Church
Another Day Along the Way
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Another day,
I'm learning much these days. Reading books, writing curriculum, interviewing people - it all brings information to me. Working with college students improves my own education; it is like taking classes into the world of reality - they are wise and fun and rich with enthusiasm.
I'm also learning much by visiting various churches. No longer the pastor of a local congregation, I see a wide array of styles; I hear an assortment of songs; I learn from a diversity of sermons. Modern or ancient, joyful or calm, friendly or snobbish. Variety in some ways. Predictable in others.
Today I spoke in a church where caring people worshiped God, prayed, and listened to my words. And, I admit, I loved the people at that place.
Now, typing words on a computer in a hotel room, I offer a wish. A "what if." A dream. A prayer. I wish the hate among Christ's body would turn into love. I wish the disgust - though often initially motivated by sincere desires to improve our faith's effectiveness - could be transformed into acceptance.
It would be nice if today's followers of Christ lived in harmony. Rather than the complaining or performing, the pretending or escaping, the search for good-old-days or addiction to brand-new-ways, what if today's believers lived like a family? What if our churches were like dens, or to fit the image with a deeper true meaning, what if we viewed them as living rooms? Rooms where life lives, places where people listen and learn, events where harmony relates to more than music. I think it would be nice. In many places like the one I experienced today, it is very nice.
Think about your own life as I sit here typing and thinking of mine. What are our views, our opinions, our complaints? Are we too good to join into a room with others who are also trying to find the way of living their beliefs?
Rather than debating style or doctrine or tradition or trends, I present a request. I pray we enter the spiritual family of diverse experiences and enjoy the unity of a yearning to live a Christ-like life. Together.
Along the way,
Chris Maxwell
Powerful Statement: Everyone knows that by itself, a stiff neck is not fatal. But attempt to drive a car, play with your children, or work in your garden, and you'll know how this disability seriously hinders your movements. Allow that to happen too often in your church or ministry, and it won’t be able to move either - except backward.
(How to Treat a Staff Infection, Craig & Carolyn Williford)
Check out Faith Cafe as a way to experience Christ-like life together:
www.faithcafe.com
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Another day,
I'm learning much these days. Reading books, writing curriculum, interviewing people - it all brings information to me. Working with college students improves my own education; it is like taking classes into the world of reality - they are wise and fun and rich with enthusiasm.
I'm also learning much by visiting various churches. No longer the pastor of a local congregation, I see a wide array of styles; I hear an assortment of songs; I learn from a diversity of sermons. Modern or ancient, joyful or calm, friendly or snobbish. Variety in some ways. Predictable in others.
Today I spoke in a church where caring people worshiped God, prayed, and listened to my words. And, I admit, I loved the people at that place.
Now, typing words on a computer in a hotel room, I offer a wish. A "what if." A dream. A prayer. I wish the hate among Christ's body would turn into love. I wish the disgust - though often initially motivated by sincere desires to improve our faith's effectiveness - could be transformed into acceptance.
It would be nice if today's followers of Christ lived in harmony. Rather than the complaining or performing, the pretending or escaping, the search for good-old-days or addiction to brand-new-ways, what if today's believers lived like a family? What if our churches were like dens, or to fit the image with a deeper true meaning, what if we viewed them as living rooms? Rooms where life lives, places where people listen and learn, events where harmony relates to more than music. I think it would be nice. In many places like the one I experienced today, it is very nice.
Think about your own life as I sit here typing and thinking of mine. What are our views, our opinions, our complaints? Are we too good to join into a room with others who are also trying to find the way of living their beliefs?
Rather than debating style or doctrine or tradition or trends, I present a request. I pray we enter the spiritual family of diverse experiences and enjoy the unity of a yearning to live a Christ-like life. Together.
Along the way,
Chris Maxwell
Powerful Statement: Everyone knows that by itself, a stiff neck is not fatal. But attempt to drive a car, play with your children, or work in your garden, and you'll know how this disability seriously hinders your movements. Allow that to happen too often in your church or ministry, and it won’t be able to move either - except backward.
(How to Treat a Staff Infection, Craig & Carolyn Williford)
Check out Faith Cafe as a way to experience Christ-like life together:
www.faithcafe.com
17 Comments:
good Chris. i believe God would be pleased with those efforts. some family members choose to "divorce" over insignificant issues rather than sitting down in the "living room" and working things out.
It is easy to find fault but much better to make a positive difference. Amen.
Are there any churches out there that are the way God intended them to be? Did the early churches have big fancy buildings or worse, big fancy building funds? Did Paul care if a church had a state of the art sound system or the right kind of chairs or a banquet hall? Do poor, sick, lonely, lost people care what color the walls are or whether there is tile or carpet? Did Peter and James have Phds. from the best Bible colleges in the world? I wish there were more churches that chose to be separate from the world and its ways rather than trying to appeal to the masses. Maybe there are and I just haven't found them yet.
You said this:
"enjoy the unity of a yearning to live a Christ-like life"
Yes, yes, yes and amen.
The answer is "love", it's always "love", that's why HE came.
I've been complaining too much. But my heart has been hurt too much in churches. I'll try to be healed from my hurt so it won't mess up my mind in worse than it already is. I need to forgive them as God forgives me.
