A Mere Servant Rambling

Some Observational Ramblings...

Sometimes I sit and wonder about the things we do in churches today. Are they truly Biblical? Is this really what is pleasing to God? And I see thing sometimes that I know aren't. But what are we to do?

It brings this observation to me. As we have gotten further removed from the days of Jesus' ministry on Earth, we have gotten further away from the practices of the early church. We've redefined things to appease our beliefs and desires. We've added things that were never there. We've gotten rid of things we didn't like. And that's where our denominational differences arise.

I've always had membership in Southern Baptist churches. But I wonder how much of what we do is right. There is an abundance of Churches of Christ in this area. But I wonder the same. We have instructions in Scripture on orderly worship. We have instructions on requirements for Pastors, Elders, Bishops, Deacons, etc., but how correctly are we following them? Our tendency is to say "This is what the Bible says, and here is what it means." Call me crazy, but isn't the better idea following what it says? I can tell you what I think it means, but if we believe that all Scripture is God-breathed (theopneustos)then wouldn't God say what he meant? If His Word is infallible, then who am I to say that it says one thing but truly means something else?

And I sometimes think these types of things hurt the cause of Christ. Thousands of blogs flood the web with nothing more than posts of how this group, church, pastor, is wrong and I'm right. And for each of these is a post in response to it, which leads to another response, and so on. To what end? Has anyone come to Christ because somebody blogged in response to a blog about how this guy said something we just didn't agree with? I doubt it.

Now don't get me wrong. Doctrine is important. But spending every waking hour reading and responding to blogs about someone else's doctrine doesn't save people. Us getting off our butts and building relationships and sharing the Word of God will lead people to the God of the Word. Then, and only then, should we begin teaching doctrine. That's part of discipleship. And that's the main thing missing in churches today. We want to have as few services as possible, show up as little as possible and feel good about ourselves. Can you imagine the change in our churches if we begin true discipleship? People actually learning how to be a Christian? What living for God truly entails?

It would be truly amazing.

Labels: church, discipleship, Scripture

posted by Tim @ 9:33 PM