I'm committed to my local church. I believe that it is biblical to be part of a local congregation of believers, because the local church isn't just part of the church, it is the church, an outcropping of the universal church. If I love the Lord and his church, which I do, then I must love the local church--the people I've identified with as a member.
But what about when there's more than one solid, biblical, local congregation? And what if I find much of my fellowship and support with believers who are parts of other congregations, not the congregation of which I'm a member. What if my local church isn't my local fellowship?
Should folks from my local congregation be the first people I turn to when I have a problem, or need to discuss an issue? What if the issues I'm thinking through and want to talk about are issues they don't show much care for? For example, are the environmentalists right--are we trashing the planet? Have we obscured the gospel by insisting too much on our inculturated accommodation of it? Why does our congregation only marginally reflect the socio-ethnic make-up of the community around our church? Do we mix too much of our political views with Jesus' gospel? Is our emphasis on academic doctrinal standards sheltering us from the direct heart surgury God's living word would perform on us?
Posted by swanson at juni 4, 2006 03:06 EM | TrackBack...indeed, what if most of the people who care about the same issues you do are largely only available over the internet?
Is there such a thing as an internet fellowship? Probably.
But your questions make me wonder: is supporting your local church the same thing as finding your best friends there? Granted, you should make an attempt to build relationships within your local church, but that doesn't mean these relationships replace or outprioritize relationships cultivated elsewhere. Or maybe I am simply justifying my desire to maintain friendships with people scattered all over the world. If however, I had NO friends whatsoever in the local church, then I might question my commitment to that body.
And regarding your closing questions: keep asking them. They are important. Off the cuff, I'd probably answer them yes, yes, probably because of the previous issue, yes, and yes.
Posted by: funke at juni 4, 2006 04:26 EMAre those really the questions you are struggling with that your church is not addressing?
Posted by: Heather at juni 12, 2006 07:05 EMThey are questions I'm doing a lot of thinking about. I think the second and the last questions are probably the most important, because the environmental question and the one on mixing political views with the gospel are both symptoms of accomodating the gospel to our culture. My church's culture is very much a small, southern, politically conservative, middle class church. Environmentalism is almost dismissed outright as 'liberal' and I had a friend who visited once and left upset because the sermon had attacked a political hero of hers--her offense wasn't due to the gospel, but to a political disagreement.
How much have we superimposed our culture on the gospel? How much do we allow the Westminster Confession and Catechisms to color how we approach and read the Scriptures?
I'm not saying I want to abandon the reformed ship--I just want to make sure we're being as biblical as possible, not just doing things because its our tradition or culture.
Posted by: Joel at juni 16, 2006 11:15 EMDid you hear Randy Pope's message at General Assembly this year? Sounds like Randy's reasons for our homogeneity are valid and might explain your problem.
I wish I had your problem, we have good churches around but they are far away, or really big, or they lack that spark that makes a good church (for us).