Saw this item over at Laura's Writings where she highlights ecclesiology (doctrine of the church) as one of the top 10 items cited by Monday Morning Insight who was citing Brian Schulenburg who is writing a book about the subject. Excerpt:
1) Soteriology - I am so concerned as I read more and more people who would self identify as Christians who are saying that Jesus is not the only way to salvation. In a world that has become increasingly diverse, we are seeing more and more people, perhaps because they are afraid of offending, perhaps because they want to create God in their own image, who say that all religions essentially lead to the same place.What do you think?
2) The Embrace of Open Theism - So many of the college students and young adults that I work with have bought into this doctrine, which among other things, teaches that God does not know the future. They would teach that God knows all of the possible futures, but not a specific future. This has a major impact on how we view the omniscience of God, what we believe about prayer, etc.
3) Homosexuality - How does the church respond to the homosexual community? How do you teach biblical principles regarding homosexuality and still love homosexuals?
4) Ecclesiology - House church? Emerging church? Traditional? Contemporary? Multi-ethnic? Homogeneous? Seeker sensitive? Seeker driven? Gather for edification, scatter for evangelism? Mega-church, bad? Mega-church, good?
5) The Bible - Absolute truth? Inerrant? Infallible? I belive it is with all of my heart. I'm in the minority.
6) Social Justice, Global Warming, etc. - Creation care has caused quite a stir in recent months. Younger Evangelicals are passionate about social justice. Jesus was passionate about social justice. What would Jesus do?
7) Red Letter Christians - Are Jesus' words the most important in all of Scripture? Do we pay as much attention to the teaching of Paul, Peter, John, etc.? What about the Old Testament?
8) Infighting in the Church - Satan is having a heyday here. When does God want us to go to the mat with other Christians? Emerging church vs. Traditional Church? Prayer styles? Worship styles? Theological issues? Urban vs. Suburban?
9) Jesus Junk - The consumerization of the American church. When is enough, enough? What is too much?
10) Friend or Foe? - Is the Gospel a friend to culture or a foe to culture?
UPDATES:
I'll work my way through the list and give my take (worth every cent you are paying for it!) as someone who hasn't been to a theological school and thus don't have a "system" I like to follow. Obviously, I've been influenced by the churches I've been a part of and books I've read!
10) Friend or Foe? - Is the Gospel a friend to culture or a foe to culture?
A bit simplistic to make it an either/or situation don't you think? There are some parts that are good and some parts that aren't. I'd say the American ideal of re-invention and possibility are good things about life in the USA. God's grace in our lives is about possibilities and transformation and growth. From my Chinese culture, I see the strong honor your parents component as consistent with Biblical commands. On the downside, Asian culture stresses conformity which flies against the unity in diversity picture of the multi-racial worship of God the Gospel makes possible. America's keep-up-with-the-Jones mentality skates dangerously close if not into the realm of idolatry.
9) Jesus Junk - The consumerization of the American church. When is enough, enough? What is too much?
No question one of the struggles of life in the United States is being too fond of our "stuff." Our life isn't in stuff yet somehow in the USA, we often feel that we need more stuff to be happy. I don't have a hard rule on how much money should one spend on say a car. However, in my neighborhood there are a lot of very nice cars which I couldn't afford and I'd feel uncomfortable spending that much if I had the money to spend on such a car. Living in Los Angeles it is pretty hard to get by without one. But as a follower of Jesus, how much money is appropriate to spend on a car?
8) Infighting in the Church - Satan is having a heyday here. When does God want us to go to the mat with other Christians? Emerging church vs. Traditional Church? Prayer styles? Worship styles? Theological issues? Urban vs. Suburban?
There is a difference between form and substance. Forms can be influenced by lots of factors like demographics and culture. If you have a ministry to restaurant workers you probably can't schedule activities on weekends for them because they are all at work! If you are in the suburbs and your church has lots of families with young kids then you should plan things to account for that. Likewise, if your congregation is mostly retired people, do what you got to do.
It is really tough when you have a mixture of all of the above under one roof and you don't have the resources to do all things for all people. That is where we really need to learn to be much more charitable with each other and somehow work together!
As for substance, we just need to be honest if we have a difference of opinion. Absolutely, welcome anyone in need who comes through the church doors... atheist, Mormon, Hindu, pagan, confused, whatever... The Good Samaritan didn't check the id of the guy beaten on the roadside in the famous parable and likewise the church must be a place that is an open and safe place for anyone who is in need.
