Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
So I was proposing that whomever doesn't "work within the Church" that they find themselves, a la 1 Corinthians 7:17, and starts something "new and better" is arguably creating a division.
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But while there are some who consider those who step out and start their own thing to be "divisions," there are now many who will even support them as taking the gospel to a different constituent.
We may like to think about those all-inclusive groups like Paul wrote to. You know. The ones that have children up to grandparents. CEOs down to gardeners. All manner of racial and ethnic groups. And they sing a hymn, a praise chorus and a Matt Redman (Redmond?) song every service. With people dressed in suits and torn jeans.
And there are people who will see this an come in because of the open inclusiveness, listen to the gospel, and become Christ followers.
Then there is the group that is more of a "birds of a feather" kind of group, and the person that is just not even going to consider that big diverse group, but is comfortable with others similar to them comes along and does the same.
The trappings are different. The group that seems so much alike probably has no fewer problems/issues because of the "sameness." And the wise Christian welcomes it all as serving in the growth and spread of the kingdom.
One sort of odd effect of the notion that where you are "born" you cannot leave is that if you are born (again) in a place that is a splinter from another, does that mean that you have to stay, but those that left another to start it are in error and should return from whence they came?
And we wonder how it is that people ever started arguing about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin!! We are so prone to create hard-and-fast rules where non exist while ignoring the "main thing."
It just seems to be another way in which we make the main thing into an afterthought while elevating the trivial into the main thing.
And despite all of the writings by Paul and some others to the church, and even considering some of the things written about the church, I'm not sure that the church is really the main thing. I think it is the result of the main thing, not the main thing. Jesus really said very little about it. The things he said about it may have been profound, but it was far from his primary teaching.
And even when we read Paul's words to the various churches, they do not seem to be so much about the church, but about the people. It is about the evidence (or lack thereof) of transformation in their lives as seen in their interactions within the church. Outside of parts of 1 Corinthians, most of his words concerning that practical operations of church were not to the church, but to leaders. Yes, we have it all to read. But like everything else, there is a context. We can know what is written to our leaders. But it does not make us the leaders. And just like the other letters, they were shared around.
But unlike the instructions that Lee wrote out for LRC elders that DR has referred to in the past, we can all see what was written to Timothy and Titus. And even a very personal note written to Philemon. And we can benefit from those words. It still does not make us all leaders. It doesn't qualify us for eldership.
But it should spur us on in faith and righteousness.