thoughts on life and faith – part 1

Welcome to Part One of a number of posts I plan to make over the year that are just general thoughts I’m having based upon something I’ve been reading or something that has happened. I will pre-warn you, for those friends of mine who aren’t Church people, this post will talk about that part of my life, as will a growing number of posts this year.

In preparation for the year ahead, I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading, mostly on topics related to living a Christian life. The more that I read, the more that I realise how self-focused I am, and more so, the church in general.

I’ve just started reading Timothy Keller’s ‘The Reason for God’, I’m only part way through the first chapter and already he has outlined so many flaws of the modern Church, even though the chapter is on a completely different topic.

As I read through the different books, articles, etc I’ve been thinking about the areas of ministry that I want to head into. Anyone who knows me, knows that music is a passion of mine, and that being able to make music in Church is such a gift for me; but I also feel like this is not the only area that I should be looking at, and so I’m keeping my eyes and ears open as I read to see where my life may be headed.

The more that I explore the different ideas of ministry and the different roles there are to play in the Church, the more that I seem to be seeing the gaps that are there in the modern Church. These are generalisations and don’t necessarily apply to every Church, nor do they necessarily apply to mine; but as I work through the different ideas the world has of Christianity, the biggest problem I see is that so many of the negative ideas that non-Christians have of the Church are so widespread, that it is inhibiting people from really discovering Christ. I think as I think through these things I’ll add to this post or write a new one, but I find it hard to believe that those people that are meant to be so loving, are often the first to tear another down if they don’t fit into their mould of the world.