However, for positions of leadership and responsibility then some "theological correctness" in addition to evidence of good character are fair game and just simply the right thing to do. I don't think it is unreasonably for denomination X to expect their pastors to subscribe to the vast majority of their distinctives. Even non-denominational churches have some (or should) doctrinal statements rooted in the historic Christian faith. Clearly there is a lot of debate within the Christian community as to what constitutes the bare essentials. But as one of my old pastors use to say, unity on the essentials and charity on everything else.
7) Red Letter Christians - Are Jesus' words the most important in all of Scripture? Do we pay as much attention to the teaching of Paul, Peter, John, etc.? What about the Old Testament?
I've heard a little bit about this. Seems to me there are two aspects to this movement: political and theological.
The political movement appears to be a reaction to the conservative evangelical support of the Republican party. It is simplistic to say but it is generally true that this new group is composed of Christians who are politically left of center.
The picture of American political views is actually quite a bit more complicated than secular vs. religious and conservative vs. liberal. If those were the only options, there would only be four "tribes" in the American electorate. Instead, it is suggested that there are Twelve Tribes in American politics!
As a theological enterprise, are the Words of Jesus more important than the rest of the Bible?
There is precedent for this kind of thought in the Jewish religion where the Torah, the 5 books of Moses, are held as the highest Scriptures followed by the Prophets and the Writings.
Though in theory many Christians hold all of Scriptures as equally inspired and thus valuable, in practice, most sermons come from the New Testament. And depending on the church, some will be preaching more from the Gospels about Jesus and others from the Letters of the Apostle Paul. It is also probably true that when the Bible is being translated into a new language, the first books to be translated would be the Gospels.
Thus, as a matter of establishing a framework to define the faith, one would naturally go first to the Words and Deeds of Jesus.
However, the temptation of the Red Letter movement would be to discard everything from Romans onward. That would be problematic.
6) Social Justice, Global Warming, etc. - Creation care has caused quite a stir in recent months. Younger Evangelicals are passionate about social justice. Jesus was passionate about social justice. What would Jesus do?
I think Social Justice is a time honored part of Christian spiritual expression. Wilberforce and the fight against slavery would be a part of this tradition. American Christians were at the front of fighting slavery. Religious motivations were behind part of the Civil Rights Movement.
What troubles me today though is that Christians who have strong social justice instincts can wind up somewhat captive to either political party.
For instance, some Christians who are very pro-environment and are very concerned about the global warming issue can become stuck with other things the Democrats support which they really don't like.
Likewise, Christians who see the pro-life issue as a social justice issue get stuck with stuff in the Republican party they don't like.
The Global Warming issue has gotten a lot of press lately. However, I'm concerned that it has taken a life of its own apart from good solid science. Statements like "there are no serious questions about the reality of global warming" is troubling to me. There are scientists who have concerns about the data. Additionally, there is a dollars and sense question of priorities of what to fight: if you have $1 billion to spend, do you spend it on fighting global warming or on malaria in Africa?
Besides global warming, the social justice train is concerned with issues of economics. This can get tricky because economics is tied to questions of political power. It may sound nice in the abstract to redistribute wealth as advocated by socialists and communists but that comes with totalitarian governments and when you give government the power to take people's money and property, they can take other things to.
Likewise, a total free market system can lead to a law of the jungle kind of trouble.
As I see it, I do lean toward the free market because I'd rather have power diffused rather than concentrated in the government. However, I do have to trust that enough people have compassion to ensure that we don't fall into a social Darwinism where a certain segment of the population gets trampled.
5) The Bible - Absolute truth? Inerrant? Infallible?
There is a huge inter-mural debate about which of the above terms best applies to Scripture. Absolute truth? Indeed, about the spiritual condition of man and God's plan of reconciliation!
Inerrant/infallible? Theologians can slug that one out until the cows come home. My bottom line is summarized in this blog post where my I view the Bible as God's message to us.
I recognize the following statements are articles of faith.
(1) I believe that God desires to communicate to humanity certain things.
(2) I believe God interacted with human authors to produce a body of text.
(3) I believe that God guided the church to properly identify which body of text to hold as authoritative.
