It is funny how the very act of searching for the perfect denomination, or the one that best fits us, can superseed the act of finding relationship in Christ. Recently this issues has come up and I have formulated strong and bold opinions on this issue. My conculsions are as follows:
1)There is no "perfect denomination" You will NEVER find the magical ONE denomination in which you will agree with EVERY view point or fundamental statments of faith.
2)The more you search, the more your disheartend spirit is likely to become callous
3)The very act of searching (when your in the transitional phase) negates the aspect of comunity within a Christ centred relationship (Some are always searching).
4)Church hopping is useless to the Kingdom, to Christ, to the body, and to being a spirit filled individual
5)We are called to be in comunity not it constant transition, we are subsequently called to be followers of Christ and not of the rules and view points of other Christians or men of the church, yet they may be important, Gods word is to be central
6)Discontentment is a choice not a state of mind
7)Complacency is birthed from lack of comitment which is the father of church hopping
8)Perfection is not of this world. No church is perfect. The very essence of church is tainted by human interference. Without humans it would not be a body, with out a body what would be the crux of Christianity, what would it be for. God works when we are imperfect, He enters are church to bring light to a disheartend ununified body.
Simon Out
posted by Simon Weresch at 10:04 PM
1 Comments:
It's not hard to see that this post is, in large measure, directed my way, especially given my recent actions at The Church Which Shall Remain Nameless. What's curious, however, is not the tenor of your ire, but the fact that you did not see fit to bring your queries directly to me. Why, in God's name, must BlogSpot be a mediator to fraternal discussions? All that said, I will formulate some responses to your octet of opinions and we'll take it up again, I'm sure, on Saturday.
1. I agree: there is no perfect denomination, but there are those which are more consonant and connected with one's own way of worshipping and particular set of values. I, for example, value social justice, art, poverty, music, and beauty, all values which have a rather difficult time finding a safe home in much of modern-day evangelicalism.
2. I'm glad that you wrote "likely" in your opinion because it intimates that even you are unsure whether or not the spirit will become callous. "Likely" says that the spirit may not become callous and may, in fact, become more free and open to the other than ever before. In the words of J. R. R. Tolkien, "not all who wander are lost."
3. I question your assertion here: people are always searching, whether "in" community or "out" of it. In another sense, people are never truly out of community; even the hermit has come from somewhere and is going to somewhere. Community and communion are even a part of the Apostles' Creed. Searching, however, does not mean that one leaves one community; rather, it means that one tries to find a place within a larger community. If leaving aforementioned Nameless Church has taught me anything, it's that the body of Christ is larger, wider, and deeper than I'd ever imagined. I don't regret finding that fact out.
4. Why is church-hopping useless, I ask. What is it about the act of leaving a church and searching for another that is so painful? Do you equate church-hopping with restlessness in some way? If so, I would remind you of the words of St. Augustine from his Confessions: "You have created us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in You." There is, at the heart of those who search, a restlessness, a quivering hope that there must be something more that what is there. While I appreciate the contributions that evangelicalism has brought to me and, perhaps, I have given to it, I'm also aware of the vast difference in opinion between my amd its perspective on Scripture, marriage, social life, and other important matters.
5. I would assert that we are called to be both in community and also in transition. We are, it is undeniable, always in transition in some portion of our lives: Heraclitus said that you can't step in the same river twice. That transition, that tension is not absent from the church. I'm also slightly confused about following Christ and not the rules and viewpoints of other Christians; I'm not sure how that connects with constant transition.
6. If discontentment is a choice, then moral value has been attached to it. I can choose to be or not to be discontented. What if, however, circumstances were so arranged that I could not but be discontented? Would not that accurately describe the world's current situation? Would not that lend credence to St. Paul's writing that "creation groans for redemption"? Yes, discontentment is chosen, but it is also a state of mind, a place where we long for contentment and the "peace that passeth all understanding." I haven't, frankly, found that peace; if contentment and discontentment are merely moral decisions, then I haven't even been able to choose to have that peace, if indeed I can choose it.
7. If we are arguing about commitment, I believe that twenty-five years in one church, serving in a variety of roles, might qualify as commitment. The antidote to complacency, if that's what it is, is born from wondering about one's role, finding a place that causes one to stretch and grow into new situations (in my case, hospital chaplaincy), and trusting God along the journey. There is a lack of commitment present because there is a question of what it is I'm committed to. Some days, it seems to be the asylum; others, the park. A lack of commitment stems from a lack of places to serve, a lack of ways to grow into new responsibilities.
8. Perfection, other than Jesus, is not of this world, but the fact that Jesus took on flesh and dwelt among us means that perfection is the goal toward which we strive together. In Eastern Orthodoxy, this is known as theosis; in Western, sanctification. No church is perfect; again, that's true. Every church, like every Christian, is "both sinner and justified" (Luther). Every church contains both wheat and tares and will be known for what it was only at the End of Days. As for your latter comments, I'm wondering if you believe that the Church would only be the Church if people weren't there; is there some abstracted, amorphous "thing" which constitutes the Church? You seem to say that without humanity, there would be no church and, to a point, I agree. What, however, would make a church into a church is both God and humanity meeting together; church is, in Ted Peters' language, "the event of believers meeting together." The Church is not a body of humans, a social organization, a let's-get-together-and-feel-alright group; it's a group of people who have been grasped by God into God's purposes and plans and have been begun to be burnt clean and re-ordered in all their virtues and vices, re-ordered to worship God rightly. You have asked a very important question: what is church for? My answer is that the church carries out the mission that Christ carried out: reconciliation, forgiveness, holiness, truthful honesty, and, most of all, love. The church is as Christ was: for others.
Your last two sentences leave me rejoicing. I'm glad that God still cares for us, regardless of our stupidities, our peccadilloes, our penchant for nailing God's Son to the cross again and again and again. It's a gracious miracle.
Cheersch.
Josh
Post a Comment
<< Home