When the church was in its infancy it was filled with men and women who were not noble or wise, but were the foolish of the world. These fools successfully evangelized most of the known world. This was a great success. The church, after the first century, began to decline. ‘Noble’ and ‘wise’ men less dedicated than the apostles began to draw away disciples after themselves. This split the church and created 1500 years of ecclesiastic chaos. The atrocities committed in the name of Jesus Christ are too many to number, but it’s sufficient to say that many where destroyed because of the ‘faith’ the church displayed during this time. This failure of the church to maintain the simplicity of Christ caused it to decline. This period was marked, predominately, by church failures. But the church recognized its error and started to reform itself. For 500 years men have been rising up and reforming the church. This has been necessary to restore true Christianity. Doctrinal impurity, lack of mission, arrogance, pride, murder, vanity, greed, are just some of the things the church was guilty of and needed to be delivered.
I’m concerned at the subtle implications of Rick Warren and Erwin McManus. Though I have received tremendous insight and feel that these men are modern day reformers; I am concerned that their books do not provide a transition plan for the church. How do we make changes without discarding those who have worked the road before our time? They were the reformers of their day, yet, when they cannot make the transition, we call them old wineskins. This is a current failure of the church.
God needs to help us reform the church while respecting the efforts of those before. It has been established that previous generations are not able to change as rapidly as our generation. The church will be successful when it takes the arm of the unchurched and that of the previous generation of Christians and walks in worship together. The churches slogan should be ‘no Christian or pagan left behind’. The church will not be a complete success until this occurs. Let's continue to reform in love.
Blessings,
Rob
2 comments:
Could you give some examples of the "subtle implications" Warren and McManus were making of the church? Are you referring to a specific article?
Great thoughts.
My apologies for the general statement; I was referring to comments like, 'One man summed it up by saying, "We have a sound church." But as I probed deeper I discovered that the church was sound asleep! While the church was theologically sound, nothing of spiritual significance was taking place there...the leaders had become lazy and lethargic" (Warren Purpose-Driven Church 95). Though I understand that from his perspective 'nothing of spiritual significance was taking place', from the perspective of the elders and the people who chose to attend that church something was taking place.
Here's my point: we cannot dismiss people simply because they do not see what we see. We cannot characterize people in a negative light until they’ve had sufficient time to understand our perspective. If I have a vision of a missional church and someone else envisions a teaching church (not that they're mutually exclusive) we’re both required to present our position to each other without poking fun or minimizing the experiences or understanding of the other. We need to understand a little history. For 150 years the culture didn’t have any significant shift until the mid-twentieth century and since then it has changed several times: modern to post-modernism to hyper modernism. In a single generation the culture has made several significant changes. We cannot expect people that grew up at the tail-end of a culture that lasted 150 years to change overnight. We recognize they need to change for their spiritual growth and the health of the church, but love must be extended. I think the message of some of these guys is great, but like all things the devil is in the detail. We need to be divinely inspired to help people make the transition without them feeling that their life’s work was for naught. It was important because it brought us to where we are today. It gave us the building blocks to take further steps in God. Warren is a little less careful about his comments than McManus. McManus is a good read, but in the hands of an unloving Christian the old-timers would be thrown overboard – I know that’s not either of their intent.
Hope this clarifies what I was driving at.
Rob
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