I've been reading a great book.
It's a Christian book. It's by a pastor named Philip Gulley. It's called
If the Church Were Christian. It's really good.
And I totally disagree with everything the book says.
I mean I can still read the book. It's probably a good thing to read books that you disagree with. It's given me lots of time to evaluate what I
do believe.
But I wouldn't go to the guy's church or anything and listen to his sermons.
That got me thinking. I disagree with tons of people. I disagree with the thoughts, religions, politics, and personal decisions of most Hollywood actors. But I still enjoy their movies. I disagree with a lot of blogs I read. But I still respect them and read them regularly. But my church? I generally want it to be a safe haven of my own brand of hive-minded Christianity. I want people to agree with what I say. I want my opinions to be validated and my ego stroked by not having any nay-sayers. I like a church full of the "same kind" of Christians as me. We believe the same things. We worship the same way. And all the things we believe are the "best" form of Christianity, obviously.
I know that's dangerous. I couldn't stand it at my Baptist college. Some people there were
obsessed with agreeing on
everything. There were even students who wanted to "cleanse" the library of books that were contrary to Christianity. Believe me, I wasn't the only one who vocally disagreed. I thought I went to college to
learn, and not just the Bible. I made it my mission to remind everyone we were at an academic institution, not church camp.
In fact, just about every place in life, we expect to disagree with people. It's even
good to disagree with people. Take these five examples:
Where It's Better to DisagreeGovernment Seriously, when everyone in Congress agrees, it always gets us into trouble. It doesn't matter which party is in control. They always screw it up. Government works best when the people we elect can't get along.
Science If there's one group of people we want to disagree, it's scientists! If a doctor tells us something we don't like, we go for a second opinion, which we hope will prove the first guy to be a quack. When scientists start saying things like "the debate on global warming is over," there's something fishy, as we've found out. Plus, it's always fun to see a bunch of nerds duke it out.
When your girlfriend is being ridiculous Guys, there's no reason you
always have to agree with your lady. Some guys try to just give in and let the girl win the argument, in order to "make up," but this is not a good strategy, as women do not respect guys who do not think for themselves. In fact, if your woman is being ridiculous, it's because you aren't doing
your job of telling her what to think.
When your boyfriend is being an airhead Ladies, you and I both know that the world needs a good dose of estrogen to counteract all the testosterone being flung all over the place. Don't go along with some idiot idea your man has just because you want to be a good wife and support him. I can't tell you how many times my wife has saved me from walking into a bad idea.
When your friends are about to pour several dozen glow sticks all over themselves If only our one smart friend had disagreed with us about how "awesome" it would be to smear glowing diphenyl oxalate all over our bodies...if only. He just sat there absentmindedly until it was too late, and
then told us the stuff causes cancer. At least we
looked awesome, until we were yelling in pain and hosing each other down in the middle of the night.
Obviously, there are many times when it's better to disagree than to go with the flow. But when it comes to church, why are we so uncomfortable with people who disagree?
Think about this: say I was your pastor. What would be your threshold for disagreeing with me before you left my church? What would I have to say to get you to leave?
Would I have to tell you I believe Mary wasn't a virgin? What if I said I believe in infant baptism? Or that I don't believe in infant baptism? What if I favored ordaining practicing homosexuals as ministers? What if I vocally opposed homosexuals in the ministry? Would you leave if you found out I was pro-choice, or believed Jesus was not sinless, or that the Bible is more "metaphorical" than literal? What if I was a Mormon or a Unitarian or a Republican or a Democrat or Glenn Beck?
Chances are, just about all of you would leave my church over one of those things. Fortunately, I just pulled random thoughts out of the air, so you don't know what I believe about any of those things. I'm not Glenn Beck.
But Christianity is full of people who believe all those opposing viewpoints. So what's really important? Where is your threshold for disagreement in your church? Where would you have to draw the line on what your church friends believe about Jesus or the Bible or church or anything else about life? Is it important that you agree with your pastor, or is he cool with you as long as he loves Jesus, whatever Jesus looks like to him?
By Matt at The Church of No People
Comments (6)
I attend a church which is decidedly Reformed in it's theology. While I'm certainly no Open theist I'm also most assuredly no Calvinist. Though my Church holds to the Reformed tradition they do not push it. They major on majors and minor on minors.
It's a good church. They reach out to the poor in our community, and reach out to work with other churches in our area, no matter the theological differences. As long as we share the core values listed in the Apostle's Creed, we're family. Also keep to the clear teachings of Scripture. One of those clear teachings would include homosexuality among other sexually immoral practice, being help us as sin. But we should also remember homosexuality isn't the only or even the worst sin in the world.
All I gotta say is that your friend probably didn't say anything about the glow sticks because he knew he was in for a very comedic episode; hey, what are friends for? haha
As for the topic; agree or disagree.
As imperfectly as I practice it, the goal is to figure out what the necessity is and stand firm on those. For the rest, voice your opinion and do your best to lead people as you feel led by God, but don't take it further than that.
However, complacency IS killing the Church. At some point we are all going to have to quit arguing and do something or we're all in trouble.
I would probably question if a person were a 'viable' follower of Jesus if he or she maintained that Jesus was a sinner! And by the way, I AM Glenn Beck and not ashamed of it!!! lol LAW--
You bring up some good points...I think there could be many more thoughts to add to when it is better to disagree. I think that until we start searching things out for ourselves and not just buying into the things we have been told all our lives, that is when we truly begin to mold our values and beliefs. I know there are certain things that are definitely wrong in life but others the church makes too much of a deal about and hurts many people but setting up standards that even the leaders themselves can't hold. It's a slippery road approaching these concepts but one that makes us wiser in the end if we educate ourselves about them.
For me the line gets drawn over what is done with good intentions and what is done with self-gain in mind. If I disagree with someone over abortion I'm fine with disagreeing because their intentions are only good so it doesn't matter if we don't agree. Over something like whether a gay should come to church I would disagree/not attend the church or whatever because I wouldn't view it as something someone is doing out of a desire to be a good person towards others. although this is kind of theoretical since I don't have a church I regularly go to... I'm iffy on the whole religion thing, and definitely iffy on all the "rules."
I looked up that book and was kind of shocked. I don't understand the author's basis for his reasoning as he sure isn't believing in the Bible. I have no doubt that it may sound "well-written," but I will not give it the mark of scholary because what reasoning or basis does he have to back up his argument if he competely discards the Word of God? I don't understand, but I pray for this man that he will finally be enlightened to the truth. Bless his soul as he has had a long and confusing journey of moving from religion to religion. May the Gospel of Jesus Christ be unveiled to him.