Comments on: The Viral Church http://nathandiehl.com/2007/06/28/the-viral-church/ a journal of one Christ-following digerati wannabe. Thu, 28 Aug 2008 08:46:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: nathan http://nathandiehl.com/2007/06/28/the-viral-church/#comment-1433 nathan Fri, 29 Jun 2007 11:46:13 +0000 http://www.nathandiehl.com/2007/06/28/the-viral-church/#comment-1433 Jeremiah, Bingo--that's Godin's point, precisely. Jeremiah,
Bingo–that’s Godin’s point, precisely.

]]> By: joe http://nathandiehl.com/2007/06/28/the-viral-church/#comment-1430 joe Fri, 29 Jun 2007 02:39:01 +0000 http://www.nathandiehl.com/2007/06/28/the-viral-church/#comment-1430 You know, I've also struggled with the same question. Eventually, after a significant amount of soul-searching and research, I came to the conclusion that it really doesn't matter if the church is viral. It matters if the Good News of Jesus is viral. And, frankly, it is. We are the ones who mess it up and make it "un-viral". We complicate it and super-spiritualize it. Furthermore, we try to center the Good News around church, rather than make it the underlying principle in our everyday lives. I really think that we over-emphasize going to church and under-emphasize the Good News. I know that it seems counterintuitive to stop encouraging people to go to church (and I'm not trying to be anti-church here, I just think there is more to the Christian life than church), but if we live out the Good News no one should be able to keep us away from the church body. And, as we share the Good News, people who truly accept it will find themselves becoming more like Christ and therefore unable to stay away from their fellow Christians. That's my $0.02... You know, I’ve also struggled with the same question.

Eventually, after a significant amount of soul-searching and research, I came to the conclusion that it really doesn’t matter if the church is viral.

It matters if the Good News of Jesus is viral.

And, frankly, it is. We are the ones who mess it up and make it “un-viral”. We complicate it and super-spiritualize it. Furthermore, we try to center the Good News around church, rather than make it the underlying principle in our everyday lives.

I really think that we over-emphasize going to church and under-emphasize the Good News. I know that it seems counterintuitive to stop encouraging people to go to church (and I’m not trying to be anti-church here, I just think there is more to the Christian life than church), but if we live out the Good News no one should be able to keep us away from the church body. And, as we share the Good News, people who truly accept it will find themselves becoming more like Christ and therefore unable to stay away from their fellow Christians.

That’s my $0.02…

]]>