Good News and Better News … August 15th, 2016

Jonathots Daily Blog

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Name tags hanging from a peg board

 

 

Coffee awaiting the faithful

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful mahogany walls with colored glass

 

 

An old-fashioned radiator, reminding us how long the church has been established

 

 

 

 

 

A skylight, welcoming the sunshine from the heavens

 

 

 

 

Another Sunday morning in America.

This time, it is Baughman United Methodist Church in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania.

Busy folks.

The morning announcements took ten minutes–just to cover the expanse of activity and planned events.

Matter of fact, if I were evaluating the church in America as a whole, I would conclude that it is an extremely proficient organization.

Here’s the problem: the church that Jesus came to “build on the rock” through his words and the essence of his life was never meant to be an organization. He punctuated this by saying, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

The Jesonian church is meant to be an organism.

Here’s the difference:

• An organization needs plans.
• An organism needs food.

And although we are meticulous in the religious system to organize, put in place and promote a series of determinations, these plans themselves offer no nourishment to the starving souls trying to find their best-seated positions in the back of the sanctuary.

The church is an organism because it’s filled with people, and people need:

1. Emotional food

Yes, we require a diet of “love one another”–and all the awkward situations that produces.

2. Spiritual food

Living our lives out, finding what is real and then discovering where Jesus dealt with it in his earthly time, and studying his insights on the matter

3. Mental food

Challenging all the opinions of our youth and renewing our file with ideas that are edifying to the people around us instead of alienating them.

4. Physical food

Honest to God, we need to eat together. Jesus said “as oft as you do eat together, remember me.”

We’re better people when we’re eating. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of having a restaurant on site at every church, so on Sunday we could file out of the service to a dinner table, where we could discuss what had warmed our hearts as we fill our tummies.

The good news is that the Baughman church was filled with delightful, enterprising and searching human beings.

The better news is that if we stop approaching Christianity as an organization, we might be able to feed the organism of faith … and change the world.

 

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Jonathan’s Latest Book Release!

PoHymn: A Rustling in the Stagnant

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Earth Trek … June 8, 2013

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• Earth Date: 6/8/2013
• From my Ford Van, (which we shall dub The Enterprising.)
• Journey to Illinois (which by the way is neither ill nor have I yet found to be something to annoy.)
• I am Captain Quirk.
• My mission? To travel through the great expanses of space in the United States, in search of intelligent life, and to boldly go where no man has gone before.

But what does that mean? Why hasn’t any man gone before? Is it because they’re lazy? Maybe they’re prejudiced against the natives? Could it be that the GPS is malfunctioning? No money?

But candidly, where would a place exist where no man has gone before?

I guess such an arena might be a sanctuary for honesty instead of making excuses to cover up simple errors that become even more complicated because of the lies.

I guess I’m on a search for a place that has faith instead of relying on tradition and superstition–faith being an actual belief that proves itself by being set in motion instead of just screaming at unbelievers.

Well, I know of a place where no man has been before–it’s where humor is pursued instead of convoluted, made-up drama. (After all, do we really think we’re more important because we complain?)

How about this? I’m in search of an atmosphere of equality instead of men and women fussing with each other to gain dominance in a struggle that ultimately requires both participants to find some sort of agreement.

I think we could find wisdom without going through the painful process of listening to know-it-alls who are constantly backpedaling from former positions because life or Mother Nature has doused their fires.

And of course, my quest leads me to search for life forms who are child-like–simple and fun-loving instead of childish, selfish, bratty and demanding.

So I am on my Earth Trek.

It is one I will continue until such time that I am no longer needed for the mission. To be successful, I will keep my feet on the ground and my head out of the clouds. Because right now they don’t need me in heaven–but it seems that my services might be of some advantage on earth.

• Earth Trek.
• I am certainly Captain Quirk,
• And I will continue my odyssey until the Star Fleet Commander … beams me up.

The producers of jonathots would humbly request a yearly subscription donation of $10 for this wonderful, inspirational opportunity

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 Jonathots, Jr.!

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