Day 59 - Issue 22
1 Corinthians 1:13a NLT
'Has Christ been divided into factions?'
Now in my 60s, there’s one aspect of the Christian life that still puzzles me. That is Church. In the naivety of my early Christian life, when Christianity offered me a model of perfection, I held an idealised view of fellow believers. I assumed the Acts Luke described in Jerusalem was a typical church in action. My assumption was that this community, as Ron Sider in his book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (Thomas Nelson) describes it, was about total availability to and unlimited liability for one another. However, experience showed me this was an ideal and not a reality. Many I read spoke of the “Jerusalem experiment”, as they called it, as a complete failure if not a fiction.
I discovered that, just as elsewhere, there were techniques to ensure self-advancement within the Church. I accepted this as a further sign that transformation was always a work in process as we waged war with fractured mortality. I quickly began to accommodate myself to the practices of Church advancement.
The difficulty was that fellowship together became rooted on two principles. One was an unachievable vision of recreating the authentic New Testament Church in our contemporary culture and the second was a narrow view of what constituted correct liturgy, be that formal or free. Much of what I was involved in was designed specifically to appeal to a younger generation; style of music, comedic communication, space for dancing and high intensity. It worked, but because something works doesn’t make it right, as every adulterer who successfully keeps their spouse in the dark about their double life knows deep within.
The Church is the bride of Christ. The New Testament is peppered with descriptions about church life, often addressing things that are drifting or going wrong. Much written is about the respect we have for one another in thought and deed and, of course, it’s merely an extension of love of neighbour. In honesty, my churchgoing was about securing affirmation, which came in spades once I was on the platform and preaching. This is a long way from Sider’s view, which I today fully endorse.
QUESTION: How does your involvement in church help realise Sider’s vision for Church – total availability and unlimited liability?
PRAYER: Lord, may I be diligent in helping your Church be all you call it to be.
