and drift of churches throughout the Roman Empire. Their efforts may have suited a few, but they continued to drive wedges into the unity of the Body of Christ. Here is Part 4 of our blank verse essay, Absimilation, entitled “An Unworthy Path.”

These days, mention the word “church” and what people think of is a building. We say that we “go” to church, clearly indicating that we consider church a destination rather than a living body, the very body of Christ. We fail to see how limiting this idea can be, because we have drifted so far from God’s original plan for His churches. Here is Part 3 of our blank verse essay, Absimilation, entitled “An Unworthy Path.”