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Tribes


Dr. George O Wood's monthly letter and my new read "Tribe" by Seth Godin crashed like simultaneous waves upon my tired brain.  When the waves receded what was left for me to pick up were very heavy nuggets of truth to wrestle with.

I am in fact, overwhelmed.

Dr. George Wood asks, "How fast can a church fall away from Christ?"  He answers, "Only one generation."
 
 He continues by quoting G. Campbell Morgan regarding the scripture in Rev. 3:1.  

"Oh, the people offered prayers in the Sardis church, they sang, they gave but all their worship stayed within the confines of the building.  It never ascended to the throne of God.  They had all kinds of meetings and committees, but nothing that produced eternal value.  They made a great showing on their balance sheet and their numbers, but nothing satisfied the heart of Jesus.  They had outward forms, ceremonies, and organization but spiritual death reigned."

Spiritual death.  Without any eternal value.  Pointless.

If as individuals, families, churches and communities we are working themselves into the ground in an attempt to organize ourselves into a socially acceptable "participating" group only to be spiritual dead then again I ask, 'what is the point?'

Maybe instead we need to be a tribe? 

Tribe according to Mr. Godin is "a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea." p. 1

Connected to our God our leader, to each other and to His eternal ideas? 

What would happen if our children were taught within the tribe and not segregated into learning groups with "age appropriate" curriculum?  Sorting out children by ages and separating the family into well defined stalls.  

Would the tribes we belong to look different if the fathers and the mothers were the spiritual teachers and coaches.  If the older children looked after the younger.  If our seniors were valued and called upon to pass passion to our children.  If our youth were treated as capable and functioning people and not entertained and recreated?

Would our world be different if responsibilities for tribes were placed squarely on the shoulders of the tribe and not on the experts, consultants and gurus?

I am afraid that we have organized ourselves to death.



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