Blog Summary 2007
I think there are 7 basic points of the thoughts in my blog entries:
1. There is a central core of truth in the gospel, but it gets dressed up in cultural and religious expectations and traditions that end up becoming so associated with the gospel, that any diversion from these traditions and expectations is treated like a divergence from the gospel itself. Conformity is an expectation by churchgoers, but what we are being told to conform to is often irrelevant to the gospel itself. The wide variety of church cultures in America alone is evidence that there is something amiss.
Examples of expectations: go to “church” every Sunday; read your Bible daily; participate in the “church” as much as possible; each congregation must have a building; tithing is a requirement. Some of these are modern inventions because prior to the printing press, Bibles were a rarity, and the church didn’t have the number of programs we have today. Rural believers can’t always get to a central location easily; others are willing to make the trek. What is expected in one congregation is not in another, or may even be looked on as odd. (Contrast a small super-strict Pentecostal congregation where tithing is not only expected but enforced, and swimming is permitted, but you have to be fully clothed including long sleeve shirts; versus a congregation of Presbyterians or even Coptic believers. They are all labeled Christian, but the cultures are dramatically different.)
2. Superstitions arise because of this distorted view of the gospel. The superstitions are pseudo-spiritual beliefs that have little to no basis in the gospel, but have a strong emotional influence on people due entirely to their belief in them.
Examples include: rituals that we “have” to go through to break the power of witchcraft, including specific prayers, anointing things with oil or holy water, “binding” things in the heavenly realms, or visualizing the power of God being released against the forces of darkness. Dreams taking on the importance of direct revelation; people that don’t follow our expectations (the way we’ve always done it) must be influenced by the devil.
3. There is a ton of portent in the words of Jesus, but we rarely see this realized. Perhaps the expectation (even my own) of what it “ought” to look like is quite different than the reality Jesus intended. But since God is not a liar, there are some things that must be attainable (rivers of living water; increasing glory, rather than fading; peace that passes understanding). There are reasons for this dichotomy of promise and realization that need to be explored. Being born-again is more than a doctrine.
4. Mostly, the church seems to be content with merely saying they have the above-mentioned realities of God in us, but resorts to playacting (speaking it out like it were so), and hype (yell it loud enough and it is assumed to be true) instead of actual demonstrations.
5. The church tends to substitute emotional content for spiritual content. Alternatively, it substitutes religious ritual for spiritual practices. Sometimes both happen simultaneously. This is true both in charismatic and high-churches.
6. Leadership sometimes is more concerned that the churchgoers submit to them than anything else. Stupid things, like which way the chairs face in a Sunday school class, get elevated to some kind of spiritual importance. Some people who rise to leadership in the church are real knobs. They are the embodiment of what the business world used to call “The Peter Principle”, i.e. in any organization people who were doing well at a particular function tend to be promoted to a position that is beyond their competence to fulfill well. This leads to misuse of the authority they were entrusted with. The leadership then hides behind an assumption that anything they have decided has the approval of God, and that any views to the contrary are just “contentious spirits” that need to submit. They cloak it in misapplied terms from scripture, such as “Touch not the Lord’s Anointed!” making themselves out to be Christ himself. This makes me wonder if it is better to leave such a congregation, or to stage a revolution of sorts. If God doesn’t remove them, these churches become bastions of religion, where real spirituality and original thought is shunned since the leadership doesn’t possess it.
7. Ultimately, each one of us is responsible for his or her own walk with God. The guidelines are simple: Love God, Love other people, Help those in need, Freely give the good news of Jesus, do the will of God and avoid evil behavior because hypocrites will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
1. There is a central core of truth in the gospel, but it gets dressed up in cultural and religious expectations and traditions that end up becoming so associated with the gospel, that any diversion from these traditions and expectations is treated like a divergence from the gospel itself. Conformity is an expectation by churchgoers, but what we are being told to conform to is often irrelevant to the gospel itself. The wide variety of church cultures in America alone is evidence that there is something amiss.
Examples of expectations: go to “church” every Sunday; read your Bible daily; participate in the “church” as much as possible; each congregation must have a building; tithing is a requirement. Some of these are modern inventions because prior to the printing press, Bibles were a rarity, and the church didn’t have the number of programs we have today. Rural believers can’t always get to a central location easily; others are willing to make the trek. What is expected in one congregation is not in another, or may even be looked on as odd. (Contrast a small super-strict Pentecostal congregation where tithing is not only expected but enforced, and swimming is permitted, but you have to be fully clothed including long sleeve shirts; versus a congregation of Presbyterians or even Coptic believers. They are all labeled Christian, but the cultures are dramatically different.)
2. Superstitions arise because of this distorted view of the gospel. The superstitions are pseudo-spiritual beliefs that have little to no basis in the gospel, but have a strong emotional influence on people due entirely to their belief in them.
Examples include: rituals that we “have” to go through to break the power of witchcraft, including specific prayers, anointing things with oil or holy water, “binding” things in the heavenly realms, or visualizing the power of God being released against the forces of darkness. Dreams taking on the importance of direct revelation; people that don’t follow our expectations (the way we’ve always done it) must be influenced by the devil.
3. There is a ton of portent in the words of Jesus, but we rarely see this realized. Perhaps the expectation (even my own) of what it “ought” to look like is quite different than the reality Jesus intended. But since God is not a liar, there are some things that must be attainable (rivers of living water; increasing glory, rather than fading; peace that passes understanding). There are reasons for this dichotomy of promise and realization that need to be explored. Being born-again is more than a doctrine.
4. Mostly, the church seems to be content with merely saying they have the above-mentioned realities of God in us, but resorts to playacting (speaking it out like it were so), and hype (yell it loud enough and it is assumed to be true) instead of actual demonstrations.
5. The church tends to substitute emotional content for spiritual content. Alternatively, it substitutes religious ritual for spiritual practices. Sometimes both happen simultaneously. This is true both in charismatic and high-churches.
6. Leadership sometimes is more concerned that the churchgoers submit to them than anything else. Stupid things, like which way the chairs face in a Sunday school class, get elevated to some kind of spiritual importance. Some people who rise to leadership in the church are real knobs. They are the embodiment of what the business world used to call “The Peter Principle”, i.e. in any organization people who were doing well at a particular function tend to be promoted to a position that is beyond their competence to fulfill well. This leads to misuse of the authority they were entrusted with. The leadership then hides behind an assumption that anything they have decided has the approval of God, and that any views to the contrary are just “contentious spirits” that need to submit. They cloak it in misapplied terms from scripture, such as “Touch not the Lord’s Anointed!” making themselves out to be Christ himself. This makes me wonder if it is better to leave such a congregation, or to stage a revolution of sorts. If God doesn’t remove them, these churches become bastions of religion, where real spirituality and original thought is shunned since the leadership doesn’t possess it.
7. Ultimately, each one of us is responsible for his or her own walk with God. The guidelines are simple: Love God, Love other people, Help those in need, Freely give the good news of Jesus, do the will of God and avoid evil behavior because hypocrites will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
posted by Jason Woodrow at 8:52 AM
