One Church

Throughout most of my adult life I have been fortunate to visit and be hired to play my horn in a number of denominations. While having a great discussion one evening during a faculty dinner, I was asked, "what church have you not played in," and I quickly replied, "my own." He seemed a bit embarrassed for asking the question and humorous to me was the fact I do so by choice. Things we grow up with feel familiar and problems only exit when we consider our decisions to be the right way or only way.

While it was appropriate for Jesus to say, "I am the way," we often need not look past our own groups to find those who equate themselves with Jesus and make claim to a similar statement, "this is the right way and those who don't agree are not welcome." Before straying too far in my thinking, it is important for me to remind myself how Jesus is the only way. As I begin a statement to say I believe there are a myriad of right possibilities in the life of every individual, I am not saying there is a variety of names or methods by which one is saved. I fully believe God will use the blood of His son to cover those He acknowledges as part of His family and according to His plan. According to this plan and not the understanding of me as a human will God find us "not guilty" through what Jesus finished on the cross.

As a child, one of the memory verses I had to learn was Romans 1:16 because it was important for me to understand I was not to be ashamed of the Gospel. Oddly, it was not until this past year when I discovered the power of verse 17 and realized the significance of the Gospel (for me) is found in the righteousness of God being revealed to us through Christ. In my reading, the importance of this statement if found in the expression of knowing the righteous will live by faith.

Yes, I believe we can be successful living for God in this generation because we are not held to a system of perfection, but one of righteousness through faith. WE CAN DO THIS! Under the Law of Moses, man had to live a perfect life to be successful and even then, there were those who lived by faith (through faith) and were found pleasing to God. I am convinced God found favor in them the same way He finds favor with us. Jesus/God was willing to live the life of perfection in our place and in His sacrifice credit us with His perfection. The faith then and now was placed in God and not our ability to direct our own path correctly. Having expressed this, it is my conviction the "One Church" exists in the favor of God, not because we are doing the right things, but specifically because we choose righteousness of action over evil/wickedness in our lives and ultimately place our faith, not in our ability of obedience, but in the righteousness of our savior, Jesus.

Possibly a long time getting to the point but we are capable of living radically different and yet righteous styled lives for God through faith. The myriad of paths we can follow are not found in a choice of savior but again, a choice of righteous acts. We are instructed to encourage our brothers and sisters to goodness, kindness and acts of love. We are not instructed to demand specific acts of righteous behavior if we are to be saved. I believe in an endless possibility of living a life imaged after the life of Christ in righteous behavior and be pleasing to God.

The "One Church" is not to be defined by the appropriate creed or the pattern of worship practiced on any given day but instead, defined by the one who was successful for all of us in His life. The true church, the One Church, is made up of all who through many trials and failures continues living a life style of righteousness patterned after the righteousness revealed in the Gospel. It is our faith in Jesus being responsible for 100% of our salvation which allows us the freedom from our mistakes and worry concerning the condition of our salvation.

I have not always been at this point in my life but I now can tell those, who might hear, "ANYTHING GOES" for him that seeks after righteousness. Find something good and do it even if I don't like it or believe it is not right for me. As part of the "One Church," find something good to do and enjoy your freedom of life in Christ.

Too Good To Be True?

In our daily walk, we are heavily influenced by many aspects of human nature when challenged to understand God's message to us. Having grown up and having been indoctrinated with the concept of the road to heaven being so narrow, I came to believe few of those professing Christian beliefs would "make the cut" on judgment day. I have chastised others and been chastised myself for suggesting that salvation is not challenging to obtain, but rather easy.

As I read through the Bible and hear God speaking to me, I find it increasingly difficult to believe God would give His son in such a cruel form of death and then make His offering into a life or death game of chance where I attempt to discover and meet the expectations of God and finally be given my reward. In fact, I can answer now and save all of us the pain of attempting this feat since none of us is capable of meeting the expectations of God. If we have to be obedient for salvation, we have already failed in our first sin. Basing our hope on obedience becomes a game of how much or what percentage of obedience is required since total failure is acknowledged with our first sinful act. If we come to God with the expectation of being judged according to our obedience on any level, we fail and should expect condemnation.

