{"id":11389,"date":"2012-06-21T13:00:12","date_gmt":"2012-06-21T17:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=11389"},"modified":"2012-06-19T08:51:54","modified_gmt":"2012-06-19T12:51:54","slug":"walking-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/walking-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Fascinating Rhythm – The Challenge of Walking Church"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"PhilPhilip Wood is an Anabaptist, Mennonite, coffeeholic, writer, and ornithologist. He is also a candidate for the world’s most impractical man. He describes himself as a bear of little technical brain and unlikely to produce a useful pot. However, he might occasionally come up with a good idea. He also believes trees should count as facebook friends.<\/p>\n

You can learn more about him at his blog: RadRef<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you would like to write a guest post for this blog, check out the guidelines here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"WalkingI’m writing from the UK. London to be precise.<\/p>\n

Since the Autumn of 2011 our church has had our boots on the ground.\u00a0 Walking Church<\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0 a fresh expression of church. We don’t meet in a building or sit in pews. We meet at a particular location, and then walk to another location, while building friendships and discussing life. They also sing songs and pray along the way.<\/p>\n

It isn’t intended to be simply a church walking group but a kind of exploration where the essentials of church take place on the journey.\u00a0 Every time we walk there is something more to be learned.<\/p>\n

I reflect on what our walking says about discipleship and the joys of living life at 3 mph. Life in the slow lane is appealing but we struggle with the pace of Walking Church.\u00a0 We are busy people.\u00a0It takes an effort to relocate a substantial group of walkers to the far side of London.<\/p>\n

Our small church is delighted though rather overwhelmed by a torrent of interest from around the world, including a recent piece in the Mennonite World Review<\/a>. \u00a0Our church is moving toward the long term development of how to be a Walking Church, but there is always a danger of running before we can walk.<\/p>\n

The Walking People of God<\/h2>\n

The people of God are fundamentally a walking movement. At the very beginning of the story – before Cain discovered the fast lane – is a memory of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the evening.\u00a0Abraham came walking out of Ur. When Lot traded wandering around Canaan with his tents for some tempting\u00a0 urban real estate the outcome was not good.<\/p>\n

All of Creation kept the same life-giving pace.\u00a0 There are many ways to understand the Fall, but one of them involves a catastrophic loss of rhythm.\u00a0 In today’s ecological crisis and in every doctor’s waiting room is a body of evidence.\u00a0 We see the appalling consequences for human well-being of living life at inhuman speed.<\/p>\n

When Jesus came riding into Jerusalem,\u00a0 he stepped up the pace (see Stones Preach Sermons<\/a>).\u00a0 Onlookers that expected a military parade were disappointed, though.\u00a0 His brief adoption of four legged transport was the culmination of a dusty journey from Galilee to Judea\u00a0 that takes up most of Luke’s Gospel, beginning at Luke 9:51.<\/p>\n

On a road along the Samaritan border, through occupied Palestine, Jesus’ “exodus” called men, women, and tax collectors from the wayside.\u00a0 Even death failed to end the journey. \u00a0From Jerusalem the road extended to Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth.\u00a0 Much of Acts is structured around Paul’s missionary travels. Before the Jesus Movement became Christianity it was simply “The Way.”<\/p>\n

The first Christian community was a Walking Church. We are trying to walk with church again today.<\/p>\n

What do you think of this form of church?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philip Wood writes about the Walking Church in London, a way of following Jesus at a walking pace. The first Christian community was a Walking Church. 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