I’ll be honest, we’ve screwed up at Renovatus…well, duh. I’m pretty sure the nature of church planting is that you try just about everything, do everything wrong, and eventually get led to what works for you. But I think somehow we’ve missed morality. Maybe it was because we
oppose the type of Christianity that is pretty much only about being a good person (haven’t we all fallen into this one at one point or another?), for so often we defined our faith and our God based on what we do rather than in who he is and what he’s done. We (Renovatus) didn’t really swing the pendulum the other direction, we kind of just forgot to talk about the pendulum. We were too caught up in grace, love, beauty, hope, and all that other stuff (I guess that’s not too bad! And I hope you sense some sarcasm here).
Anyway, what I’m getting at is that I had a surprising revelation the other day that not all Christ Followers think the same as me! I know right, crazy isn’t it? I took for granted that people who followed Jesus knew certain things about the type of life Jesus wants us to live. I won’t get into specifics, there’s no reason to. It was just a shock, that’s all. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I’m perfect or that I perfectly understand what a Christ centered life looks like. It’s just that there are some things that I took for granted as obvious unhealthy or destructive choices for Christ Followers to make. That’s all. And its not that I’m shocked that Christ Followers make poor choices. Please, we all screw up. No, the part I am hung up on is that some don’t consider it a screw up, or at the very least they’ve justified it enough in their minds to push the guilt way way back into the coat closet of their brain so as to leave them free to do what they want.
Anyway, I guess I should spend more time evaluating my own life to see if or where I’m doing this same thing. Maybe I should read the Bible some more and see what JC has to say about it.
While I was preparing for my message on Sunday I was impressed by one overwhelming thought that a lot of our shortcomings in faith have to do with us telling the Holy Spirit of God to shut the hell up. We hear his/her/its voice whispering something to us and we instead choose to act out of fear. We hear that voice and instead choose to act out of passion, lust, or greed. We silence the voice of God so we can do what we want, when we want, and however we want. Training ourselves to disregard God’s voice is a scary road to go down, it’s a scary habit to form.
Maybe it's just growth. I think church plants often appeal and dare I say, cater to seekers – those without the christian background. I wouldn't be surprised if there are certain behaviors that have to be addressed as time goes on.I'm still pleased and hopeful whenever I pass your sign – I think Renovatus is going to make a difference here. I do.
you live in vancouver? I had no idea.
I dig this post. I have been feeling these very same things for a while now…it is hard to say such things without sounding judgmental. But you said it well. Well done good and faithful servant.
It is not unusual, when people reach the part of their growth process where they must abandon certain propositions of ideology or faith, for people to have trouble deciding which must and should be abandoned and which should be kept. I believe that there are several components that can be used to approach such situations, and they differ based upon person and problem; the learning point on which I would focus for this type of problem would probably be ethical or perhaps moral, and rooted in history. I try not to focus too much on the "wrong-ness" of the current action at first, but what positives are being sacrificed. I then move on to consider the historical strengths and weaknesses of such action and I try to keep in mind that selfish positives are not the goal but rather selflessness.
I refuse to accept this as a mistake. I think as we continue to plow through Scripture, two things must continue to remain true: (1) that we remain true to the Word, and (2) that we continue to identify and speak to needs. It's all process, and in that process we eventually address the needs. It's a slow process. No need to "tippy-toe" around the tough stuff; we just remain honest to where the text leads us and continue to love people.