When we consider the death of Christ as forgiving all sin, we find ourselves in a position of having no penalty for the sin in our lives because it has been forgiven. I fully believe this to be the thought on Paul's mind when he asks the question of whether we should continue in sin so grace would abound. Let it not be said we can sin as much as we want because our sin is already forgiven.

I find myself coming very close to the sense of Universalism as I consider and even now believe the sacrifice of Christ forgave all sin and therefore reconciled all men to God. Where I differ in my thoughts from the Universalist is in my belief that some will perish because they simply choose to leave the family of God.

In the tradition of my youth, the churches of Christ, I was taught the concept of what it took , from us, to gain admittance to the family. We were responsible for the covering by the blood of Jesus and we were the ones, through our obedience, responsible for coming into contact with the blood of Jesus. We, not Jesus, became responsible for our salvation via the choices we made. My current thoughts center on Jesus being responsible for our salvation and payment has already been made for my sin. My choice then would not be on how to become reconciled with Christ but rather the choice I make not to leave God's family. I see these thoughts being much more than semantics because I now look completely to the grace of God which has provided salvation for everyone. My choice now is so much different because I choose to grow the relationship established freely from God or deny the offering and not one of "what must I do to be saved."

It sounds so easy and from the world view, we come to believe it can't possibly be true since we have been indoctrinated daily with the view of "nothing being this easy. As I write these words, I am reminded of a question asked recently by one of my seventh grade students. The question, "why is the bible so confusing," was one I have asked many times during my life and only recently begun to answer for myself and remain consistent with what I am learning from the reading of the Bible. We make the bible a source of confusion when we attempt to decipher the "hidden" message of God. We can't allow ourselves the simplicity of a plan where all details (that matter) have already been taken care of by God and we are simply the recipients of this tremendous gift. It is too good to be true and so we search for the "right way" where only a few dedicated and faithful servants might discover the path missed by so many.

While I can applaud the life of and individual attempting to make their lives as perfect and appealing to God as is possible, I find our problem becoming one of attaining a greater level of understanding and service becoming a source of "correctness" for all of God's people. We then take our knowledge of how things should be in our own life and with comparison to others, we begin our life of judging the salvation of others. Our initial judgment might only be born of a desire to share Christ more fully with those we love and yet it can easily become an open condemnation of someone not accepting the truth of God.

Rather than being a positive influence of Christ in the lives of those we love, we become the source of confusion and successfully steal the joy of God from their lives with doubt. Our influence becomes one of reminding others of how the offering of Christ was not sufficient and how we need to, not only add our part, but add our part accurately. We take "it is finished" and turn the tables on God as we choose to become "worthy" of His offering.

Yes, we miss the point of being able to accept how none of us can ever be worthy. We miss the realization of how much God really loved His creation and how truly wonderful the gift is given for all of us.

For man, it is too good to be true because we have no understanding of GOOD! We have no real understanding of God who is defined by GOOD. Salvation is not too good to be truly a gift because it comes from God, not man. I pray we not live any longer in the bondage of men requiring so much more than God would require from all of us who will never be worthy.

The Holy Bible/Our Golden Calf?

The title for this post came to me during the swirl of activity generated from a question running through my mind during the night and I know it was not ready for posting at the time because I stayed in bed rather than get up and write.

Will faithful Christians be condemned on judgment Day, seems like an odd question with an obvious answer and yet when defined by our lives and actions, the answer has to be yes! In Matthew 7, we find the following statement:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' Matthew 7:21-23 NIV

What I find wrong with this statement from Jesus is the way we have used it to define salvation for us and those we know as we use the phrase, "he who does the will of my Father" to set our agenda of salvation. In our thinking, we have to discover the will of the Father and then be obedient. We find ourselves devoting an enormous amount of time in study, reading, discerning every microscopic aspect of the Bible to know God's will in our lives so we can be "faithful Christians." While I would chastise myself for suggesting we don't need to study our Bibles, I believe it is more than study getting us in trouble. Our problem is taking the Bible and placing our faith in our ability to decipher the rules for living a Christian life from a book!

