Friday, July 18, 2014
If I Started A Church...
I have always had a secret dream of starting a church and I want to now more than ever because the world needs more churches that listen...more churches that welcome dialogue over doctrinal or ideological agreement...more churches that speak to be heard rather than speak to simply speak. It is a very difficult task attempting to do this either individually or in community and it calls for continual self-critical analysis and reformation. In fact many, beginning with the Reformation, insist that the church is always being reformed...or should be.
Such self-criticism is deeply rooted in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. The most prominent examples are the prophets who were always calling on Israel to change and to have a new self-understanding, not going back to an older self-understanding, but to a newer one based on God's continual revelation of God's Self. The Church must always do the same. It is this reminder of human and communal fallibility that provides the basis of the humility necessary for dialogue. Dialogue is essential for the continual discovery of truth at any level.
Someone asked me the other day (online) why I am a Christian if I don't hold to a certain set of doctrines and all I could answer was because the love of God compels me and God will not let me go. Of course, I do hold to some doctrines but I have learned to hold them very loosely. "Correct" doctrine can never adequately be the basis of one's faith. We are called to believe in the Word of God alone who is Jesus Christ and (right, wrong or otherwise as my father used to say) we must cast ourselves upon him because there is no other Savior.
If I Started A Church (This would be the foundation)...
1. Above all we are united by the self-giving love of the Father...the self-emptying love of the Son...and the self-overflowing love of the Spirit as revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
2. Demonstrating this unconditional love in faith communities, in society and in our individual lives is the sole purpose of the Christian Church. All creation groans together in pain for...salvation, liberation and healing. The church is called to build and to usher in the Kingdom of God.
3. Unity (not uniformity) within diversity is the goal. The church is one body with many members. It is very possible for Christians with both orthodox and unorthodox views of the faith to worship together side by side. Truth is sought and discovered dialogically.
4. Doubt and disagreement are inherent in the Christian faith, consequently questions are natural, inevitable and welcomed. The Scriptures are full of faithful people who doubted God, including Jesus himself as he cried out in despair on the cross...My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?
5. Our self-understanding as The Church of Jesus Christ is rooted in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, hence, the Bible.
6. We seek to be a church where people can discover for themselves what Christ and Christianity mean to them. All honest seekers are welcome here.
So what do you think...would you join?
(BTW...I go to a church now that is one version of this. Germantown Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Germantown, Tennessee. Come visit).
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I'm not much of a joiner, though I might be moved to visit.
ReplyDeleteI'd be honored! Any other thoughts...pro or con of course?
ReplyDeleteJesus taught the Kingdom of God in parables. Among them is this one:
ReplyDeleteMar 4:2 And he began to teach them many things in parables, and was saying to them in his teaching,
Mar 4:3 "Listen! Behold, the sower went out to sow.
Mar 4:4 And it happened that while he was sowing, some seed fell on the side of the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
Mar 4:5 And other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up at once, because it did not have any depth of soil.
Mar 4:6 And when the sun rose it was scorched, and because it did not have enough root, it withered.
Mar 4:7 And other seed fell among the thorn plants, and the thorn plants came up and choked it, and it did not produce grain.
Mar 4:8 And other seed fell on the good soil, and produced grain, coming up and increasing, and it bore a crop—one thirty and one sixty and one a hundred times as much.
Mar 4:9 And he said, "Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear!"
Mar 4:10 And when he was alone, those around him together with the twelve began asking him about the parables.
Mar 4:11 And he said to them, "To you has been granted the secret of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside everything is in parables,
Mar 4:12 so that 'they may look closely and not perceive, and they may listen carefully and not understand, lest they turn and it be forgiven them.'"
Mar 4:13 And he said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? And how will you understand all the parables?
Mar 4:14 The sower sows the word.
Mar 4:15 And these are the ones beside the path where the word is sown, and whenever they hear it, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.
Mar 4:16 And these are like the ones sown on the rocky ground, who whenever they hear the word immediately receive it with joy.
Mar 4:17 And they have no root in themselves, but are temporary. Then when affliction or persecution comes because of the word, immediately they fall away.
Mar 4:18 And others are the ones sown among the thorn plants—these are the ones who hear the word,
Mar 4:19 and the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word and it becomes unproductive.
Mar 4:20 And those are the ones sown on the good soil, who hear the word and receive it and bear fruit—one thirty and one sixty and one a hundred times as much."
When we talked in Memphis, you mentioned the results of your evangelism. They seemed to have included all of the above, and I wanted to ask you why you were surprised? It's very much as the the Lord Jesus said it would be.
So I'd ask what your goal is. Is it to keep 'widening the circle' until you include all of the above? Or is it to discover those in whom God will produce fruit? One God may very well bless...the other He surely won't.
I think I would say neither Brrr Dave... God has already widened the circle to include everybody. It is my goal to preach the gospel though, I am sad to say, that the love of God can be rejected. I wish that wasn't the case but I see no other way around itI don't believe to be libertarian beings.
ReplyDeleteBut I don't believe the gates of heaven are ever locked and I agree with CS Lewis that the gates of hell are only locked from the inside. Therefore the perpetual love of God always leaves open the opportunity for return.
Since I believe people to be libertarian human beings...
ReplyDeleteIf I believed in the Christian 'hell', (and I thank God that I don't) I would have to believe that it's 'gates' will not prevail against HIS church, no matter how they are locked.
ReplyDeleteJesus is always leaving the ninety and nine and going after the one. The only question is when 'you' are the one. Each in his own turn. Neither death nor life nor any other creature can separate us from the love of God. Love never fails...never. God is Love. He will not fail to be the Savior of the whole world.
What do you mean "when you are the one"? What do you mean by "the Christian hell"?...a place of everlasting punishment?
ReplyDeleteHot hell, cold hell, eternal hell, separation, annihilation, hell-light, hell-heavy, Dante's hell, Calvin's hell, Luther's hell, Jonathan Edwards' hell, CS Lewis' hell, a hell of your own making...I'm leaving billions of versions out, but you get the picture. I don't believe them any more than I believe in the Egyptian hell, the Greek or Roman hell, or any hell preached by any religion (and adopted by some christian somewhere) known or unknown to me. Words in Scripture have meaning, and no word rendered "hell" means any of the above.
ReplyDeleteWhen 'you' are the one He goes after, you know when you are the one. By 'when' I mean that more people will 'be saved' and 'converted' AFTER they die than will ever or have ever been 'saved' or 'converted' while they live. DEATH does not separate us from the Love of God.
Okay Okay I repent hell-fire and brimstone...oops... I mean no-fire and brimstone Apostle Dave...you may have just earned a new nickname man. In the end I pray that you are right and I am wrong. If I had a church and you participated then I would make you the first Elder.
ReplyDeleteThe latter would probably be a big mistake. Besides, we already have a First Elder.
ReplyDeleteMY hope is that the spiritual fire and brimstone which IS our God will continue to burn in you until you are conformed in the very image of the Son of God. And everybody else, including this emotionally stunted, socially awkward, chief of sinners.
Brrr Dave...those are stunning words...Are you sure youre not called to preach? I have to say though, I still like CS Lewis's image a sinner's frying on the griddle!
ReplyDelete