this climate of disagreement

In the climate of disagreement that exists within the Christian community, there is something that continues to bother me about it. It’s the seemingly constant criticism that happens between the two extremes of perspective. Now I’m talking about the Christian community, not some social grouping, not some societal alliance. I’m talking about a group that has a set of ethics that have been laid out for them by the One to Whom they pledge allegiance. When we have something against a brother/sister we do not go to a court of law…a court that serves society – our direction comes from the scriptures upon which our faith is based – because our standard is set higher and our Judge is good, and fair, and just.

The climate of disagreement I’m talking about here is mostly political and has to do with two Christian leaders; George W. Bush and Franklin Graham.

Graham is in our town leading a "festival". The word "festival" has been chosen by the Graham organization to replace the term "crusade" which was the word formerly used by evangelists to describe their huge meetings. It's good that they changed the word. The word “crusade” is a term that Christians should be embarrassed to use because of our own violent past that is connected with this word. We should be careful with our own accusations about violent, militant faith communities.

At any rate, Graham has been vocal in his support of the war in Iraq. This is a problem with any Christian who believes that war is no way to bring peace to the world. This is a problem for Christians who believe that non-violence is a consistent response to the teachings of Christ. Clearly, they would disagree with Graham here. They should disagree. And they should enter into a debate with him and all those Christians with whom they disagree. The problem comes when this kind of disagreement causes Christians to bad-mouth or ridicule their brothers/sisters. Shame on us.

A good example of this happened this morning at a church that I was attending. Some people were commenting on the fact that Graham was in town for a “crusade” and were fairly disparaging in their remarks. These remarks had to do with Graham's pro-war position and the particular approach to evangelism that his organization practises. Later on during the service two people who were new to us and had never attended before shared that the night before one of them had become a Christian at the evangelistic service. His partner shared that she was going to attend the meeting later that night and had decided she would become a Christian then. The theology around when a person becomes a Christian aside, here were two people who has entered the body of Christ at the ministry of the Franklin Graham Crusade. What can we do but join the angels in heaven as they sing “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” I will, therefore, thank God for Franklin Graham and pray that he will change his position on war.

Now as far as Bush is concerned. I detest his theology. I hate his foreign policy. I believe he is totally misguided around his capitalistic/democratic solution for the world as it can only be brought by the US. But I am also angered and embarrassed by the part of the Christian community that has demonized him. (And I use the word “demonized” advisedly. How dare we minimize the person and power of the satan by using this word to describe any person let alone a Christian brother). I’m sure that many would argue that Bush couldn’t be a Christian because of his actions. This, of course, depends on your own theological perspective. Either way, we need to be careful of our approaches to criticism. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be critical. We should be critical. In fact we have a real standard by which to measure his actions and policies. But if he is a Christian, we need to pray for him as a brother with a heart of commpassion and humility. If he is not a Christian, we should pray for his salvation with a heart of love and understanding. And if we think he must not be a Christian because of his actions and policies we need to ask ourselves if our lives could survive the same type of judgement.

conversation cafe: missional church in a new light

i love it when i find another site that causes me to think and consider my faith. the conversation cafe is one such site. the article that follows is about the missional church. the writer, craig morton take starts with his own knee jerk reaction to words like missional. he then goes into describing his journey of rediscovery. in some of the churches with which i have been connected sharing faith is something people struggle with. either they think they are being pushy and not very tollerant of others' beliefs, or they are not comfortable talking to others about something in which they think they are not very conversant; they are afraid they are not smart enough or they don't know enough to give a good presentation about their faith. i suspect that the writer of this article has gone through some of the same angst.

anyway, here's an exerpt from the article:

The lines easily blur between God’s actions and our activities; hence, we confuse our initiatives with God’s call, our decision with God’s will, and our point of view with God’s promised and preferred future. The end result is dangerously close to a form of atheism or idolatry. God becomes an afterthought to bless the good things we are doing.

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ramifications :open source theology:

there are many blogs that are in conversation around the church's emergence in this time. some are totally opposed and are warning us that there are serious problems being welcomed by a 'tolerant' stance of most emerging churches. others are welcoming the conversation in all it's diversity. here is a good example.

...there may be discernible differences, unique and outstanding features, trends and so on but where is the equally important acknowledgement of the ties that bind? “I am missional” should not be opposed to “I am emergent”. The fact is that all shades of mixtures exist together...

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