[Trapped]

Originally Posted by Recovering

For what it's worth, one of the biggest "dissonances" to me in LC culture was the idea that The Recovery is the only place with a vision for building up the body of Christ. As I said in my previous post, I have found this to be wrong on multiple occasions. For example, this snippet from a recent weekly newsletter from our new congregation (emphasis mine), and I wanted to share it:That really touched me, and I think it represents the kind of attitude congregations should have for one another. This is a denominational congregation hosting a non-denominational one with no sense of judgement or disapproval.

(For the record, here's a link to the Gateway Church he's referring to. I've not attended, but from the website it seems like a solid Bible-believing congregation.)

LSM teachings promised us divisiveness, degradation, tribalism, spiritual death, vain repetition, and lack of any vision for the building of the body of Christ in "Christianity". I have not made a comprehensive survey of congregations denominational and otherwise in Austin, and I'm sure those things can surely be found if you look widely enough. Yet I have found enough counterexamples to show that kind of generalization about Christianity to be outright wrong. We are enjoying Spirit-filled services where the Word is preached and (literally and figuratively) held high and where the congregation functions by praying, reading, and responding. We are enjoying small groups where people function through Bible study, prayer, service, coordination, and yes, speaking for the Lord by sharing our experience of Him.

I had a similar experience after leaving. At the end of a service, the pastor came back to the microphone and announced "hey everyone, as usual, ABC Church is graciously allowing us the use of their church for our monthly prayer meeting this Tuesday night....etc....."

I was in the back of the room picking my jaw up off the floor, I was so taken aback. ABC Church was not some branch of the church I was at that day. It was another church completely. And yet they were happily sharing church facilities like real loving members of the same family in Christ. In an instant all the years of teachings about how divided Christianity is and how all we care for is oneness blew out of the water. I knew that we, who ostensibly hated divisions, would never do such a thing like opening our doors to another 'unrelated' group of Christians.

The local church's greatest tool is fear. If they make you afraid of having your vision dimmed by those "poor, shallow" Christians over there, then you will never go spend time with those Christians and won't have the chance to find out that the local church's representation of them is dead wrong!

Trapped