To be more specific, we have taken the Bible and turned it into our "Golden Calf." Instead of taking the message on life and making it our lives, we proof text what we can and cannot do with the Bible being the "ultimate authority" on what may and may not be done if we are to be saved on judgment day. If the reader read this past sentence the way I heard it come off the tips of my fingers, I would hope you felt a bit torn by me suggesting the Bible is NOT our ultimate authority! While I believe it is the ultimate message from God, I have come to believe it is not the ultimate authority because the ultimate authority has been given to Jesus!

The reader might accuse me of simply mixing words and yet the message of how we have come to use the Bible seems clear enough as I write. When we use the Bible to proof text what we are able to do in our lives, we are assuming the personal responsibility for our salvation. We not only find it necessary to be absolutely accurate in our assessment of what the Bible says, but we find it necessary to instruct others in the RIGHT way of doing something less they find themselves lost on judgment day for not "doing the will of the Father." I do not believe I am the only one incapable of doing the will of the Father perfectly and so I find a need to shed myself of the specifics I once looked for and place my salvation, not in my ability to follow rules, but rather in Jesus who did follow all the rules!

Yes, we live in a world surrounded by men and women who devour scripture daily so they can instruct others on how to fulfill the will of the Father. I once thought of these men and women as faithful Christians and yet, the only things I see in their devotion is learning the way instead of seeing the fruit of men and women KNOWING the way.

The story of the Father separating the sheep and goats in Matthew 25 does not once claim depart from me because you didn't know your Bible well enough. It doesn't condemn them for not being baptized, not singing songs right, having musical instruments, letting women speak in services, letting women lead services, etc. No, condemnation comes from not having the heart of God in all they did for those in need!

Condemnation, brothers and sisters, comes from not loving ONE ANOTHER as was demonstrated with the greatest gift of love on the cross!

PS. I will be leaving for the funeral of Chaney Anderson as soon as I post these comments. As I visited with him during the last couple of days in our lives, he was shepherding his flock well. I commented how his life at that moment reminded me of the Apostle John and he looked over at me and said, "yes, his message was to LOVE ONE ANOTHER!"

Church Employees (An Excuse For Wrong Actions)

It has been some time since my last post and as I mentioned recently to someone asking if I had been writing lately, I only write when something comes to me from my past and the only way I can relieve myself of the burden is to write.

My thoughts today have to do with something I think we have to work the scriptures with a hard "twist" in order to support from the word of God. Not uncommon from many things I came to know differing from the message I was taught as a youth, I find no support for the idea of "Church Employees." Most often in discussion groups the concept may work around the idea of a "located preacher" and yet preachers are not the only people employed by church congregations.

While I see nothing contrary to the will of God in various groups of Christians supporting various individuals to work in one area of another for the good of everyone, I have been forced recently to focus on problems stemming from this concept developed by men to "aid" the will of God for us to come together and be the church.

In another blog, I presented my thoughts on whether God ever intended for Elders to be managers of His people or spiritual leaders and while many in my heritage come down on the side of the elders managing the affairs of the church congregation, I fully believe from my reading the proper life of an elder should be one of not managing but SHOWING the way of our spiritual life in their own lives. As Paul instructed others to look at himself, I feel an elder should willing stand up after God, not man recognizes him as having a life to model. One of the problems in how one views the recognition of a man as an elder comes from how we read about the appointment of elders in various locations.

I am only a "lay" person with man's translation of the text at my fingers but I see the religious leaders being the ones to "appoint" elders because they were equipped to recognize the working of Christ in other individuals. Individuals, God was showing forth to be worthy of following. Having been associated with many congregations and witnessing the selection of elders numerous times, one characteristic stands out in my mind. Much like a political machine, elders are selected with similar views as those already named elders. At times when someone has seemingly "slipped" through the cracks, they do not last long since the individuality of their life in Christ comes in conflict with having to be "unified" in positions going against their life in Christ.

This condition, by itself, is reason enough to question the process of selecting elders I have witnessed in churches and yet it continues. One difference in our lives different from the first century is the number of spiritually gifted people we have in so many congregations who are able to recognize spiritual leadership in the lives of others. I remember telling one of my dear friends I considered him an elder and I have also recognized this to other people who see this man in the same way. We did not need someone to point this out to us and yes, many of us attempted to follow his example and when called upon continue to lift him up as an example because God appointed him, not MAN.

