[OBW]

It's about time! I started making this argument in either 2007 or 2008.

And virtually everyone started pushing-back with "but we all build."

And while I dread the fact that there is still a lot of Lee/LRC theology buried in me, I feel a little vindicated for constantly questioning our knee-jerk reactions because too often, even those of us who have been out of the LRC for years can't see beyond what we learned there.

But in this one passage, what I see is a fear-inducing theology — at least if it is taught as applying to everyone and not just the "builders." Those who take on the task of teaching need to weigh the cost. It is not just glory and influence, or even power and control. It is a burden to always be vigilant in keeping the main thing the main thing.

Pushing it onto the building rather than the builders places an unwarranted fear on people who's life is not required to be entirely wrapped-up in worrying about "what kind of material I'm building with." For the "average Joe," they are the object of building, not the builder. That is what Paul said.

Wow. I just wrote that and realized something. With Paul's true meaning in view, if we are all the builders, then we are busy building something that isn't there. If "we" are the builders and "you" are the building, then we have gutted the "you" out of the equation and made everyone into the "we."

I realize that this is exactly the kind of thing that Lee was constantly trying to teach — a system in which everyone is everything. But 1 Corinthians 1 through 4, then 12 and 14 clearly delineate responsibilities in the church. Everyone is not everything. And other than being a member, there is nothing that everyone shares (despite Paul's declaration the he wished "you all could prophesy". It was a wish, not a declaration of fact or truth. Then he promptly suggested 2 chapters later that only so many should actually prophesy in a meeting.)

Thank you, Nigel.