I had a thought today on the way to work. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I’m constantly trying to understand the delicate balance that a church seeks to achieve in the world.
On the one hand, the church must be undeniably Christian, and therefore reject the ways of the world. In this sense the corporate church entity’s primary mission as a mechanism in God’s plan would seem to be to oversee, maintain, and care for the flock; with the ultimate goal of spiritual growth and independence within the members of the flock.
The catch-22 to this is if the church does a good job of caring for the flock and raising them to spiritual maturity, the flock’s natural spiritual impulse will be to begin reaching out through love and understanding to those around them that are unsaved. Therefore, odds are that this new group of mature and independent Christians will want to begin to alter the way in which people are brought into the Church by recognizing and altering the approach the corporate church takes in relating to those outside the church.
Out of love and understanding and yearning to serve their Lord, once we are saved, we begin to desire to see others saved……at all costs?
Perhaps at all costs….Christ laid down His very life. In light of what He did, aren’t we simply called to lay aside our selves. Seems simple compared to dying, but you’d think our task more difficult than that of Christ when you begin to look around at all the various denominational groups within the corporate church, each of which has been formed because of an inability to lay aside their self.
Oh, but wait, they did lay aside their selves, once upon a time, right? Wasn’t that why their group formed in the first place, because they wanted to reach out and go where people hadn’t gone before. Leaving behind their progenitors who were content to continue working with what they have seen work in the past, and expect to continue to work in the future. Something always overlooked is the fact that laying aside one’s self is not a one time act, it is an act that continues forever. The self must continuously be denied when it comes to serving another, especially when that “another” is Jesus Christ. If you aren’t serving Jesus, you’re only serving yourself.
And so, I suppose therein lies the beginning of an understanding of what love and understanding truly mean? Remember love and understanding…it’s what drives the mature and independent Christian to go out into the world and fulfill the commission.
So again I ask, what is love and understanding? Is it some sort of haughty type of pity? Is it remorse over what the unsaved are missing out on? Is it compassion? And if compassion, what type? Do we allow our compassion to compel us to action, or does our compassion find itself restricted to our prayers?
I think, in a lot of ways, regardless of where the Christian is coming from in their desire to show love and understanding, ultimately the burden of defining how that love and understanding is interpreted is completely on the shoulders of those in the cross-hairs of our Christian love and understanding.
On the one hand, the church must be undeniably Christian, and therefore reject the ways of the world. In this sense the corporate church entity’s primary mission as a mechanism in God’s plan would seem to be to oversee, maintain, and care for the flock; with the ultimate goal of spiritual growth and independence within the members of the flock.
The catch-22 to this is if the church does a good job of caring for the flock and raising them to spiritual maturity, the flock’s natural spiritual impulse will be to begin reaching out through love and understanding to those around them that are unsaved. Therefore, odds are that this new group of mature and independent Christians will want to begin to alter the way in which people are brought into the Church by recognizing and altering the approach the corporate church takes in relating to those outside the church.
Out of love and understanding and yearning to serve their Lord, once we are saved, we begin to desire to see others saved……at all costs?
Perhaps at all costs….Christ laid down His very life. In light of what He did, aren’t we simply called to lay aside our selves. Seems simple compared to dying, but you’d think our task more difficult than that of Christ when you begin to look around at all the various denominational groups within the corporate church, each of which has been formed because of an inability to lay aside their self.
Oh, but wait, they did lay aside their selves, once upon a time, right? Wasn’t that why their group formed in the first place, because they wanted to reach out and go where people hadn’t gone before. Leaving behind their progenitors who were content to continue working with what they have seen work in the past, and expect to continue to work in the future. Something always overlooked is the fact that laying aside one’s self is not a one time act, it is an act that continues forever. The self must continuously be denied when it comes to serving another, especially when that “another” is Jesus Christ. If you aren’t serving Jesus, you’re only serving yourself.
And so, I suppose therein lies the beginning of an understanding of what love and understanding truly mean? Remember love and understanding…it’s what drives the mature and independent Christian to go out into the world and fulfill the commission.
So again I ask, what is love and understanding? Is it some sort of haughty type of pity? Is it remorse over what the unsaved are missing out on? Is it compassion? And if compassion, what type? Do we allow our compassion to compel us to action, or does our compassion find itself restricted to our prayers?
I think, in a lot of ways, regardless of where the Christian is coming from in their desire to show love and understanding, ultimately the burden of defining how that love and understanding is interpreted is completely on the shoulders of those in the cross-hairs of our Christian love and understanding.
No comments:
Post a Comment