coffee anyone?
well last sunday was a great time! i had the chance to hang out with dave which is always good... and we had the first official evening service called "Breathe" at bayside community church. it was so cool in Gloria Jeans and all...to counterpoint this experience we decided to visit hillsong in the morning, now without going on a big "hill$ong" rant which is soooo cliché i just wanted to show one thing that seems the same but shows the contrast between the "Mega Church" and the emerging style church...
At Hillsong they bring Gloria Jeans into church
At Breathe we brought church into Gloria Jeans...
there is a big difference between these 2 attitudes .... please comment on your thoughts...
peace
9 Comments:
seems to be the way it should be take it to the people .....
personaly i will wait untill you go to starbucks lol ....
Welcome back to the conversation, Andy.
I think the whole GJs thing demonstrates your level of engagement with the world. A church like Hillsong is out in a business park on the edge of town where the only people are Christians and workaholics. Although they are beamed into the living rooms of insomniacs as well, so it may not be all bad!
A church like Breathe can become its own community and part of the wider community just because of its location. You've already got one more non-Christian (the shop owner) through your doors each week than we do at my church!
It's interesting, but what community is it "going into" by holding it in Gloria Jeans and naming the service 'Breathe.'
Don't get me wrong, you know I am not a stolid evangelical by any means, but you also know that I think the emerging church style is pretty much appealing to a part of the community (the kind that frequents Gloria Jeans and sees spiritual signifance in names like 'breathe') that is really only a sliver, while proporting to be doing church more 'real.'
If people are hearing about Jesus, three big thumbs all the way up. But I don't see a huge difference in STYLE motivations between the 'hillsong' vs 'breathe' dichotimy you set up because both styles are relying on the appeal of the event and not the people, and it is people which is the church.
Glad you got the service happening though!
Nick
Nick - You're right that merely taking it to a cafe and calling it something wanky isn't sufficient, but I think (and Andy will probably say something similar) that there are a lot of other differences.
You can walk in and out of Hillsong without anyone seeming to notice your existence. It's fast-food Christianity with no requirement that you ever grow or develop in your faith. I doubt anyone could have rocked up to Breathe and no have felt included or challenged. Interactivity and fellowship was the order of the day.
Like you said - it's the people.
agreed dave, and agreed nick as well (hows things btw?) the mere fact of its location means nothing unless the fundamental DNA of a church is to bring people to know about Jesus... and breath could end up being just another inward focused christian club even if it met in the middle of a kings cross brothel.... but hey nick hae some faith... i am there to skake it up ;)
Has anyone else heard of the theory about gloria jeans and hillsong conspiracy ? John Safran gave it a mention once ????
it is true the owner of GJ is a hillsonger..... so i hear...
but the franchiseies can be anyone i know our owner is a "noner" (see aropaxnation for a def)
What happened to blogging every day Pands? :)
yes mr !!! blog everyday lasted like what one day .... grrrrr! so bloody rude .. where ther bloody hell are you !
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