Ridgell's Originals

 Church and culture do not mix.  Never have and never will.  And that makes it difficult and stressful to be a community of faith in our world.  Always has been.  Always will be.

Because we are different.  We have a different world view.  We have different -- and often competing -- agendas.  

The church has historically, and I think correctly, believed in unchanging truths.  God. Jesus.  Scripture.  These have been true, they are true, and they will be true.  Of course, the church reflects it's culture to some degree because that is the world in which we live.  But Scripture is clear about choosing God over the world we live in.  Clear about our real kingdom allegience.

Culture changes.  Take American culture the last 100 years and marriage.  Man and a woman.  Only.  For life.  Then same sex marriage.  Now Polyamory is on the way to full acceptance.  There have been cultures where it was acceptable to capture your wife from another tribe or village.  Or buy your wife.  Or have multiple wives.  The church has historically held to monogamous union between one man and one woman as the view seen in the Bible.  

The church has historically upheld the value of human life.  But culture has sometimes endorsed and approved slavery, genocide, and euthanasia.

Culture has always rewarded greed, ego, and lust. Not so among God's people.

So I think the church has three choices.

Embrace culture.  That will often mean teaching what the Bible does not.  It will mean taking political stands.  Supporting the current government powers.  And I have never heard of a church that will admit to this.  But it happens.  See Nazi Germany for one example.  

Accommodate culture.  Do not embrace culture but try to keep a foot in both church and culture.  You see this most often when churches do not overtly endorse the evil things in culture, but they stop teaching about them.  See many of the American churches today.

Or stand against culture.  I don't mean a culture war.  I am not even sure the job of the church is to reform culture.  After all, there has not been a Christian nation in 2000 years.  Even when it was overtly attempted.  See the Inquisition.

And I do not think our battle is against the people of our culture.  The church does want to save the people of this world.  And it is hard.  The church has often failed to live up to our calling.  Both as individuals and corporately.  And we never will get it right.  Because we are not perfect. 

And I think this is the only real choice. 

But we have to try.  And here is what will happen.  People will say bad things about us.  That we are unloving and judgmental.  But our lives will make them wonder.  And it will lead to persecution.  

Just like Jesus said.

So when you worry about what is happening to the culture you are living in... maybe it is just playing out exactly like it always has.

And one last piece of good news.  200 years from now someone may be communicating this exact same discussion.  Because unless Jesus returns, the church will still be here.  And so will culture.  One of them remains the same.  And one of them is ever changing.

Choose wisely.

Labels: Church

# posted by Steve @ 6:00 AM 0 comments

 I read a lot of articles from preachers frustrated at the leadership model used by most Churches of Christ.  Almost everyone agrees it is an unworkable model.  Elders leading the church.  Volunteers.  Not theologically trained.  Telling professionals what to do.  

Preachers frustrated at having to convince elders to sign off on programs and decisions.  Then being evaluated/criticized for things over which you have no control.

Elders frustrated because they feel like they are not doing things at all the way the Bible talks about what elders do.  The Bible seems to point to shepherding as the main function of elders.  And teaching.  Being responsible that error is not taught.  But you don't do a lot of those things in our leadership model.  

A lot of really good men quit preaching.  Just can't take it any more.  A lot of really good men resign as elders.  Just can't take it any more.

I used to argue the way Scripture seems to talk about elders would work today in our culture.  

I am not so sure any more.

As long as our churches look like the American business model we cannot have a leadership structure like most churches do. It just doesn't work.  

If we are going to be heavily invested in buildings, a large ministerial staff, a fixed budget, and numerous programs -- then it is hard to see how our model can function.  These kind of things need a CEO that can hire his own staff and run the organization.  Elders should function like a board.  And many churches are moving to that model.  

But that sure doesn't seem like the early church model.  It just doesn't.

So here are a couple of questions we need to ask.

Is the American church model really working?  Are any churches really growing?  And I don't mean going from 200 to 250 while the church down the road goes from 200 to 150.  I don't see that as growth.

Maybe Covid will give us a chance to re-examine what church should look like.  What if we didn't just "leave the building" but actually rethought whether we need buildings?  And if so, what is their purpose?  How would it look to have 10 house churches under an eldership?  What if elders had the responsibility for teaching the Bible to their flock?  And the staff were all primarily evangelists?  

Do we still need a main/senior/lead minister to do all the preaching?  One thing we have all learned during this time is that there is a lot of really good teaching from a variety of preachers available.  Team preaching?

Or do we encourage smaller congregations of 50-100.  I used to buy in to the argument that the last thing most places need is another church.  So don't do church plants.  Now I wonder if we don't need a lot more church plants.  

But I do know trying to put a Acts leadership model on churches modeled after American business is not working.

And when this strange time is over, I don't think we will ever go back to what we were.  I don't think we can.

I am not the only one thinking about these things.  Much smarter people than I am are talking about it.  And there will be some churches/preachers/elders that will figure it out.

And I am optimistic that some of us will see a different model that may lead to explosive growth.  Real growth.  You know ... kind of like they saw in Acts.    

Labels: Church

# posted by Steve @ 7:50 AM 0 comments

Labels: Church

# posted by Steve @ 8:23 AM 3 comments

Labels: Church

# posted by Steve @ 7:01 AM 2 comments