Returning to the idea of problems with many groups of elders in my heritage, is the idea of having to "oversee" the business of the church. They take it upon themselves to contractually hire various people to work for the body and they, not the body of Christ, become the final say on who is allowed to work for the church congregation and who is not allowed to work as employees of the congregation. Oddly, the body of elders in a congregation often works like the political structure of Washington or even the city of Houston where the will of the people, as was recently given in a vote to turn off the red light cameras in Houston was overturned by the "rulers" because it is what "they" wanted not the people.

We do not have a papal system (so defined) in the churches of Christ and yet, as is the case many places, the body of elders function in the capacity of a papal system claiming to be specially set aside and guided by God. In the case of employees, the continued service should be between the church they are serving and the individual and not a group of men "looking out" for the best interest of those not spiritually gifted like themselves to discern on their own.

Before closing these comments, I have to mention the one area of our man-made system of elders causing the most harm to those maturing in the life of Christ. We teach the concept of righteousness not needing to be hidden from anyone and how sin lurks under the cover of darkness and secrecy. Yes, the only thing we feel a need to hide in our lives is our indulgence in the sinful nature tempting all of us!

Having developed into a position of "church managers" instead of spiritual leaders, elders often find a need to meet privately to discuss the affairs of the church and to ANNOUNCE their decisions to the body to be followed. I know I'm often way off base but find the "authority" for secret meetings to decide the future of various members of the body absent in scripture. I typed that last part without even realizing what I was saying and yet even as the words came from the tips of my fingers, I realized the employee is not just an employee but an often SUPER faithful member of the family!

Am I to believe God wants the elders to treat, often the most devoted and sincere members of our family with secret meetings and announcements? Having never looked at it this way, I'm convinced God's hand is not in these decisions but rather the will of fallible men whose position is little more than an excuse to behave contrary to the will of God.

I will close with what I have always been taught is the will of God when faced with a problem brother (assuming there is a problem since for what other reason would someone be FIRED). You take the problem to your brother and try to work it out. When the brother is unrelenting in his will to change the "problem" behavior, you then take it to the CHURCH! The church will decide what is to be done and not a few men.

You answer for yourself, Is it a Godly thing for a small group of men to meet secretly and to the surprise of the body of Christ announce something similar to "after careful consideration we have decided to terminate the employment of......!

Why Do We View God As Being "Un-Godly?"

While driving to work this morning, I realized for most of my life I have viewed God as being ungodly in nature. My mind began to swirl with all of the ways I have viewed God and foremost in my thoughts was how I have believed God was out to "get me." I viewed the creator of the universe as watching to catch me in my mistakes and should I die committing a sin, He would be quick to throw me into the fires of hell! How could I not develop this thought as I was continually taught how narrow the gate/path was and how few would enter in to share eternity with Him.

Having just discussed the aspect of being snared by those who are right in the last blog, I am still wrestling with the petty aspects of those things causing such turmoil in God's family. Coming to mind as I type, are the realities of our earthly families and how we often get trapped into competing for the attention of each other in the family by being a little more extravagant with a gift or invitation so we will be loved or respected more than another. When considering what it might take to be successful in our earthly lives, we are constantly reminded to dot our "i" and cross our "t." Those who pay attention to details are those who will be successful!

In our church families, have we not taught the importance of the DETAILS? Like the Pharisees, have we not even been known by our careful consideration of every aspect when we gather together in praise and worship to God so we will not carelessly do something to offend God and lose our salvation? It took me being slapped hard in a sermon one day before I fully realized how right the preacher was when we declared we not only believe we can lose our salvation but we go further and even believe it more likely than unlikely?

How can we be so bold as to lower God to human standards and nature and even suggest He consider us any less that a loving child when we bring him an offering of praise. How can we consider and believe God looks at one form of worship as being right and acceptable and another form being unacceptable because of what is offered? As you read this last thought, do you want to throw the story of Cain and Abel at me and remind me how God found the offering of Abel acceptable and rejected the offering of Cain? You might even remind me of how the prophet describes the people in Amos 6 of strumming on their harps like David and improvising music so I can fully understand how God is looking for those who pay attention to details and do things the right way.

