Theology Of The Shopping Cart - (From: Acts of the Apostasy)

There is a great post of at:

Acts of the Apostasy: Theology Of The Shopping Cart

It really is a great way of explaining the current state of affairs within our Church. YOU HAVE TO READ IT! [If you don't the rest of this post won't make any sense.]

The part that struck me the most was the analogy of the carts which gather in little clusters.

Then there are larger groups that congregate in the parking spots. They're in the way, and they accuse those who want to use the spot as being oppressive and judgmental. Strangely enough, they think they're in the Church because "where two or three are gathered", they say. But they aren't tolerant of those who try to use the space - they get defensive and become more stubborn. Sometimes, though, another cart comes along and gathers them in, and by God's grace, they find their way back to the corral. But by and large, this group believes the institutional corral is wrong, that Christ never intended to create a corral the way it is today. They stay where they are, becoming a nuisance and source of irritation to everybody.

We see this all the time. 1 person, probably someone we know is sorta off to the side saying this, that, or the other thing. All of a sudden a second person cart comes over and gathers there. Why did they come over? Well because when the person was finished using the cart cart was faced with the decision of going to the corral or the "group in the spot", it chose the spot.

But why? Because it was quicker, easier, and seemed to make the most sense. The person who collects the cart was going to have to collect all the carts anyways. And they weren't hurting anyone WAY over here in the spot. Plus, they might have just followed the "masses" and gone to the corral, but clearly someone else felt that this spot was appropriate. Plus, who is to say that this isn't actually the BEST place for them to be? that corral way up front isn't used properly anyways. The carts are just randomly chucked in there not even pushed all neatly together?

Churches face this problem. When a church lacks a strong pastoral leader, the people carts run the corral.