Limitations,New

Product Description This is a book for Christians who love God, yet have come to a place where aspects of the institutional church, somehow, no longer seem to fit their lives. Limitations explains institutional elements of the North American church, why they exist, and does so without throwing rocks or fault finding. It leaves the reader focused upon what it means to posses an attentive ear and a heart that is hearing. From the Author Seeing Church Through the Prism of Corporation (An Excerpt from Limitations)When people concludeeven without consciously thinking about itthat it is possible to pick up ekklesia, refer to it as church, and then move it inside the operational and cultural apparatus of corporation, the implications are farreaching. The ekklesia, like the young watermelon we looked at in an earlier chapter, ends up being placed inside a glasslike container, and by virtue of that fact, is compelled to take on the shape of the container. Our understanding of church thus becomes characterized by the features of corporation and all that it implies.By virtue of what a corporation is, its DNA supplies a never ending propensity to focus on leadership, performance, and function. The culture of corporationany corporationis predisposed to look for ways to establish processes, measure success, and quantify results. This is one of the reasons so many church corporations are quick to think in terms of 'values,' and the way human power sources might be harnessed in order to promote those values.Many church members, and especially church leaders, thus find themselves quietlyand often unknowinglydrawn to the place where they set a higher priority on values, and the quantifiable results of promoting those values, than they do on humility, transparent relationship, and hearing the Father's voice. From the Inside Flap From the Preface: Over the years, many books have passed through our home. Most of them, Becky and I have read and then given away, loaned out and never gotten back, or sold at yard sales. On a shelf in our bedroom, we have a small collection of 'keepers' that we cherish and don't lend to anyone. There are only about 30 volumes therebooks like The Believers New Covenant by Andrew Murray, You Can Hear the Voice of God by Steve Sampson, and The Green Letters by Miles Stanford.I think we prize these books for the perspective they present, rather than the information they contain. Such a distinction may sound vague, but it is significant. Being better informed is good, and to be valued, but more knowledge about something doesn't necessarily change what we see; only the precision with which we see it.Perspective is different. Perspective doesn't focus on the precision of our sight so much as it does the angle of our sight. A man perched atop a mountain will see things differently than when he is standing in the valley, or staying at a cabin that is halfway up the slope, surrounded by a grove of trees. And in the same way that our perspective of the landscape can change, depending on our line of sight, so too can our perspective toward other things.This is a book about perspective. About the Author Kevin Avram's past and longterm involvement in the institutional church, and his professional career as a development consultant, dovetailed in such a way that he was able to gain a unique understanding of the way corporation as a concept, has come to shape the institutional church and so many aspects of contemporary Christianity. The book, Limitations, is the result.