I'm not sure which one of my relatives first used the term but all of this is more than nonsense, it is HOGWASH! As far as I can tell, from reading my bible, the only time God was interested in details is when He was very specific about what He wanted. Since the Law of Moses was never intended to be the "plan" for God's people, even the details mentioned in the Law are meaningless to what God expected and desired of His people.

If the reader was brought up under much of the same legalism as instructed me in my youth, you might have been taught how Abel's sacrifice was acceptable because it was a blood sacrifice and Cain should have offered an animal. Again, I say hogwash because I am fully convinced (at least right now) of the problem being with the heart of Cain in his offering and not the specifics of the offering. All I can tell for sure in reading the story is how Abel offered the best and Cain offered SOME. Yes, and when speaking of those addressed in Amos, God hated their singing and He hated everything they were doing to honor him, not because the act was wrong, but because their hearts were far from Him.

Someone once told me how when I had children I would begin to understand the reality of a father to a child. We might even go back and look at the words of Jesus in Matthew 5 and see how he brings our attention from the letter of the law to what is on our hearts. When He talks of bringing and offering to the alter and having something against your brother, Jesus does not ask us to check the offering but rather check our hearts and first make our hearts right so the offering will be right. How can we view our Father in Heaven as a vindictive God looking for our mistakes when He is looking for the GOOD in all of us. Those of us who do have children know of the performances and ballgames we have attended and all of the mistakes we witness and yet when we gather our children up, we encourage and cheer them on reminding them of the one fantastic moment they just experienced. In all of our "human wisdom" we act this way and yet we view God as the parent who would yank their child out of the game and take him/her home for a good beating because of the errors made.

Something just recently giving me much pain was watching our youth prepared to participate in the "Leadership Training for Christ." Following the introduction to our church family of the various activities our kids would be involved with, my own daughter came to me and asked why they did not offer activities for those playing instruments and the truth of our continued training to do things the "right way" hit me once again. Not only was it evident in not having opportunities available for musicians playing an instrument, the boys competing in bible reading would be allowed to read and practice in the "official" church setting and the girls competing in the same activity would not be allowed practice time in the "official" setting.

Over the years, I have been encouraged to come use my talents in churches who have orchestras and I have been reminded of the gift God has given me to play horn. As I simply stop writing this evening, the greatest weight on my heart is realizing how my choice to stay in weekly fellowship with the churches of Christ is also my choice to offer God much less than I have to offer. Like Cain, I only offer SOME of what I could give and as we start our new series on whether we will be a fan or follower of Jesus, the decision to be a follower may require something of me I have never considered giving up!

Snared By Those Who Are "Right!"

Freedom does not exist where one refuses to exercise the freedom possessed. When I think of the slavery having existed in the United States and the human trafficking (slavery) still existing today, I can't find it acceptable to give my approval or willingly offer myself or my family in participation. If not for the chains and locked doors, I suspect none of the slaves would continue in their current condition and yet as Christians we seem profess contentment in our bondage to others.

When considering the plight of "free" Christians, the chains and locked doors are graciously accepted and we continue in our bondage daily. The primary reason I believe we find acceptance to bondage within the Christian family is based on the transformation achieved or currently taking place in our lives. When we replace the sinful nature of man with an understanding of Christ's nature and begin the transformation in our lives to look like our Savior, we accept and choose to be responsible to the characteristics of His nature. We choose to be loving and compassionate. We choose the servant attitude and make a deliberate choice to place the needs of others ahead of our own lives. As a Christian, we face an almost constant struggle to meet the ideal description given by the apostle Paul when he says, "it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me."

Our life as a Christian can easily become one of a paradox between what is supposed to be, as planned by God, and who we are supposed be when we choose to be Christ living today. It is this paradox I believe Paul addresses in Romans 14 when the Spirit leads Paul to address the stumbling block we are capable of placing before others. Effectively, Paul discusses how Christians, failing to escape the selfish desires of their own life, carelessly trap others devoted to living the life of Christ in their lives. Yes, our carelessness in declaring what is right or wrong in the lives of other Christians will spring the paradox (trap) of Christianity on our brothers and sisters. We throw down the stumbling block and cast the snare of compassion and love. Now, the once free Christian, finds themselves in the paradoxical position of being free in Christ and yet confined by the nature of compassion and love as they are faced with the choice of exercising their freedom or placing the wishes and "well-being" of other brothers and sisters ahead of their own freedom. Not originally placed here, I have to consider verse 22 of the chapter, "So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves" and conclude how exercising ones freedom in Christ could actually be an act of condemnation once the snare has sprung!

