Today marks somewhere near the 6th month mark of Katie and I discontinuing our weekly church going habit. It has been the first time in our married life, and in my whole life, that this has happened. I think at first we looked around at some other churches and were somewhat hopeful to find some decent church nearby. Not to say there aren't decent Christians nearby, not at all. Its just that when we read the bible and look at how Christians today try to express their community gatherings, it seems to us that there is a disconnect. Several months ago we created a list of absolute essential requirements for any church we'd consider going to. We wanted to keep those items to a bear minimum with the possibility for lots of grace in other areas we also may not agree with. Here are a few of those things..... First, we both felt that having a plurality of elders in a group was always the biblical example and was especially important in today's church scene where the possibility of abuse of power seems to lurk everywhere. Though this first variable eliminates most churches, we couldn't compromise on this issue. Another thing we thought very important was the realization of God's authority in salvation and in His world. We just couldn't go to a fully Arminian church at this point. So this eliminates most of the rest of the churches. Recently we've realized that we don't fully appreciate the sermon-centric meetings. The Christian groups left at this point are so few as to be mostly non-existent. So what do we do?
We ask ourselves that every week almost. Compromise is not an option for us right now, so we fellowship with other Christians when we can, wherever we meet. Having a Christian mate is more meaningful to both of us now and we're trying to maximize our times together. God is good though; this life is a journey. We're greatful to be traveling with Christ in this life. If Christ is for us, who can be against us?
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2 comments:
Seth, sorry I haven't checked your blog in a really long time!
I didn't realize you guys have been "churchless" so long!
What do you mean by sermon-centric meetings? If by that you mean that you are turned off by a services that center around expositional preaching, I would prayerfully ask you to read Mark Dever's 9 Marks of a Healthy Church. You can read about the 9 Marks here.
http://marks.9marks.org/Mark1
The first mark is expositional preaching. Mark Dever gives a very biblical case for expositional preaching.
Let me know what you think, bro.
Mike
Hey Mike, I read Mark's article. I tend to agree with his broad idea that exegetical study needs to be more important than the other types that are given as the norms in today's churches. However, Mark does not defend the idea that the sermon is the center of the christian meeting; it seems that he just assumes that. I tend to find this idea prevalent among more reformed type christians, mainly that the sermon is so much more important than other aspects of a church's meeting that without a modern day sermon, a christian meeting has not taken place. I think it is this idea that I am challenging/questioning.
It seems a
sermon centric meeting is dangerous because it robs the group of the
blessing of each interacting with the others on the basis of Christ's
life and relationship with ourselves. So instead of mutual fellowship with each other in a relational
way, there is the possibility of just one person interacting in a one
way manner. I guess I see Christ calling us to a relationship with
Him and sort of see our meetings needing to reflect that relationship.
I think there was a lot of damage done by the Catholic church during
the middle ages, particulary the idea of the mass where the common
people came into the building and felt like the ceremony they sat
through earned them some merit before God. In a similar way, I think
the reformers took the sermon (nothing intrinsically wrong with it)
and made it into the new mass of the reformation. Not that lots christians in sermon
centric churches are thinking they earn favor with God, but I think its possible and even likely that
many false christians may.
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