Christian Unity

I will be spending the next three days travelling to attend a funeral.

Funerals remind us of our mortality. They cause us to reflect on our lives and on our loved ones. At times like these I consider the way I am spending the time God has given me, and whether I am spending it on the right things. And I wonder whether my life is making any difference…and whether it needs to make a difference.

In the Declaration and Address of 1809, Thomas Campbell wrote:

Oh! that ministers and people would but consider, that there are no divisions in the grave; nor in that world which lies beyond it: there our divisions must come to an end! we must all unite there!– Would to God, we could find in our hearts to put an end to our short-lived divisions here; that so we might leave a blessing behind us; even a happy and united church.

May God enable all of us to make a difference in that area.

If I am to live to be as old as the gentleman whose funeral I will attend on Wednesday, I have another 30 years remaining. But the days pass with increasing speed. When my great-grandmother was 86 years old, she told me that it had taken half of her life to reach age 16. I am past the midpoint between those two milestones, and see no reason to doubt her statement. Perhaps this is what Paul had in mind when he said:

Eph 5:15-16 Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil

Let’s pray that God will enable us to live up to that calling.

This morning I received the following email announcement:

The program has some very compelling topics. I hope to be able to “virtually” attend some of these. If you have a chance to listen to some sessions, I’m sure other readers would appreciate any comments you wish to share here.

My daughters like to read homeschooling blogs, and from time to time they send me some real gems. A few days ago one of them referred me to an online sermon about a crucially important matter to our churches: reaching our children. To hear the sermon, follow this link and click on sermon #7, Closing the Generation Gap, by Voddie Baucham. The speaker is a Southern Baptist, and he describes the challenges of that group in reaching and retaining their children for Christ. The basic theme is the need for parents to take responsibility for evangelizing their children. It’s well worth 37 minutes.

Coming from my Restoration Movement heritage, I could easily get sidetracked from Baucham’s central message by focusing on areas where I see things differently. I could take issue with his adaptation of the passages about elders to the Baptist preacher / pastor role. I could get distracted by questions about Sunday and the Sabbath. I could quibble about the commands to go forth and multiply, and implications about family size, pointing to distinctions between the old and new covenants. But if I did I think I would be missing a very important message, one that is as true for us as it is for them.

Like the Baptists, the Restoration Movement churches I know best are struggling to convert and retain their children. Often leaders have led the way in failure to bring their children to God. In many churches the blind are leading the blind in this critical area.

From a pragmatic point of view, the church will surely suffer if we cannot consistently pass along our Christian convictions to our children and grandchildren. I am not sure what to think of Baucham’s point that Christians need to “out-breed” those around us. Clearly the combination of low retention rates and low birthrates poses a grim prospect for the future of the church. But beyond numerical effects, there is a degree of spiritual maturity and stability that is lost due to generational attrition. How rare it is to find strong, spiritual men in the church whose fathers were faithful and spirit-filled Christians, along with grandfathers and great-grandfathers! And even rarer, how often do we find multiple generations of men who were qualified and served as elders in the church? How much richer would we all be if more of us came from such a heritage! In those rare instances, the entire church is nourished by their relationships with such families in the fellowship. Those families are a treasure.

Families are central to the Christian culture. We cannot be a strong church without strong families. And our families cannot be what God intended them to be unless fathers are loving God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. We have to teach, rebuke, correct, and train the fathers in our churches to be godly so they can raise godly children. Youth ministers are no substitute. We have a long way to go.

I wonder what kind of world my grandchildren will inherit. More importantly, I wonder what kind of church they will inherit. I spend a lot of time wondering. And then I pray.

One thing that struck me as I listened to this Southern Baptist preacher is that his sermon could very well be preached in any of our churches. The very real issues we face, and the biblical answers to those issues, are the same for us as for them. It was impossible to overlook how much they are like us. Yes, we understand the sequence of events at conversion differently. Yes, we have different theories about predestination and free will and a few other topics. But we are more alike than we are different. We tend to focus on the differences, and therefore miss seeing what we have in common. Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees.

There has been some great conversation recently in this corner of the blogsphere about the battle between money and ministry. I first encountered this discussion at salguod.net, where Doug commented on an article at Cerulean Sanctum. This is definitely recommended reading!

This might be one of the most important topics American Christians could examine. From Luke 12:15:

Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

In this morning’s paper there is an article about the debt problems of recent college graduates, due to college loans and credit card debt. Something is just not right about the notion of pushing credit cards to college students who already have more than enough financial challenges paying for their educations. But the underlying problem is that these students are merely following in the footsteps of their parents. “I can’t be out of money! I still have credit cards!”