Snared by love and the decision to live a Christian life, the only choice seems to be the acceptance of our bondage and yet the acceptance of bondage only leads to a continued bondage for future generations. Yes, as we accept our bondage we set the snare to trap other unsuspecting Christians who, "guided in paths of righteousness for his name's sake," will be walking "through the valley of the shadow of death."

Not wishing to leave the reader in a seemingly hopeless position of simply accepting the bondage placed upon us, I will offer a solution I believe offers hope to those ensnared and the future generations of those who would be enslaved with this paradox of desiring to live the Christian life. Those, responsible for setting the snare must choose to release those ensnared! Those who have taken up the "mantle" of leadership must do everything they can within their abilities to promote verses 17 and 18 "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men."

In other words, being Christ to the world with love of everyone and especially to our own brothers and sisters, will be pleasing to God and definitely approved by those not currently members of God's family. I fully believe Paul tells us to take great satisfaction in knowing others who want to praise and honor God and that the "rightness" in this decision far outweighs the methods employed in praise and worship of our master.

Brothers and sisters, let us not be guilty of ensnaring those around us because we think it necessary to speak for God and create a list of sins for those things God did not address when defining the sinful nature of man but instead take care to lock our snares or what is "right for us" to remain locked away from those who might not see it our way.

The "Invitation!"

While visiting with my daughter and discussing all the Holy Spirit has led her to become (including things still on the horizon), I discovered yet another adjustment we have made in our attempts to be something other than what God intended. Jesus told us to go into all the world and yet those still bound by the tradition of my fellowship would have us believe God designed the church for all the world to come, VISIT, be taught and receive salvation after we change them with our "correct" way to worship.

It is not too amazing that I came to this realization when I mentioned the idea of a preacher, in our fellowship, not giving the "appropriate" words of invitation to those needing "to be saved." As I type these words, I might even consider how I do not believe we can even find an example of men being asked to save or described as "saving" another man (if, as so many in my fellowship, we need an example).

If I find myself "bound" to using examples, I am curious how we ever began requiring a preacher in our assemblies to end his lesson reminding people of the importance of hearing, believing, repenting, confessing and being baptized. I might guess men made the assumption of this taking place because we do find a statement of the disciples coming together daily and if we stretch this passage enough, we can use the statement of those being saved and added as "proof positive" of the effective "assembly preaching" of those already in fellowship! Yes, we can be assured it was the effectiveness of the church in assembly responsible for advancing the numbers of Christians and not the effectiveness of the lives led by men and women. Yes, we have credited man's institution with the success of the gospel message and not the people led by the Holy Spirit to resemble Christ in their daily lives (going into the world).

I have been taught to regard 1Corinthians 14 as "the main guide" for our worship and yet I can't find the official invitation required. In fact, I find the focus of our "official" worship to be focused, not on the lost, but on the SAVED!

What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.

I find brothers and sisters, those having been added to the church, coming together to meet the needs and strengthen each other. I think we could more easily defend an official policy of forbidding the lost to come together with us than we can a tradition of focusing our worship time on meeting the needs of the lost.

May God be praised more fully by the lives we lead in the world and not wanting to miss the lesson learned from the sermon I heard this past week, may the goal of our faith not be to get us to heaven but rather get heaven down to us! May we all be effective in assuring God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven!

I thank God for the ability to see areas of life where the will of man has replaced the will of God and make adjustments so that His will not mine becomes the norm.

What CHURCH Has Done To God's Church

I am no longer surprised with the things I see and the way scripture seems to call out with a message as I read. I hope I have mentioned before how I fully believe the Holy Spirit is active in our lives today and is still willing to speak the incredible Word of God to us as was done in the past. I am convinced of how our willingness to listen is an open door for the Holy Spirit in our lives and in contrast, the conditioning of my youth still reminds me how there is only one right message to be found in a text and it is the message men wrote about when writing the commentaries of our heritage.

