I’ve decided I don’t want to be a Christian any more. I want to be a follower of the Way. I know the Bible makes no real distinction, but the difference between what we now call Christianity and the model of what it meant to be church in the time Acts was written seems quite phenomenal. I was clearing out a backlog of old e-mail yesterday and came across a link to emergingchurch.info. Following a variety of links, and by way of an interesting article about Revive, I eventually came across 15 Theses by someone named Wolfgang Simson. I’d never heard of him before, but apparently he’s written a book called Houses That Change the World, which I’m now planning to read at the first opportunity.

The basic pretext for this article seems to be that the structure around which all modern church is based is fundamentally flawed. We rely on a system modeled on Old Testament or Pagan religions, not on the system of New Testament Christianity. We need a new reformation, bringing the church back to it's roots as a network of small communities, meeting in houses where real people go. We should be talking about the priesthood of all believers as a real thing. The job of a Pastor should not be to sit between man and God, that’s what Jesus is for; instead a Pastor should work together with Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists and Teachers to grow and network the whole church. And (I particularly like this bit) the Lord’s Supper should be a real supper with real food. Eating together is such a powerful act of community, and one which we are losing in modern society. And it’s the true, biblical way to take communion.

The only problem is, I’m a sucker for tradition—especially at this time of year. All the candlelit services, and the carols. At Christmas I even love the pews and the organ. And the church is full of people like me. We enjoy our regular Sunday praise and worship slot. We like the bring a friend events when it doesn't really matter if you don’t, ’cause someone else will. But the fact is, Jesus came and died for us. He showed us a better way to live, and then he died so that we might enjoy it. And if we know that, and we still keep ignoring it, something’s very wrong indeed.