I think that one of the most damaging things the church often does is to reverse the order in which people come to know God in the Bible.
I'm a preacher, so i'll alliterate here. In the Bible, people are first told that they belong to the Kingdom of God. It is after that when they are asked to Believe what they should believe. Only after they Believe are they asked to Behave (which isn't or shouldn't be a problem after they believe).
It is this process that unfortunately, the church has too often flipped on its head. Often we start with how people Behave. We try to change that and after they have changed their behavior we teach them what they should believe (with big words like sanctification and justification). Only after they have taken the steps of behaving the church prescribes and believing what the church believes do we allow them to belong to the community of the church.
It is too bad that we have gotten things backwards. What would churches in America look like if we returned to the process we find prescribed in the Bible? What if we allowed people to belong that didn't believe or behave the ways we wanted them to? I'm pretty sure, this would be the quickest way for us to see Jesus begin to work in individuals' lives, and in the community as a whole.
Monday, June 04, 2007
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1 comments:
You've highlighted the difference between the "right way" and "human nature". Think of how parents raise kids, it all starts with behavior training, what's allowable and what isn't. Too many churches can have a parent/child relationship instead of a teacher/student, or "fellowship/learning" atmosphere. This can be both from the church side and the member side. People want to be led, and other people want to lead, meeting halfway as partners is much harder and takes more work. Yes, the ideal, learn and accept God's/Christ's ways and intentions and the rest falls in to place. We've all seen how much commitment that really takes, and how difficult it really is.
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