My mind was obviously primed for something this morning as I listened to a message discussing when we will be ready to allow the spirit of God to work in our lives. I must say how spoiled I have become being able to hear great messages which cause me to think and evaluate what I know about God and today was no different as it came full circle with the first question of the series dealing with who will lead us.

After trying to take a nap this afternoon (hopeless when I have something to say), I got up and did a word search on servant and was intrigued with the 11th chapter of 2 Corinthians. Reading with a bias already established from my notes this morning, I saw something different from what I have seen in the past. I would encourage the reader to stop and read this chapter once again before allowing me the option of "missing Paul's point entirely."

During the lesson this morning, I begin to see how we have taken church, the creation of God, and then personally organized CHURCH to fulfill the purpose of God in a way we desire things instead of the way God desires for His creation to fulfill it's purpose. As the Spirit moved my thoughts, I considered how much work our wives and mothers do when we all come together for a family gathering and meal. It is no exaggeration to say they completely wear themselves out as they serve the family from the love of their hearts. When we all gather around the table for the official beginning, the "official leader of the family" steps up to the plate and leads a prayer! I think this morning my eyes were opened to who is the greatest in the family and sadly, being the "figure head" of leadership is so much less than being the servant. At least we often acknowledge, with a short word of thanks, the value of the true servant.

I believe we might have abused the church in much the same way by focusing on organization and proper roles in our "sacred hour" of the week. For some reason, the perfect family (church) has become defined by what takes place and the proper role playing taking place during the "one hour which matters to God." Outside of this special hour, any of us, male or female, can be the true church of God and serve to the fullness of how we might be led by the Spirit. We can pray for each other, we can sing songs of praise with each other accompanied or unaccompanied and we can tell others the story of the fullness found in Jesus. In short, when we are not with those of our number we are free to be filled with the fullness and joy of Christ as mentioned in 5th chapter of Ephesians and the 3rd chapter of Colossians.

This morning after our "special hour" I had someone mention how the eyes of an individual reflected so many different things. The eyes of some were those of a zombie, those of distress and sadness and yes, there were those with eyes of JOY! Of all the times we might find during a week, I would think the time spent coming together with the body of Christ should be the most joyous time of the week for all of us. I think our organization of a "special hour" a "holy hour" in the week is reflected by the message I read in 2nd Corinthians. Paul says,

"Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast. You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face. To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that!"

Yes, let us recognize the boasting of what man has created and called CHURCH! We are not full of joy because we have accepted the slavery forced upon us as from those who would be the "figure heads" of all God desires from the entire body. Allow the church to do the work of God all week and when the family comes together we will assume proper "man ordained" roles of preaching, praying, singing, and service. In this one hour of the week, men have their roles and women have their roles. We cease to be the church and assume the facade of playing CHURCH!

I am filled with joy to hear of churches of Christ where men and women preach, pray, read scripture, sing, serve communion. Congregations where roles are not played but rather neither male or female is considered important when the focus is on Jesus by all. I am even more joyful to know my daughter attends one of these churches of Christ. The will to play the role of leader has been given up to simply be known as a servant with other servants and yes, the joy of praise together.

I'm not sure I got the answer to the question of when we would be ready for the Spirit to lead us but I do know we first have to recognize the Holy Spirit was sent to give proper direction to our lives and not men. As long as we continue to look to men for direction we fail in our surrender of all to the Spirit.

As the rich young man turned away in sadness because he would not give up all to follow Jesus, I am ashamed to admit there were likely some in our group this morning who sang the invitation song to "Surrender All" and went away with no intention of ever giving up the rights or authority man has surrendered to each other in their attempts to create and govern the "RIGHT CHURCH!"

Who Shall Lead Us?

