Church Thought
Open letter to ____________ :
I think the church (universal) is at a cross-roads in history. I personally am excited to be here. We are, I believe, in the process of shedding a layer of skin that I will call corporate religion. All around, in different ways and from different places, I hear of and talk to people who want to follow God, who want to know more about Jesus, and instinctively understand that the church system is not the best place for those answers.
Corporate religion has become like an elected politicial: more concerned about remaining in office than in truly doing what is right.
Now you can take that two ways. Our history of conversation indicates you will apply this to the seeker-sensitive mega-churches. You will say that traditional churches with sound, strong doctrinal preaching are better. You may be right. But I must ask if tradition is a guarantee of correctness? Just as change for the sake of change is wasteful, so it is that observance of tradition for the sake of preserving tradition is numbing.
If you harken to the traditional church, I will ask directly: what is your precise model? Do we go back 50 years? 100 years? The strict baptist church? The new testament church? What is the appropriate model?
I say none.
I say that the church is the bride of Christ, living and breathing and growing and maturing just as it members (parts).
Let me give you an example. Do you believe slavery is wrong? I am sure you do. Where is the scriptural foundation for that belief? The scriptures, to my knowledge, never condemn slavery. In fact, there is implicit endorsement of the institution by way of principles laid out for slaves and slave owners. But today everyone knows that ownership of another human being is wrong. I think we know that in large part because God continued to write his law on the hearts of those who follow him. So what was not accomplished by the time the canon of Scripture was completed has been successfully updated on the hearts of the faithful. Slavery, by the way, is one issue in which the church led society to the right conclusion.
But today, the church is largely about self. Self-promotion, self-sufficiency and self-conclusive. And I mean that about your so-called traditional churches, too. They claim to be strictly scriptural and they boast the answers to life's problems. Yet they, under their own rules of behavior and governance, dismiss scriptures that are too difficult for them continue to observe. Too difficult in that, if they did adhere, they would be out of business. And being out of business is not good business. So today even the most conservative churches allow women to speak in the services, or to teach Sunday School classes. Yet these same churches are full of people who scream about too much tolerance for homosexuals.
When you begin to climb the mountain of tradition, where do you stop? Which height is too lofty to be safely attained into today's society?
Or, is it that God is continuing to mold the hearts of those who seek him? So that now we understand that women can be gifted like men as teachers. And maybe we are understanding grace better so that we know the sin of homosexuality starts as a tempation not unlike that to become drunk, or to commit adultery.
Further, there is a lifestyle disconnect between adherents of corporate religion in their personal lives and in their professional lives and in their political lives and in their spousal lives and in their parenting lives and so forth .... it is a total compartmentalization of value systems. Example: Jesus clearly taught that the proper response to aggression was not retaliation. We can struggle to apply that to our personal lives. We try to teach that to our children. Laws seek to enforce that in inter-personal relations. Yet what do we do in our businesses? And what do we support in our politics? How can we say that retaliation is not Christ-like and then be so adamently pro-war?
The Kingdom of Heaven is not just a place that we go to when we die. It is - it has to be - a present reality. And if you take that seriously, then you will have a shake-up looming in your value system.
Scroll down a bit and read the post about Mark 7.
I think the church (universal) is at a cross-roads in history. I personally am excited to be here. We are, I believe, in the process of shedding a layer of skin that I will call corporate religion. All around, in different ways and from different places, I hear of and talk to people who want to follow God, who want to know more about Jesus, and instinctively understand that the church system is not the best place for those answers.
Corporate religion has become like an elected politicial: more concerned about remaining in office than in truly doing what is right.
Now you can take that two ways. Our history of conversation indicates you will apply this to the seeker-sensitive mega-churches. You will say that traditional churches with sound, strong doctrinal preaching are better. You may be right. But I must ask if tradition is a guarantee of correctness? Just as change for the sake of change is wasteful, so it is that observance of tradition for the sake of preserving tradition is numbing.
If you harken to the traditional church, I will ask directly: what is your precise model? Do we go back 50 years? 100 years? The strict baptist church? The new testament church? What is the appropriate model?
I say none.
I say that the church is the bride of Christ, living and breathing and growing and maturing just as it members (parts).
Let me give you an example. Do you believe slavery is wrong? I am sure you do. Where is the scriptural foundation for that belief? The scriptures, to my knowledge, never condemn slavery. In fact, there is implicit endorsement of the institution by way of principles laid out for slaves and slave owners. But today everyone knows that ownership of another human being is wrong. I think we know that in large part because God continued to write his law on the hearts of those who follow him. So what was not accomplished by the time the canon of Scripture was completed has been successfully updated on the hearts of the faithful. Slavery, by the way, is one issue in which the church led society to the right conclusion.
But today, the church is largely about self. Self-promotion, self-sufficiency and self-conclusive. And I mean that about your so-called traditional churches, too. They claim to be strictly scriptural and they boast the answers to life's problems. Yet they, under their own rules of behavior and governance, dismiss scriptures that are too difficult for them continue to observe. Too difficult in that, if they did adhere, they would be out of business. And being out of business is not good business. So today even the most conservative churches allow women to speak in the services, or to teach Sunday School classes. Yet these same churches are full of people who scream about too much tolerance for homosexuals.
When you begin to climb the mountain of tradition, where do you stop? Which height is too lofty to be safely attained into today's society?
Or, is it that God is continuing to mold the hearts of those who seek him? So that now we understand that women can be gifted like men as teachers. And maybe we are understanding grace better so that we know the sin of homosexuality starts as a tempation not unlike that to become drunk, or to commit adultery.
Further, there is a lifestyle disconnect between adherents of corporate religion in their personal lives and in their professional lives and in their political lives and in their spousal lives and in their parenting lives and so forth .... it is a total compartmentalization of value systems. Example: Jesus clearly taught that the proper response to aggression was not retaliation. We can struggle to apply that to our personal lives. We try to teach that to our children. Laws seek to enforce that in inter-personal relations. Yet what do we do in our businesses? And what do we support in our politics? How can we say that retaliation is not Christ-like and then be so adamently pro-war?
The Kingdom of Heaven is not just a place that we go to when we die. It is - it has to be - a present reality. And if you take that seriously, then you will have a shake-up looming in your value system.
Scroll down a bit and read the post about Mark 7.
posted by TT | 7:55 PM
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