Wednesday 14 November 2012

The church dilemma

There's a dilemma that every church finds itself in eventually, regardless of how good (or bad) its doctrine (or anything else) is. It seems that the more successful and established the church becomes, the more it becomes the "establishment" and changes into the kind of religious institution that Jesus hated. Secure in our assurance of our "rightness", we begin to reject anything that's "wrong" until all church members feel the need to conform to our collective image of how the church, and individual members, ought to look. The "right" try to "help" the "wrong" by (albeit ever so gently) showing them the error of their ways and beliefs. Then before long, there's a more or less subtle air of condemnation coming from the very people who set out to bring forgiveness and grace.

I confess that I don't see the way out of this or how to avoid it -- it always seems to happen sooner or later.

Perhaps it's wrong to try to instruct one another as we do. Maybe we're trying to replace the proper work of God's Holy Spirit or, foolishly and impatiently, trying to produce faster results!

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