The bible is full of warnings about materialism. For example:

1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

It is obviously important to know whether our lives are at odds with this teaching. One obvious indicator is whether or not we are living within our means. Many people habitually buy things they cannot pay for today, with the intention of paying for those things in the future. We are consuming faster than we are earning. That is a strong indicator that we are addicted to consuming. Why not, instead, postpone the consuming until we can pay for it? Why not, instead, consume less than we earn, so we will have something left over so we can help others?

Eph 4:28 He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

The decisions we make on this issue expose our hearts. What do I really love? It can be a scary question. Let’s not shrink away from this issue.

I am now officially a CISSP! The certificate came in the mail today. Thanks for the prayers!

This was the first significant exam I’ve taken in 25 years. Maybe it will be my last. Or maybe not…

Now I need to order new business cards!

Just a quick note to let everyone know I’m still here! My life has been insanely busy for the past couple of weeks (CISSP class, studying, and exam, and then catching up with the resulting neglected responsibilities). I intend to be back to my regular posting habits in a few days.

Meanwhile, check out the discussion about baptism at clarkecomments.com and Phil’s comments on the Christian Courier’s article on conversion. These are obviously important topics, with at least a glimmer of hope for progress.

More later!

Recently I posted about where visitors to this blog are coming from. In a similar vein, I thought it would be interesting to investigate how people found this blog. There are three main ways: By a link on another blog, by a search engine, and from a bookmark. Since my counter shows me only the last 100 visits, here is that information broken down into those three ways.

1. Links on other blogs and sites. I think this is a function of where I’ve posted recently, and probably changes from time to time. Today, pinakidion takes home the prize. Anyway, here are the sites, with the number of references in my last 100 visitors in parentheses if more than one:

pinakidion.com,us (10)
nothingimportantto.us
restorationheritage.com
salguod.net (2)
clarkecomments.com (2)
theoccasionalopinion.blogspot.com (3)

2. Search engines (google and msn are the biggest sources). I’ll break these down generally by topic:

Something to do with unity

christian unity (5)
unity christian churches
unity christian church and church of christ
unity of members in church
unity in new testament
hymns about christians unity
what does complete unity look like
god commands unity

Famous restoration movement / church of Christ people

w.carl ketcherside (2)
daniel sommer (3)
daniel sommers declaration at sand creek
“new testament” constitution campbell
impact at lipscomb brooks avenue
andre resner

Hermeneutics

restoration hermeneutics
hermeneutics- examples
necessary inference
ceni necessary inference
making rules where scripture is silent

Miscellaneous church of Christ related topics

bible only
restoration of new testament christianity
a capella hymns church of christ
communion format biblical basis
“church of christ” “no place like home”
“church of christ” sermon “wizard of oz”
scriptures on stumbling block
“north atlanta church of christ”
apostolic review

Other churches or generic Christianity topics

christianity tired of walking alone groups (2)
churches christian sault sainte marie ontario
do aog’s believe once saved always saved
the rules of worship
cs lewis 1 corinthans 7
god will do the right thing

Miscellaneous

unity sand (2)
christian illustration

3. For the remainder, there is no referrer information available. That could be because the visitor’s browser is suppressing the information that the counter uses to track the referrer. Or it could be that they came here directly from a bookmark.

I think some regular visitors originally found this site by accident, and continue to come back here using the same search terms. Often it is obvious a person wasn’t really looking for this site (“unity sand”) but when they saw the site in the search result, they found the topic interesting enough to click, and sometimes spent quite a while reading.

Based on the search terms, quite a few of these folks were actually looking for information related to the ongoing topic of this blog. Even for those who were looking for something completely unrelated, it seems that the abbreviated subject information returned by the search engine was interesting enough to cause them to click. I take that as a positive indicator that people care about Christian unity, even when they have something else on their minds. At least I hope that is the case.

Interesting to ponder anyway.

Thanks to Phil Spadaro for pointing to recent articles from the Christian Chronicle about varying perspectives on the recent unity discussions that have occurred at several lectureships. It is clear that many Christians welcome the renewed dialog between a cappella churches of Christ and the instrumental Christian churches. And it is equally clear that many are not pleased with these developments.

One of the Christian Chronicle articles presents an interview with a minister named Alan Highers articulating the a cappella position. Highers considers it impossible for the two sides to come to unity as long as one side continues to worship with instruments. He points out that the churches of Christ “have been trained to seek book, chapter and verse,” and that they will not accept a practice that is not authorized in scripture. He correctly points out that there are thousands within his family of churches who cannot conscientiously worship with instruments. And he sees the current dialog as neglecting the key issue that prevents unity.

