Blogotional

This will mark the fourth day in a row that I have posted on what people areound the Blogosphere are saying about the church gone wrong. In the first post I talked about "self-help" Christianity. In the second post I equated "self-help" Christianity to the "Emerging Church" movement. I mistakenly credited Dawn Treader with the connection, as he pointed out at his site, but I stand by it. Both movements are born out of placing the growth of the church, and therefore its "relevancy," either to today or to me, ahead of God and His Word. In the third post I look at how money, in publishing and elsewhere, alonside the fact the the Christian life can be hard, may be the driving forces behind this trend.

Today, I want to add some new voices to the discussion. Blogcorner Preacher is just starting to look at the issue and has yet to render judgement. He seems to be leaning towards the fact that there are probably some good emerging churches and some bad ones. That is usually true with any movement. UPDATE A FEW HOURS LATER: Blogcorner Preacher has added another post on the subject just this morning. BACK TO THE ORIGINAL POST

Delayed Ephiphany has a marvelous post on the lack of Scriptural teaching in the church today. AMEN! So many bad ideas float around the church precisely becasue people are not deep into scripture. ore often than not, they pick A scripture upon which to base their idea, aqnd neglect the entire rest of the book.

Finally, there is Slice of Laodecia. This blog seems to be dedicated almost solely to tracking "trends" in the church and how they lead us astray. I am reminded that Jesus did say, "Many are called, but few are chosen."

There is a great book called "Devotional Classics." It features excerpted writings from great Christian thinkers and is designed to be used as a personal or group devotional book. You may find me quoting from it from time to time here at Blogotional. Today I like to look at something from Dallas Willard. I'll quote a brief bio, and then one paragraph from his writing.

Dallas Willard was born in Buffalo, Missouri, on September 4, 1935, and grew up in comparatively poor surroundings. He was married to L. Jane Lakes in 1955, and they have reared two children, John Samuel and Rebecca.

Early on, a life of teaching and scholarship drew Dallas into his cho¬sen field of philosophy. He has taught at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Southern California (his present position) and over the years has distinguished himself as a foremost interpreter of the philosophy of Husserl and, in particular, that philosophic system know as “phenomenology.�

Dr. Willard is a distinguished philosopher with over thirty publications. He is also a man of deep faith and Christian conviction. While he can hold his own among any of the great thinkers of our day, I (R. Foster) am most impressed watching him share gospel truths with ordinary folk. For exam¬ple, when I was pastoring a small church in southern California (where Dallas and Jane attended), I was moved to observe the deep and abiding spiritual friendship that Dallas had with an unschooled but godly construction worker. Even more moving is to be with Dallas Willard at prayer. His intimacy with the Father, his humility of spirit, his compassion for the world is a beautiful thing in which to participate.

The following selection is taken from an appendix to his book The Spirit of the Disciplines. The book seeks to lay a foundation for understanding how God changes the inward personality, bringing us into deeper conformity to the way of Christ, and the part we play in that process. This passage deals with the problem in the contemporary church of “undiscipled disciples.�

2. Undiscipled Disciples

For at least several decades the churches of the Western world have not made discipleship a condition of being a Christian. One is not required to be, or to intend to be, a disciple in order to become a Christian, and one may remain a Christian without any signs of progress toward or in discipleship. Contemporary American churches in particular do not require following Christ in his example, spirit, and teachings as a condition of membership — either of entering into or continuing in fellowship of a denomination or a local church. Any exception to this claim only serves to highlight its general validity and make the general rule more glaring. So far as the visible Christian institutions of our day are concerned, discipleship clearly is optional. . . . Churches are filled with “undiscipled disciples,� as Jess Moody has called them. Most problems in contemporary churches can be explained by the fact that members have not yet decided to follow Christ.

Little good results from insisting that Christ is also supposed to be Lord: to present his lordship as an option leaves it squarely in the category of the white-wall tires and stereo equipment for the new car. You can do without it. And it is - alas! - far from clear what you would do with it. Obedience and training in obedience form no intelligible doctrinal or practical unity with the salvation presented in recent versions of the gospel.