Called Out

I've been thinking lately about the public image of the church in America. My guess is that the church is known more for what it is against than what it is for. The primary issues on the landscape are things like Human Genome research, prayer in schools or other public places, the everlasting evolution/creation debate, gay marriage, and of course abortion.

So, I'm curious about something. Gay marriage has been such a big deal in our society as of late. The church has come about pretty strong in the corner of marriage being a union between a man and a woman.

If it were up to you, what public position would the church take on this issue?

I have some thoughts, but I want to hear your's first.

Alee, you bring out a thread of thought that has been around for a little while. In fact, the Westminster Catechism (developed in 1647) addresses this idea. There are two versions of the catechism, a shorter version and a larger version. The shorter version is by far the more read. The Westminster Catechism deals with 107 different questions of a "doctrinal" nature. You can read it by clicking here. This particular site also has links so that you can see the passages of scripture the group who wrote the Westminster Catechism believed supported their vantage point. It should be noted that this is one of the more influential writings in Christendom, but there are still many out there that disagree with many parts of what is written.

The first question asked in the catechism is, "What is the chief end of man?" The simple answer given is that "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever."

John Piper wrote a book Desiring God that deals with this idea head on and actually begins to expound upon it a touch. He asserts that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. In other words, God created us in such a loving way that we can find joy and peace in life. When we engage fully in those pleasures, we bring the ultimate glory to God. It's really quite an interesting read. I don't know that I track with all of it, but I think he has some really great things to say. The one additional thought that I'll throw out here to try to clarify the book a bit is that Piper is really referring to full pleasure. His contention (and he actually quotes C.S. Lewis here) is that the problem we have as people is not that we pursue pleasure, it's that we are too easily satisfied. For instance, our problem is not that we are seeking love, but that we are willing to settle for lust and sex instead.

I think this viewpoint is one that we have to look at with a careful lens. On one hand, it's easy to distort the message of Jesus into something that is entirely selfish and about us alone. On the other hand, we can overlook the intimate love of God that is clearly displayed in several areas of scripture (see numerous parables of Jesus for examples).

Several of you referenced the friction/traction thought from the first post, and I want to come back to that another day when I have my McManus book nearby to pull some quotes from. I think it's an interesting concept and idea, that really lends me inspiration and hope in some of the toughest spots in life. One quick thing about friction/traction: from my experience it's right about the time that the friction begins to become truly painful that traction begins to take place. How does that play out in different scenarios in life? That's for another day. I want to toss out something I've been thinking about quite a bit lately.

The church I'm a part of has been under taking some major strategic thinking with regards to our future as a community of faith. We're evaluating everything, and holding none of our "traditional" practices as sacred. It's been a challenging process of questions, dialogue, prayer, vision, dreams, and discovery. In the midst of this process, I've been thinking about the concept of "The Body". You probably know what I'm talking about.

In 1 Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul lays out this concept of the Body of Christ that is pretty compelling. (You can read the passage here.) Paul writes about how each of us are unique in our creation, and he begins to list various "gifts" that we've received as people. The gift list is diverse, and it doesn't take long to see that Paul is placing value in the uniqueness of creation. You and I are unique. There's no other person on earth that is just like you or me, and that's a beautiful good thing. God made it that way. The very notion that we should all conform to look like one thing is really quite absurd. God would have nothing of the sort. (Granted, scripture does present the idea of spiritual formation being the process of becoming more and more like Jesus. On the surface, these seem to be paradoxical, but I think it's actually quite a tame statement. Perhaps I'll write on that later.)

So, in the end, Paul celebrates the diversity of the community of faith. There are several excerpts that I really like:

• the body is not made up of one part but of many
• If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
• If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

As I read through this passage and meditated on the process that we were going through as a church, I had a realization.

I've grown up in the church all of my life. It's always been a part of what I did. I've heard people talk about the "Body of Christ" more times than I can remember or count. However, as I reflect, my experience is that the vast majority of the references to "the Body" that I've heard are referring to a specific local congregation. In fact, I know I've heard people refer to different churches as different "bodies of Christ". And for a long time, that didn't really strike any sort of sour note with me.

But then it struck me, the Scriptures don't paint that sort of picture at all! In fact, the Bible paints the picture that every single church, pastor, board member, and congregation member from every geographic region of the planet are all a part of one body. Further, Scripture paints the idea that when one part of the body suffers, we all suffer, and one part is honored, we all rejoice with it.

Has that been your experience of the church?

Do you experience one congregation celebrating the success of another just down the street? When we hear about tremendous things happening in other parts of the globe, do we feel a sense of connectedness to that? When we read a story of a martyr or of oppression in Uganda or China, do we hurt?

Now, I've never been a part of a local congregation that wished ill on another. But, how often do we go out of our way to support them?

Here's my wondering . . . We readily say that individual people have a purpose in life. A function. A job. Or if we're churchy, a calling. And your calling can be completely different than mine, and that's just fine. Neither of us are wrong. Just different. Neither of us is better, just different.

What if the same can be said of a local congregation?

After all, there's only ONE body . . . right? Yet, I think we often operate like we're a bunch of little mini-bodies running all over the place. We live in such a way that says each local congregation has to have 10 toes, 10 fingers, 2 arms, etc. But, is that the picture that the Bible even feigns to present?!?

In my opinion . . . No.

Each local congregation is a part of ONE body . . . everybody.

The little house church meeting underground in Iraq because there's still gunfire flying overhead. A part of everybody.

The Pentecostal church down the street that is more "charismatic" than I'm honestly comfortable with. A part of everybody.

The ultra-Conservative rural church that hasn't changed a thing it does in over 30 years. A part of everybody.

The suburban mega-church that produces sermon outlines, small group studies, teaching materials, and everything else we could possibly want. A part of everybody.

Every Christ following congregation is a part of the same body. Could it be that some of our arguments and disagreements, some of our tensions and quarrels, are not because one side is wrong and the other is right but because the disagreeing congregations are actually called to different things?!?

If each local congregation is not a body unto itself, than it is only natural that we would need to have congregations performing different functions of the body. And when one congregation does something well, we don't have to go out and copy them, hoping to mimic their success. Instead, could we celebrate them???

If we know of a local congregation other than your own who is doing something phenomenal, what if we praise it and talk about it with others in a glowingly positive way, rather than grumble that our congregation didn't get to it first or isn't doing it as well or at all.

Embrace uniqueness! It's the way of Christ!

One body. Many parts. Each called to perform it's function.

Perhaps Paul said it best:

If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.