(4) I believe that God has blessed the community of faith with scribes who have copied the text reliably, scholars who apply textual criticism to remove the boo-boos and translators who bring the text into the many languages of the world accurately.
The Bible I hold in my hands (#4) is a reliable reflection of #1.
4) Ecclesiology - House church? Emerging church? Traditional? Contemporary? Multi-ethnic? Homogeneous? Seeker sensitive? Seeker driven? Gather for edification, scatter for evangelism? Mega-church, bad? Mega-church, good?
I attended a youth workers conference a few years back. The speaker had us gather into groups based on our age by decade. Lots of groups with 20s. Many 30s, a few 40s, and indeed there were groups with 50s and 60s!
The speaker offered this encouragement: look around and see how many different types of people are working with youth; because there are so many different kinds of kids we need all kinds of youth volunteers to serve in youth groups!
So my view on churches styles is simple: unity on the essentials of the faith and diversity of forms to reach people!
2 comments:
What would we lose if we ignored every thing from the end of John's Gospel?
There'd be no Atonement Theory.
No Gospel of Grace.
No predestination.
No church hierarchies.
No speaking in tongues.
No command for slaves to remain slaves.
No command for women to be silent in the churches.
No commands about hair styles.
No commands to view governments as God's ministers.
No looking for an anti-Christ.
No looking for seven angels with seven trumpets sending seven plagues on a world with seven churches.
No fingerpointing to identify the Beast with seven heads, or the harlot.
No 666 theories.
No expectations of an immedaite return of Jesus.
No shunning of wayward believers.
No debate over works versus deeds.
No theory of original sin.
No theory of universal salvation.
No baptism for the dead.
No water baptism.
No tumultous spirit baptism with tongues of fire.
No Church councils making special rules for gentiles.
No wages for elders.
No elders.
No public meetings and public prayers.
No images of Jesus returning with an army to kill people until their blood flows as high as a horses bridle.
No images of God as a stern Judge.
No images of God as a God who needed to be propitiated with human blood.
No image of God savoring the smell of Jesus' Death.
No laying on of hands.
No belief that you are saved by just believing in Jesus name.
No belief that your faith can save your family.
No belief that you can pray for God to forgive the sins of others and he will.
No selling of lands and giving the money to the Apostles.
No communal living (communism).
No image of Jesus as a lawyer.
No belief that you are born again if you believe Jesus is the Messiah.
No confusion about Christians becoming spiritual Jews.
No belief that all Israel will one day be saved.
No theory about 144,000 Jewish male virgin future evangelists.
No theory about being Christ's Bride.
No theory that our flesh is sinful and our nature sinful.
No teaching that Christians should lead quiet lives of prosperity being good business folks and live long happy lives.
No fretting over women's clothing and braided hair.
No theories of justification and sanctification.
No theory that God scourges with a whip every child that comes to him.
No theories of a wrathful angry God of Judgment.
No desiring spiritual gifts.
No spiritual gifts.
Yes, if we only had the words of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospel we would be just fine.
He said on the judgement Day his words (not those of his apostles) will judge us.
Those who obey his sayings will never see death.
Thanks for dropping by with a comment!
There is no question that there are things in Scripture that are hard to understand and have resulted in lots of controversial interpretations.
I suppose someone who is skeptical about the 4 Gospels could come up with a list of troublesome issues just as long as this list of items from Romans to Revelation. Thus, if we use controversy to dismiss Romans to Revelation, one can dismiss the Gospels as well.
And indeed, it is popular among skeptical circles to think of the Gospels as one brand of Christianity and the Epistles as another and the two are essentially different.
Religions are systems of beliefs which fall into various categories: (1) God (2) reality (3) morality and ethics (4) rituals and practices (5) community of believers.
As it stands, Christian theologians have looked at the Gospels and the Epistles and see them as compatible and not contradictory. One could view the Epistles as applications and explanations of the teachings of Jesus so in that sense the Gospels are given priority. But it should be noted that strictly speaking, the Gospels aren't "roll the videotape" compilation transcripts of Jesus life, deeds and words. They too embody to some degree theological development through the process of selection of which events and teachings of Jesus to highlight.
One could focus on the unclear stuff and get quite discouraged. Christianity has endured over the centuries despite intellectual and violent attacks from outside the faith and hypocrisy and bungling on the part of us within the faith. However, there are many items that are quite positive and clear and have formed the reason why Christianity continues to endure and thrive.
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