Continuing my emergent church theme today. We met on Saturday evening and worshipped and then prayed for each other, we broke bread and it felt like church. The question is can we do this each week, or is this a treat? I am still too tired and committed to my family, demands of my job (God called me to both these things) and my friends to give anymore time to discussing what we should be as church. There are occasional 'prophetic words' being circulated, but I am not sure, even if they are Godly insights into church, whether I have he patience to weigh them. On this subject (as good as any) the issue of authority and leadership are tested. It seems to me that it is impossible to weigh prophecy without some kind of 'procedure'. By this I don't mean a complicated theoretical hermeneutic model, I just mean an agreed way of listening to and appraising the views of christians who are claiming an authoritative voice on some matter.

The other concern for me is that meeting to worship and pray for each other is food and life in Christ. There are other questions for other entries that are terribly traditional, but I have to balance the need for blog-therapy with going to sleep. But just to remind myself for the next entry/ whet the appetite of anyone without anything better to do that read this, these questions concern - discipleship and Christ-like character, teaching, and practices such as confession and communal prayer/devotion. The big question remains: what does a redeemed community need to do to continue to be able to be called 'Church' or when does church cease to be church and become a loose association of christians of like social class and shared political/artistic/cultural interests? Good night