17. Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church Is Transforming the Faith - Diana Butler Bass

The new village church:
1. Tradition, not traditionalism
2. Practice, not purity
-gives ppl the ability to grow deeper instead of just talking about doctrinal purity
3. Wisdom, not certainty "Practice meant doing Christian things; wisdom meant thinking like Christians." p. 51

Justice:
"Doing justice means engaging the powers--transforming the 'inner spirit' of all systems of injustice, violence, and exclusion." p.161 "we are the hands and feet of Christ" ... the Methodist ideal of "social holiness," "For them doing justice means being a faithful church."
-"ministry in the world, 'provide time to reflect on what the Chrstian calling means in everyday life.'" (p.163)

Worship:
"Worship, Author Anthony Robinson concludes, needs to be an 'experience of God,' rather than a 'reflection about God." p.176
-'Worship is right harmony, all sounds of discord gone, all injustice banished. Every act of worship, no matter how private or public, how discreet or elaborate, enacts God's dream for the world. By learning to look for it, by opening ourselves to sensing the awe and wonder of the dance, we might glimpse the ripples of God. Worship is much more than something Christians attend on Sunday morning--it is something pilgrims make together. By making it, we join in the dance. This is what Christians mean when they refer to 'mystery,' seeing that which lies beyond human knowledge to the passions and purposes of creation."
-"Hospitality, beauty, celebration. Awe, wonder, mystery. Communities making merry. For too long, mainline Protestants equated worship with thinking about God. Now, in at least some places, their hearts--the whole capacity of being human--are learning to experience God." p. 178

"Being a tourist means experiencing something new; being a pilgrim means becoming someone new. Pilgrimages go somewhere--to a transformed life." p.216
-"They exchange their nomad identities (wanderers without a home), for pilgrim identities (people on a journey who believe they have a home)." p.229
Aimlessness: From busyness to vocation
Consumption: From consumers to practitioners
Fragmentation: From individuals to community
Forgetfulness: From amnesia to memory

24 Feb, 2017
New York: HarperCollins, 2006