Some thoughts after Alpha last night
We are one week away from finishing our first run at the Alpha Course with our small group of 4 couples. The material isn't meant to go on this long but with holidays, vacations, people getting sick, etc our 15 weeks have been stretched out considerably.
Last night was a great night...maybe one of the best so far when it comes to discussion. Unfortunately our good friends Tomek and Damaris couldn't be with us as Tomek's dad is still in critical condition in the hospital in Wroclaw. Of course their absence meant that the responsibility for guiding and "deepening" the conversation fell on Vicki and me...that responsibility became greater when the DVD wouldn't play and we were instead forced to talk through the material.
Last night's topic was concerning the Church, our understandings of it, our participation in it, etc. Thankfully everybody was extremely talkative and everyone contributed a great deal to our discussion. The most rewarding aspect was how we began talking about things that are found in the churches we have been a part of which are not necessarily found in Scripture. This is a difficult subject...especially for an outsider to lead because it can become quite easy to enter into an "us/them" debate rather than meaningful, constructive conversation.
What I realized, though, was that my friends in this group (and Poles in general) are not alone in their blind trust in whatever they are being told from the pulpit in their churches. We, as American evangelicals, can find ourselves in a similar position...trusting our "clergy" over and above what is actually written in God's Word. In thinking this way I am not challenging our churches' doctrines or theology but rather challenging us, THE CHURCH, to test those things that we hold closest to in our denominations against what is actually taught/written in the Bible.
That was my final challenge last night. I realized that the Holy Spirit is vastly more capable to teach through the power of the Word than I am. So, I challenged everyone to study the Scripture passages given in our material together with their spouse...to dig into God's Word and discover what He intended when the Church was established...not what a Baptist missionary intends...not what a Catholic priest intends...not what they think, but what is real, straight from God Himself.
I was watching a report on CNN International this week where a congressman was being interviewed about his "fight" to get the 10 Commandments displayed somewhere in the Capitol building. I sat there in awe when the interviewer asked him if he could list the 10 Commandments. He didn't name one. Isn't it interesting how we can become so dogmatic simply about being dogmatic?!
This is definitely a challenge for all of us. In Acts 17:11 we read about how the people studied God's Word daily to ensure that what they were being told was true. For many many years Poles couldn't search the Scriptures. Bibles weren't available and it was taught that priests were the only ones enabled by God to read and interpret Scripture. Humbly I would submit that this tragedy has led to several generations being in the dark about the reality of God's Church...about His Kingdom. And it is a long road toward rediscovery of these truths.
Finally let me just say again, maybe more emphatically, that Polish Catholics are not the only ones that need to re-analyze the picture of the Church given to us in the New Testament. Us evangelicals have not exactly hit the mark in the states where so many churches are preoccupied with numeric growth in order to fuel swollen salaries and fringe benefits for professional clergy...where well-known church growth researchers make comments about how the Holy Spirit could be taken out of churches on Saturday and no one would notice on Sundays...where people attend church on Sunday out of obligation only to live out the other 6 days of the week as every other citizen of the world...where divorce rates in the church are sometimes higher than those outside...need I go on?
We are fallen people living in a fallen world and I want to give no impression of having personally, professionally, denominationally, or otherwise attained some level of accomplishment and righteousness. Let us all together leave everything to seek God's Kingdom first. That is such a terrifically simplex (my new word for simple yet complex) concept that puts us all on level ground...working together to see God's reality expand in the here and now, as well as for eternity.
Last night was a great night...maybe one of the best so far when it comes to discussion. Unfortunately our good friends Tomek and Damaris couldn't be with us as Tomek's dad is still in critical condition in the hospital in Wroclaw. Of course their absence meant that the responsibility for guiding and "deepening" the conversation fell on Vicki and me...that responsibility became greater when the DVD wouldn't play and we were instead forced to talk through the material.
Last night's topic was concerning the Church, our understandings of it, our participation in it, etc. Thankfully everybody was extremely talkative and everyone contributed a great deal to our discussion. The most rewarding aspect was how we began talking about things that are found in the churches we have been a part of which are not necessarily found in Scripture. This is a difficult subject...especially for an outsider to lead because it can become quite easy to enter into an "us/them" debate rather than meaningful, constructive conversation.
What I realized, though, was that my friends in this group (and Poles in general) are not alone in their blind trust in whatever they are being told from the pulpit in their churches. We, as American evangelicals, can find ourselves in a similar position...trusting our "clergy" over and above what is actually written in God's Word. In thinking this way I am not challenging our churches' doctrines or theology but rather challenging us, THE CHURCH, to test those things that we hold closest to in our denominations against what is actually taught/written in the Bible.
That was my final challenge last night. I realized that the Holy Spirit is vastly more capable to teach through the power of the Word than I am. So, I challenged everyone to study the Scripture passages given in our material together with their spouse...to dig into God's Word and discover what He intended when the Church was established...not what a Baptist missionary intends...not what a Catholic priest intends...not what they think, but what is real, straight from God Himself.
I was watching a report on CNN International this week where a congressman was being interviewed about his "fight" to get the 10 Commandments displayed somewhere in the Capitol building. I sat there in awe when the interviewer asked him if he could list the 10 Commandments. He didn't name one. Isn't it interesting how we can become so dogmatic simply about being dogmatic?!
This is definitely a challenge for all of us. In Acts 17:11 we read about how the people studied God's Word daily to ensure that what they were being told was true. For many many years Poles couldn't search the Scriptures. Bibles weren't available and it was taught that priests were the only ones enabled by God to read and interpret Scripture. Humbly I would submit that this tragedy has led to several generations being in the dark about the reality of God's Church...about His Kingdom. And it is a long road toward rediscovery of these truths.
Finally let me just say again, maybe more emphatically, that Polish Catholics are not the only ones that need to re-analyze the picture of the Church given to us in the New Testament. Us evangelicals have not exactly hit the mark in the states where so many churches are preoccupied with numeric growth in order to fuel swollen salaries and fringe benefits for professional clergy...where well-known church growth researchers make comments about how the Holy Spirit could be taken out of churches on Saturday and no one would notice on Sundays...where people attend church on Sunday out of obligation only to live out the other 6 days of the week as every other citizen of the world...where divorce rates in the church are sometimes higher than those outside...need I go on?
We are fallen people living in a fallen world and I want to give no impression of having personally, professionally, denominationally, or otherwise attained some level of accomplishment and righteousness. Let us all together leave everything to seek God's Kingdom first. That is such a terrifically simplex (my new word for simple yet complex) concept that puts us all on level ground...working together to see God's reality expand in the here and now, as well as for eternity.
posted by Michael Shattuck at
3:48 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home