Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Widening The Gap
Yesterday, Joe Carter reprinted a post of his from February of '05. In it, Joe quotes Eugene Peterson who says
We do not have a spiritual life and a worldly life. We are not birfurcated beings. It is not as if we start life as worldly people and upon meeting God, a new tiny spirtual person is formed and slowly that tiny spirtual person grows to overwhelm the worldly person. We are but single being that God seeks to transform from a fallen state to a state of grace. God does not seek to improve our spitritual life - He seeks to improve our LIFE.
This is true for the church as well. Indeed it is a collection of sinners, but to call it lifeless bark there merely to protect that which is living within, is to sell far short the vision that God has for the church and for us as His corporate people.
To borrow the language of Nancy Pearcey's Total Truth
There are so many things we do that widens this vision and thought gap between the church as we do it and the church as God intend it to be. "Let's be practical here...." "That's asking too much of people...."
I am tired of compromise on the church. I seek to allow Christ to transform me completely, I pray for Him to make the church as He wants it, not as we are willing to acquiesce to it being.
I am going to start by asking myself whenever making church-related decisions if I am widening the gap between the church as I expereince it and the church as Christ intend it, or narrowing it. "Does this decision uphold the church as God's plan for us, or does it give the church status as earthly necessity?"
Cross-posted at How To Be A Christian And Still Go To Church
Related Tags: church, Christianity, transformation, worldly
Frederick von Hugel said the institution of the church is like the bark on the tree. There's no life in the bark. It?s dead wood. But it protects the life of the tree within. And the tree grows and grows and grows and grows. If you take the bark off, it's prone to disease dehydration, death.I truly understand the point that is trying to be made here, but I have to admit to finding it unsatisfactory. Let me explain why.
So, yes, the church is dead but it protects something alive. And when you try to have a church without bark, it doesn't last long. It disappears, gets sick, and it's prone to all kinds of disease, heresy, and narcissism.
We do not have a spiritual life and a worldly life. We are not birfurcated beings. It is not as if we start life as worldly people and upon meeting God, a new tiny spirtual person is formed and slowly that tiny spirtual person grows to overwhelm the worldly person. We are but single being that God seeks to transform from a fallen state to a state of grace. God does not seek to improve our spitritual life - He seeks to improve our LIFE.
This is true for the church as well. Indeed it is a collection of sinners, but to call it lifeless bark there merely to protect that which is living within, is to sell far short the vision that God has for the church and for us as His corporate people.
To borrow the language of Nancy Pearcey's Total Truth
"Thinking Christianly" means understanding that Christianity gives the truth about the whole of reality, a perspective for interpreting every subject matter.It seems like there are only two mindsets when it comes to church, one is described in Joe's post - a sort of hold-your-nose necessity. The other is what I'll call the "marketing view" where the church is just a worldly tool to do the real spiritual work and therefore we should use all the tools the world can offer, managed like PepsiCo. Both views belie a gap between the church and "real" spirituality. They are the corporate equivalent of saying "I have my spiritual life on Sunday and my job on Monday." As God seeks to transform our WHOLE being - so He intends to make the church into His very real, very good body.
There are so many things we do that widens this vision and thought gap between the church as we do it and the church as God intend it to be. "Let's be practical here...." "That's asking too much of people...."
I am tired of compromise on the church. I seek to allow Christ to transform me completely, I pray for Him to make the church as He wants it, not as we are willing to acquiesce to it being.
I am going to start by asking myself whenever making church-related decisions if I am widening the gap between the church as I expereince it and the church as Christ intend it, or narrowing it. "Does this decision uphold the church as God's plan for us, or does it give the church status as earthly necessity?"
Cross-posted at How To Be A Christian And Still Go To Church
Related Tags: church, Christianity, transformation, worldly