A few weeks ago in the Sunday morning sermon the question was asked concerning who was to lead the church and while the discussion was not specific as to a problem within the church or congregation, it was clear from the lesson how the Holy Spirit was given to lead God’s church with the passing and ascension of Jesus. One aspect of denominationalism haunting the church today is found in the question of who has the authority to make decisions for the “whole” church. In my own denomination, we have grown up to ignore the position and function of the Holy Spirit as we came to see our elders in the position of decision makers for God’s church and yet as I remember we also have been known to chastise and condemn the Catholic Church for doing exactly the same thing. Personally, I see no difference in how we (Church of Christ) view our elders and how the Catholic Church views the Pope when considering the definition below.

“The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor, 'is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful.'

'For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise.” [Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition (Washington, DC: US Catholic Conference, 1994, 1997) #882.]

[Definition: “vicar”—in the broadest sense means someone who is authorized to act as a substitute or agent for a superior / compare “vicarious”—serving in the place of someone else; assuming the position, place, or office of another person]

I have never known an eldership to consider themselves as the Vicar of Christ and yet what has been taught from the earliest years of my memory is how we are to be obedient to the elders since they are responsible for our souls. Even this statement is a contradiction of belief held by most Christians who have come to believe and teach how each person is responsible for his/her own relationship to Christ.

I am not sure who I should credit with my concept of dealing with apparent contradictions in the Bible and possibly, even as I write this last statement, I am trying to ignore the influence of the Holy Spirit to guide the church in all things. (I have come to believe there are no contradictions in the Bible, but only "apparent" contradictions created by our failure to understand what is being said within any given passage." I know that I have told others who write words of encouragement and instruction along with those who preach the Word how they are definitely being guided by the Holy Spirit. In fact, I have gone so far as to make claim of men being as inspired by the the Holy Spirit to write as we give credit to those penning the letters of the Bible. This last statement goes to the heart of the subject matter of this post since we have been guilty of ignoring the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

The proof in this statement is easily found in how we have come to view the eldership of the church. I used to have a book, "Why I Am A Member of the Church of Christ," by Leroy Brownlow and when I came to discover how the "official" creed of our denomination was basically founded on this text, I decided to get rid of the book and yet I find myself referencing the book when I consider what has taken place to "sideline" the work of the Holy Spirit and replace what God has given with the will of man. Those who know me also know I am given to broad statements and so the reader should not be surprised when I claim how ALL the problems found in the church today are a result of allowing the will of man to replace the will of God.

As I consider what I remember from the book (could be much error) and since I am going on my memory at 2:40 AM in the morning, I seem to remember a section discussing the governmnent of the church. Hopefully, not to blunt, this discussion is one of the reasons I got rid of the book. Mr. Brownlow substitutes the authority of governing of the church with men. He takes the Bible and explains how the authority of men to rule and govern the church is the will of God. Excuse me for being blunt again but the men rule only when they have no belief that God rules through the Holy Spirit. We cannot have it both ways and yet our failure to believe in the power of the Spirit being active today has led us to believe we must rule or govern for God. Just like the Catholic Church, the Church of Christ must have a Vicar of Christ and our only difference is how we find this in a group of men and not just one man.

While it might sound like I claiming God did not want the guidance of His people through men we have come to call elder or pastor, I am only denying the type of guidance we have come to believe they are charged with in their position. I think 1 Peter 5:2-3 gives us an accurate picture of what these men should be to the church and is key to understanding the correct responsibility to the church.

Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

Taking particular notice of the last few words, I see the answer to our apparent contradiction of leadership in the church. The simple language seems to be clear as it says, don’t tell the church what to do but rather SHOW the church what to do.

Another key to understanding, what I believe to be the proper role of an elder, can be found in the passages describing the characteristics of a man selected to be an elder. (1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9) In simple terms, they are to be the most God-like men found in each “town.” I’m not sure how Mr. Brownlow justifies converting this to each congregation but I remember him doing so.

I believe the important thing to remember, however, is the godly nature of these men called upon to be elders. It makes them perfect for the role placed upon them to be spiritual leaders. God knew how our nature demands an example and He gave us men who have most closely conformed themselves into the image of Christ. We have men like this in the congregation I am affiliated with and I know of none who would even suggest them not being the men most resembling the image of Christ in our group. They are our example of the “right way to live.”

Yes, I do believe there is a right way to live even though I do not believe there is a “right way” to do church.