For a long time I’ve heard many stories about how the Church has been too strict on rules and doctrines. My own research revealed that people generally leave the Church because of two reasons: lack of acceptance and lack or relevance. It’s been tempting therefore to think that we just need to be more loving and inclusive in order to fix the imbalance and stop people leaving. However from time to time I’ve been thinking that perhaps what we expect of people – according to Jesus as opposed to our own culturalisms – is too watered down. I read a chapter in Shane Claiborne’s The Irresistible Revolution last week which talks about Jesus’ reaction to the rich young ruler when he tells him to sell everything and give it to the poor. The young guy walks away sadly – and Jesus lets him. He doesn’t run after him and tell him just to sell half of it, or just his surfboard or his laptop; he lets him live with his decision.
Have we compromised the cost of discipleship (i.e. kept the bar too low) these days in order to maintain a crowd or be seen to be doing the right thing? Has our rejection of our parents’ black n white thinking left us swimming in a pool of grey? Has our culture pressured us into being so inclusive and accepting of anyone that our standards have been diluted and thus our picture of Jesus (and his teachings) majorly scewed? Claiborne puts it this way:
We would like to include people….yet over and over in the Scriptures, Jesus warns people of the cost of discipleship, that it will cost them everything they have ever hoped for and believed in – their biological families, their possessions, even their very lives. He warns them to count the cost before putting their hand to the plow. And Jesus allows people to walk away. Shane Claiborne, p.106
If the bar is too low, anyone is included but we run the risk of people leaving (church/Jesus) because life doesn’t look that different to anyone elses (apart from a few sprinkles of Jesus here and there). If the bar is where Jesus sets it – high – we run the risk of loosing people who won’t surrender all they have. We also run the risk of people surrendering, risking, and boldly loving all and thus living the very life Jesus wanted us to live.
Awesome post Bainsey.
This is a dilemma for certain.
I am in a much better spiritual position to make the hard choices for a life of salvation in Christ now than I was four years ago.
i needed to grow into it and understand it ….to know in my heart what I was letting myself in for.
Sadly there are too many churches who have greeters who are more like bouncers at a night club than church greeters.
If I had been hit too hard I would have turned away and a vital ministry may have been lost.
We must strike a balance in all this.
If we don’t we run a certain risk.
A rugby player doesn’t wake up one day, decide he wants to play rugby for the wallabies and then play in a test match the following weekend.
He trains and comes up through the junior leagues.
Watering down the message is one thing that must be carefully avoided, I agree.
There is a hefty price to pay for salvation that can only be paid when people develop a loving relationship with the Saviour.
This takes a little time and patience.
I am at odds with a couple of things here.
Jesus condoned the baptism of people who wanted a relationship with him on the spot.
The disciples baptised thousands at a time.
The only pre requisit was a need to have a relationship with Jesus.
But we have some pastors who will not baptise anyone who smokes until they give up smoking.
A pole vaulter starts jumping a low bar and progressively as he trains harder and achieves more the bar gets raised higher and higher.
My gut tells me that church should be accepting and encouraging in the first instance and teach in stages to a point where the bar is at record heights.
I guess I am a little cynical because of the ministry that Michelle and I are working in.
There are some in the church who have been very black and white and maintained a high and righteous view point in the public gaze while molesting children in the shadows and all this while other people with high standards swept it under the carpet.
I love Christ and will serve Him to my very end…..but I still struggle with religion that often does little to serve the God we love.
Jesus was crucified by black and white thinkers who couldn’t see past their own man made laws.
I love these debates and learn every time I read into them.
God bless mate and hope to catch up one day soon.
Graham Hood.
Mission Serenity.
I resonate with both well-written pieces above. The main piece is about “standards” but the reference is to being willing to give up absolutely everything–surrender of self, wealth, playthings, etc. That is absolutely essential and too little seen within the church, unfortunately.
The second piece reminds us that “reaching the bar” is something one trains for, doesn’t just try for over and over. And the example given is smoking.
It looks to me as if the first is about surrender and change from the inside out. One is willing to have anything and everything displaced for the indwelling Savior. And then to follow where the Master leads (as the rich young ruler wouldn’t). The second is about change observable from the outside that humans can assess and judge.
I’m thinking that many of us need to surrender our opinions about and ownership of what others appear to be on the outside, and focus on our own internal and absolute surrender of everything of ours–our right to be hurt or offended, our right to be right, our right to be keepers of the aquarium instead of fishers of men, and mostly our right to dictate to God what “perfect” looks like.
Is the “bar” too low? I am assuming the “bar” is church membership. What it takes to be a member or stay a member. Perhaps as a church we need to rethink this issue and come up with some guidelines…because I find quite of few things about our current ways disturbing.
We currently have two men interested in becoming members of our congregation, But they both smoke. Many believe they should be allowed to be members anyhow…after all God accepts us how we are, ugly and messed up, doesn’t he?
But I have serious reservations about that. We already have a number of smoking members now who go to a lot of trouble to hide their addiction. Why put that misery on more? We have elders divorcing, plenty of members with their foot not turned away from trampling on the Sabbath, or from doing their own pleasure on God’s Holy day. Lying is not unexpected, language should only be guarded around the preacher, and plenty more,. Is this really OK? to be accepted along with accepting people?
I don’t even like to think in terms of a bar. I know that God’s dreams for us are higher that the highest human thought can reach…and as a people we certainly need The Spirit, and conversion, and surrender and death to self and sin.
We need to look up. We need to grasp the hand God is reaching to us, and climb. And fly. And die. And pour out our lives for God and humanity and right and love. How can you measure that with a bar?
Sorry for the incredibly belated reply: the bar I referred to isn’t church membership or attendance – it’s the cost of following Jesus. I wonder why (Frances) those who smoke at your church feel the need to hide their addictions? I thought Jesus accepts us as we are – but refuses to leave us that way. So whilst we all have sinful flaws (some public, some private) God urges us to grow and serve together in love whilst He makes the changes in us. If we need to have all sin cleared before we can join a church then none of us can join – apart from the merits of Jesus – which covers us all (including the smokers)!