However, the markers which may say more about a church's heart and mission are the battles it has waged...
I admit it may be a strange way to look back, but I think even the casual observer can learn a lot about a church by understanding what battles it has counted worthy of fighting... (it also may be instructive as to the spiritual maturity of a church)... do any of these sound familiar:
- kitchens in the church buildings
- order of worship
- support of children's homes
- one cup or several
- clapping, raising hands
- marriage, divorce and remarriage
- what 'name' on the building
- women serving 'in church'
- a capella vs instrumental
- youth minister vs no youth minister
- Tulsa workshop or no
Some will see these as unimportant, others will see at least a couple these as 'hills to die on'...
May I submit that these 'battles' (and hundreds of others just like them) completely MISS THE POINT!!?!!?! I believe they share two distinctions:
- each can be tracked to a place or activity which occupies less than 3 hours per week
- each enjoys very little (sometimes no) Biblical treatment - very little is said about them in scripture
From my own very unscientific data, it seems that these churches who have built their identity on fighting these battles are slowly imploding on themselves, and will soon disappear from the landscape.
What would it be like if, when we trace our church's history, the battles fought had been over important things? What if the battles we fought (and the hills we chose to 'die on') were over things like:
- how to change the world by converting our Muslim friends to Christianity
- spending 'TOO LITTLE' money on the homeless
- how to best reach/teach/feed/house the single parents in our area
- abortion and euthanasia
- how best to pray for and with the hurting in our community
How would God feel if we truly just tried to imitate His Son and tell His story? The best I can tell, that would include things like helping our fellow man, teaching him the story of Jesus, trying to live a life worthy of imitation... we would spend our time and resources living out our faith... we would spend NO time arguing about many of the things we have been fighting about.
In my humble opinion, the only reason many 'conventional' churches in the Bible Belt have survived (and thrived) over the last two decades (in spite of the fact that they have chosen to identify themselves by fighting for unimportant things) is because they live in an artificial bubble where 'churchianity' is celebrated and 'part-time quasi-christians' are enabled by the relative affluence of these churches and their leaders, and the relative calm in which they live.
If placed in the 'fire' of real life (go outside the Bible Belt or, better yet, go anywhere overseas), I believe these churches will cease to exist. As a matter of fact, many have... that scenario is playing out in front of our eyes... old churches who defend defenseless positions are dying off, because people are seeking truth and reality, and most churches are doing nothing to provide that type of environment.... so, most of these churches leave a God-sized hole in the hearts of parishioners...
In many ways, our own success is feeding this phenomenon. In his essay of the same name, Jimmy Shaw discusses it very eloquently... http://www.fluidfaith.org/thinking/2007/06/20/our-success-is-feeding-our-failure/
When individual believers (and churches of individual believers) begin paying attention to what really matters, and begin to truly 'live out' our faith, THEN we will make a difference... only THEN will we change our history...
Seriously, do we really believe that the mother dying of AIDS in Uganda (or in Arkansas) cares a whit about whether we clap when we sing? Are we really arrogant enough to believe that the homeless person in Tegucigalpa, Honduras (or in Washington D.C.) gives a rip whether or not we use instruments in worship?
Listen closely: that's the devil laughing... he is winning the battle... again.
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