-Alan

When I said “your descriptions are a little more organized that I was thinking” I was talking about your descriptions of “city church”, not the organization of your thoughts.

Thank you for thinking through this topic with us. I think it is helpful to hear different perspectives.

-Alan

My thinking has to be organized or I won’t make any sense!

“What type of doctrinal beliefs do you think would be necessary for people to recognize themselves as one church in a city? Do you think this could be based on something similar to the Nicaean creed, or does it need to be more detailed? Is it possible to use something as simple as 1 Cor 15:1-3?”

I would think that there would definitely have to be some type of confession. Which one, I don’t know…

“Do you think its possible to recognize a church in a city without a meeting of that church? In other words, I live near Raleigh. Is it possible to recognize a “Church in Raleigh” even if that “church” never meets together at the same place and same time?”

I think it would be possible, but I’m not sure how…

I think that you asked some good questions. I do not think though that the city church would meet together. Especially with where we are now at in our lives – I think that it would be a disaster.

In Alan’s comments back to me; I agree with him that it is relational gathering of a sorts – not really ‘represenatives’.

The coming together for the purpose of the city though would be a great aplogetics aspect. If the churches would be willing, I would love to see each church has a “definied” goal purpose in where they would help the body of Christ reach the purpose of the lingdom.

Where I see red flags at in my situations is that most churches believe that it is about them and not the kingdom of God.

The city churches would need to know that it is not about you but the Kingdom.

http://loveeachstone.blogspot.com/2008/05/roadblocks-on-path-to-city-church.html

I am working on a follow-up post that I hope to have ready within the next couple of days (and maybe sooner). I will post a notice here when it is up.

David

Thank you for writing the second link in this chain blog. This is a new experiment, so I’m interested to see what kind of discussion we can have in a series of blog posts on the same subject.

While your descriptions are a little more organized that I was thinking, I appreciate many of the points that you brought out. Like you said, there is a different between the cultural context of the early church and our own cultural context. The question that we’re trying to answer, and which you’re helping answer with this post, is this: Is the idea of a church in a city only cultural?

What type of doctrinal beliefs do you think would be necessary for people to recognize themselves as one church in a city? Do you think this could be based on something similar to the Nicaean creed, or does it need to be more detailed? Is it possible to use something as simple as 1 Cor 15:1-3?

Do you think its possible to recognize a church in a city without a meeting of that church? In other words, I live near Raleigh. Is it possible to recognize a “Church in Raleigh” even if that “church” never meets together at the same place and same time?

Again, thanks for the post. I’m looking forward to reading other comments and future posts.

-Alan