Churches are trying to please men and not God. Doesn't sound right to me.
Do we preach God's word or do we preach just what people want to hear? I like the way you worded it to me: tell the truth but speak that truth in the language of the tribe. Thats cool. Do not change truth to keep church people happy. Speak God's word. But tell it in a way today's people can understand it.
The Church is called to perceive the unity God has given us in Christ.
We also are called to pursue unity in the church in many ways, including forbearing with one another and taking positive steps to repair breaches in the Body.
But we have a third responsibility in this area: We are called to protect the ground of our unity.
In so doing, there are times when we must debate doctrine and practice -- and, yes, there are times when we must set clear boundaries about what is within the circle of Christian faith and practice and what is not.
I suspect that no true believer takes joy in this. The framers of the great creeds, like the leaders of today's renewal/accountability movements within mainline denominations, engaged in unhappy but needful work.
The Lord has entrusted us with stewardship of the gospel.
May He give us wisdom as to how to contend for the faith without being contentious -- and may He help us find the balance between graciousness and orthodoxy.
I was just reading Romans 14 yesterday and feeling convicted about my own criticism of other Christians. I tend toward the negative and critical in general, but I find I'm often especially critical of Christians or churches who "just don't get it"...like I'm the one with all the answers. I love these verses in particular:
(10) So why do you condemn another believer? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.
(13) So let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.
This chapter basically says we're all just working it out to the best of our ability and with the help of the Holy Spirit. Who are we to criticize someone while they're in the process? This passage hit me pretty hard and I think it really goes with what you're saying.
Also - to the person who said "the answer is love" - you are so right.
Why do we hold on to old things for such a long time?
awesome! do you mind if i share that message on facebook among ec students? it wouldbe titled "a powerful message by campus pastor Chris Maxwell"
Silent Prayer
by David Wilcox
from the album Turning Point
www.davidwilcox.com
I used to pray for rescue by burning up my pain.
That's the only kind of prayer I knew back then.
It was a fire of desperation for any wings in flight
Like a beacon from my lifeboat late at night.
As long as I was waiting
Under the empty sky out there,
I would feel that sorrow burning like a rescue flare.
I'd fear there's nothing to believe in, nothing that would care.
And the fire of desperation,
That's my silent prayer.
That's my silent prayer.
That's my silent prayer.
I want to smash the windows. The congregation's asleep.
I want to feel the wind blow and let the spirit free.
I can't, I can't stand to sit there where their God is pocket-size.
I want to feel what's real and will not compromise.
This rage I blaze inside me
Into the empty sky out there,
When I feel that sorrow burning like a rescue flare,
I fear there's nothing to believe in. Nothing that would care.
And the fire of desperation,
That's my silent prayer.
That's my silent prayer.
That's my silent prayer.
She cuts 'til she's bleeding to scream out from her skin.
And he tightens the tourniquet deep within.
Friends fall so fast.
We call it suicide.
You just scream in silence over time.
This pain you blaze inside you
Into the empty sky out there,
When you feel that sorrow burning like a rescue flare,
You fear there's nothing you believe in. Nothing that would care.
And the fire of desperation,
That's your silent prayer.
That's your silent prayer.
That's your silent prayer.
That's your silent prayer.
That's your silent prayer.
© David Wilcox, all rights reserved
Good discussion. I think we need to be careful about idealizing the early church. It was rife with division, even between the major leadership (think about Paul's falling out with Barnabas for awhile, his rebuke of Peter -- justly deserved), sexual immorality, divisions based on wealth and race, etc. The church has never been what it should be and never will until Christ's return.
But on the other hand, despite his own failures, Paul did not compromise on insistence on the church's purity, both doctrinally and in our lives.
So we need to strike a balance -- a balance between acceptance of those who are weak and sinful (all of us) and a rejection of the sin itself.
That means we should rebuke wrongs in the church -- materialism, sensuality (and not just sexual expressions), politics, greed -- but do so from the point of view of a commitment to those whom we rebuke, and a humble acceptance of the fact of our own sin. If Christ accepts us with our sin, we should accept others with theirs. If Christ rejects our sin and wants to move us past it, we should reject the sin of others as well -- without rejecting them.
This means the next question is that of method -- what is the best way to work toward the purity of the church? I think teaching, encouragement, and modeling the truth are the three most effective ways to do this in US society, but we should always be open to the occasional necessity of loving rebuke, which can be received when it is loving and within the context of a long term relationship.
I also think we're called to be hurt in church. Church is not the place to go to avoid hurt, but the place to go to absorb the hurts of others. Fellowshipping to avoid hurt is a self-centered model. Fellowshipping to absorb the hurts of others is a giving model.
And ultimately, the command to turn the other cheek really doesn't mean much until we've been slapped in the face.
i gave up on church long time ago. maybe i ll get back into it. not sure though.
Hey Pastor Chris, where will you go to church tomorrow? Are you speaking? I like some of those around here but we really wish there was a church that could be what we need as students at Emmanuel. It just isn't around.
JS
Cool song from Wilcox. Get him to come to Emmanuel!
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