Highers raises the question as to whether instrumental music in worship is sin. Clearly it is sin for those who believe as he does (Rom 14:23) I do not expect, nor even intend, to change the minds of those who believe it to be sin. If there were some of that persuasion in my local congregation, I believe we would be obligated to accomodate their consciences by refraining from using instruments. (Rom 14:15, Rom 14:21)

But I believe their conviction relies upon flawed human reasoning. I believe the requirement for “authorization” (ie, the belief that the silence of the scriptures is prohibitive) is based on faulty exegesis of passages that actually teach against rules such as prohibiting instruments. (I previously blogged on this topic.)

I believe those who hold that silence prohibits are inconsistent in their application of their rule. They permit some practices as expedients, even though they are not authorized in scripture. They sing in harmony, using song books, without any scriptural authorization. They meet in a church building owned by the church, purchased with funds contributed as an act of worship, again without scriptural authorization. Many of them take communion using individual cups, without scriptural authorization. All of these practices are considered expedients and therefore are permitted. But (apparently arbitrarily) they refuse to classify instrumental music as an expedient. I have not yet heard a reasonable (not to mention biblical) explanation showing the difference between instrumental music and the other items mentioned.

The important point here is that, whatever rule is used to distinguish permissible expedients from things prohibited by silence, the application of that rule would require human judgment. Therefore such a rule must not be used to draw lines of fellowship. (See earlier articles here and here for my earlier comments about Thomas Campbell’s propositions on this topic.) Inherently, these issues are disputable matters. And we have a very clear command on how to handle those things. (Rom 14:1, Rom 14:22) Those issues must not be permitted to stand in the way of unity. Why do we fail to obey these clear commands, and instead attempt to bind our own fallible inferences?

In the Christian Chronicle article, Highers asked:

What kind of unity would it be if people who claimed to be united could not even worship together?

The solution to that apparent dilemma is for the instruments to be left out when the two groups are together, and for both groups to embrace one another without passing judgment on disputable matters. Surely that would be a greater degree of unity than we have today.

I have on my desk a disturbing letter from a brother in another city. He describes a congregation torn by disunity. It is a familiar story about Conservatives who hold to the ancient paths, and Liberals who feel they have freedom in Christ. They differ on many familiar topics. The Conservatives question the validity of the conversions of many of the Liberals. And the Liberals refuse to comply with the teachings of the Conservatives.

What is most interesting about this situation is the way the leaders have behaved. One, a well-known Conservative, has shown some openness to accepting the Liberals, though publicly he generally refrained from taking sides. He feared that many were not ready for the issue to be addressed head-on, and that doing so would risk more division. Another preacher, a leading Liberal, has insisted that the matter be settled once and for all, and has shown no interest in compromise. He even stood up publicly and attacked the Conservative leader, and now has distributed an open letter rebuking the Conservative and promoting the Liberal position. Quoting from the open letter:

When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?”

The congregation was in Antioch. The Conservatives (Jews) were holding to the ancient paths of circumcision and the other Jewish customs. The Liberals (Gentiles) were not. The two leaders, Peter and Paul, were taking different approaches to the controversy. One was right and one was wrong.

Why was the Conservative leader (Peter) clearly in the wrong? What was his hypocrisy? It was that he believed that the Gentiles were fully Christian, but he was afraid to stand up for them publicly. His fear kept him from acting on his convictions. That was not “acting in line with the truth of the Gospel.” For that, the Liberal leader (Paul) rebuked him publicly, and wrote an open letter about it, so that we are still discussing the situation nearly 2000 years later.

The same type of conflict occurs in today’s church. The issues have changed. There are walls between Christians due to these issues. Many believe that some of those walls need to come down. But many leaders who believe this are afraid to take a stand. Instead, they try to placate both sides without calling for change. They are walking in Peter’s hypocrisy. The question each of us should ask is, am I acting in line with the truth of the Gospel? Am I more like Peter or Paul in these situations?

It is true that we should just let some issues alone (Rom 14:22). But when it comes to accepting a brother, we must not be silent. Love is the greatest command, and it trumps all other rationales. The issues at hand do not justify failure to accept a brother. We must speak out. If we do not, we are walking in Peter’s hypocrisy, and fall under Paul’s rebuke.

At some point, some people will stand up and rebuke the hypocritical leaders publicly. They might write open letters. They might even name names. Preferably, all that won’t be necessary. Maybe instead, we will all learn to embrace our brothers even when they disagree with us on some things. Let’s pray for that!