Care for the Morrow of the Church

Individual or group, business or church. This week Tomoya looks at what it means to be an organization—buildings, programs, and membership, or individuals, teachings, and spirit? By looking at these things together and separately Tomoya offers ideas about how to go forward with our church. -Editor

A church seems to start with simple motives in its beginning. It starts with people who read the Word and are genuinely affected by it, coming together on their own accord because of their individual longing for the Word. This longing for the Word at an individual level is what I think gives the substance to a gathering and qualifies it as a church. Everything else that might later develop and appear, such as the liturgy, membership, the organized structure, the building for gathering, social functions, evangelization, and various other programs, quantifies the church as an organization by giving it such a form. What differentiates the individual longing for the Word and the form as an organization is in the causality. The former fully defines a gathering as a church, while the latter merely invigorates and further inspires the former but without adding any substance to it on its own. In spiritual affairs, quantity does not justify quality; "more" does not reproduce "better" on its own.

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A Good Bet for the New Church: Use the Internal Sense of the Word

Steve dreams up the ideal website to provide a pleasant and useful way to read, study, and search the Bible and the Writings of Swedenborg in many languages. In describing his vision Steve introduces a website (www.newchristianbiblestudy.org) that is growing steadily to match the dream. Read about the possibilities of the website, and the potential to get involved in this project. -Editor.

The world is home to two billion Christians. Many read the Bible. Many of those Bible readers “get it” that the literal sense must contain an inner meaning, and they’re looking for it.

Here we are in the New Church with an asset that other Bible-explainers don’t have—Swedenborg’s works—which provide a divinely given, true, cohesive, sensible explanation of the real inner meaning.

This is a huge opportunity for the New Church; maybe the best one we have right now. What’s the best way to work with it?

Imagine...

...that people are reading the Word, and decide to look for its meaning. If they happen to have a book of commentary on the shelf, they might use it. Mostly, these days, they’ll go online and search for it.

What will they search for?

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Part 3: Obey

This is the final article in a three-part series looking at the model Jesus provided for evangelisation. Here Todd focuses on how Jesus asked people to obey Him. Todd views this as matter of common sense. If you have come to believe in Him, doing what He says is the only rational path. When the storms come, and we do as He instructed us, we survive. Our lives then become a testament to the power of His teachings and may draw others. -Editor

How do we grow the church? The purpose of these articles has been for us to take a look at how Jesus started the Christian church. Up to this point we've looked at asking people to follow us, to just see for themselves the healing teachings. After a while, Jesus asks them to believe. Now that they've seen and believe, things actually do take a different turn. This is the practical part, the “do” part. They were asked to obey.

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Part 2: Believe

Seeing is believing, and this week Todd presents the idea that through teaching and doing Jesus showed people the reasons they should believe. Todd suggests that this is the direction members of the New Church need to go in order to demonstrate why it is a church that changes lives. This is the second article of a three part series from Todd originally published in the Hurstville New Church newsletter. -Editor.

Last week I led with the idea that, as a church, we need to ask people to follow us. We don't need to offer them Swedenborg's life story, or a 500 page book, but rather just invite them to see what the teachings are by seeing our lives for themselves. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus called His first disciples by simply saying, “Come, follow me”(Matt 4:19).

Okay, but what happens next?

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Witnessing with Chris Barber

In this episode, we interview Chris Barber about the topic of "witnessing". Chris will be giving a presentation on witnessing at the General Church Assembly in Bryn Athyn this June. What does it mean to be a witness to the truth? Are we agents of the Lord in just what we say, or in how we live?

Witnessing with Chris Barber

Swedenborg the Evangelist?

Here Nathan argues that the sentiment that Swedenborg did not intend to start a church is erroneous. He illustrates this point with many personal accounts from Swedenborg's life. Originally given as a talk for the Carmel New Church Swedenborg Banquet January 2010, we are publishing it now in honor of the 323rd anniversary of Swedenborg's birthday, January 29th, 1688. -Editor

In the New Church we believe that the “Writings” are revelation from the Lord. So why would we care about Swedenborg? It seems like making a big deal over the cover on a book rather than the content. Would you call Swedenborg an evangelist? The Gospel writers are often referred to as evangelists. They are called evangelists because they wrote the gospels which told the good news about the Lord Jesus being born and how he was the Christ or Messiah com to save people. They were telling the “good news” which is what the “evangel” literally means.

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