[Cal]

Gubei et al,

I'm back. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! If you don't celebrate Christmas that's fine.

It's clear to me now that Gubei rather than defending any current practice of the local ground is proposing an ideal model of how the local ground might actually work. I say "might" because his model is theoretical. It has never been worked out in practice and so has not been completely tested. This is not a criticism, it is just a fact. He seems to think the model should be tried. Others reply, Don't bother.

What is interesting is that this impasse actually points to the inherent problem with ever trying to put a theoretical local ground ideal into practice: That is, The city church model is supposed to be about practical oneness, but none of us really know what practical oneness really looks like. So the idea is hamstrung from the start. How can we agree to practice a certain model if we honestly don't agree the model is correct?

So, ironically, trying to work out practical oneness is bound to lead to fundamental disagreements on whether we actually have it or not. These disagreements themselves may become points of division. So the attempt to achieve practical oneness by pushing a particular outward model seems to be doomed to self-defeat. This is what I call the ironic paradox of trying to apply practical oneness in a one-size-fits-all model. It contains the seeds of its own failure.

Now, some might call this defeatism, even unbelief. Others, like Gubei, might say that the problem is not with the idea of locality, but with fallen human nature. But saying that fallen human nature is the problem forgets that the problem with achieving "practical citywide oneness" is not just a lack of geniality, it is also a lack of clear insight to know precisely which "model" of practical oneness is the correct one. Since it is not clear that we can, in this life, ever hope to achieve a level of holiness where we could expect to agree on precisely what "locality" means, a precise viable locality model which is not heavy on liberality is a pipe dream.

Is this defeatism and unbelief? I do not think so. I believe it it realism with faith.

Gubei sincerely thinks his model is according to God. He is "fully persuaded in his own mind." That's good. That's as it should be. However, the real question is: What does he do when others in the city he lives in disagree with him on his interpretation? Does he "condemn" them, or does he drop the matter to preserve the fellowship? If he does the latter, this suggests that his model was not as fundamental to oneness as being willing to drop it was, which suggests that his model (and all others) was just another potential point of doctrinal contention which must, in the end, like head covering and musical taste, be expendable.


It is not that locality is wrong. The issue is: Just what does locality mean? Since the Bible is unclear on this, pushing a particular interpretation is detrimental to exactly what locality is supposed to be about. That's the ironic paradox.