Thursday, May 17, 2007
Everything Old Is New Again
MMI passed on a list of "Top Ten Theological Issues For the Church In the Next Ten Years." It is a fascinating list, but the thing that struck me most about it is they are all issues the church has been confronting, in one form or another for the entirety of it's existence. The homosexuality issue is just another iteration how what to do with the profligate and unrepentant sinner in our midst. "Jesus Junk" is really another form of indulgence. And so it goes.
I think such a list speaks to two important lacks in the church today, a lack of education and a lack of maturity. Consider first education. One would expect that given all such issues are iterations of issues the church has long debated and about which volumes have been written, the issues could be easily discussed, because people should be familiar with the history and the writings. Yet, how little do we hear the classic works of the faith discussed? How many people actually know of the great debates of the past, let alone the details and discussions. When these things come up we discover them like a child playing pee-a-boo thinking they see their parent for the first time.
Which brings me to maturity, of which education is but a part. Is not part of the definition of maturity that we handle things we have seen before better? Does it not begin to feel as if we are somehow stuck-in-place? We seem to commit the same sins, promote the same error, fight the same fights, over and over and over again. Is that anything like maturity?
This is particularly troubling in the church. Individuals can get so stuck, but the church is intended to be the beacon for such individuals to demonstrate that there is hope and maturity available to those that seek it and work for it. How do we call forward when we are behind?
What if rather than concentrating on these issues, we set them aside and focused forward? What if we did the work of learning the past, said "asked and answered" and then moved on? Furthermore, what if we defined forward not as church growth, but as church maturity?
What would be the "top ten" for the church then?
Related Tags: theology, church, maturity, education, forward
I think such a list speaks to two important lacks in the church today, a lack of education and a lack of maturity. Consider first education. One would expect that given all such issues are iterations of issues the church has long debated and about which volumes have been written, the issues could be easily discussed, because people should be familiar with the history and the writings. Yet, how little do we hear the classic works of the faith discussed? How many people actually know of the great debates of the past, let alone the details and discussions. When these things come up we discover them like a child playing pee-a-boo thinking they see their parent for the first time.
Which brings me to maturity, of which education is but a part. Is not part of the definition of maturity that we handle things we have seen before better? Does it not begin to feel as if we are somehow stuck-in-place? We seem to commit the same sins, promote the same error, fight the same fights, over and over and over again. Is that anything like maturity?
This is particularly troubling in the church. Individuals can get so stuck, but the church is intended to be the beacon for such individuals to demonstrate that there is hope and maturity available to those that seek it and work for it. How do we call forward when we are behind?
What if rather than concentrating on these issues, we set them aside and focused forward? What if we did the work of learning the past, said "asked and answered" and then moved on? Furthermore, what if we defined forward not as church growth, but as church maturity?
What would be the "top ten" for the church then?
Related Tags: theology, church, maturity, education, forward
