In John Alexander's book (Stop Going to Church and Become the Church), he addressed the need for churches to be accountable to one another. He made a statement that I found curious (not because the statement itself is curious so much as I suspect it could be read a few different ways). He said, "Perhaps we need to find other local churches, learn to love each other, and then mutually hold each other accountable to the Gospel."
I suspect I know what John meant by holding each other "accountable to the Gospel" but I'd be interested in hearing what you think when you hear that phrase.
I'm also intrigued by the fact that he prefaced the "hold each other accountable" part with "learn to love each other." How often do we presume that we have no obligation to love another congregation solely because they're different than we are?
Rob ran into an example of that last Sunday after the worship service. He spoke with a man who looks down on an entire denomination of churches simply because they don't agree with him theologically. But he's never even taken the time to attend an event in one of these churches (which, I would think, is one of the first steps to learning to love another congregation). Even within the denomination that our congregation is affiliated with, I see very little love between the varying churches in our presbytery. If anything there's antipathy and sometimes even acrimony. Shame on us! When we can't even love one another within our own denomination, what hope do we have of showing God's love to the rest of the world?!!!
There is a whole block of teaching right there. I've been dealing with this on a certain level in a group I lead. I've been trying to deal with it gently but I'm wondering if I will need to get a bit more direct. A few just don't seem to be getting it.
ReplyDeleteYou could always hit them over the head with your Bible. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI could use the one big enough to prop open the door but considering the size of their minds the pocket sized one might do.
ReplyDeleteoh yes, the learning to love each other bit is hugely challenging, but absolutely essential if we are going to be able to hold each other accountable. before we can be open to someone else's constructive criticism, we have to know they love us as we are.
ReplyDeleteas for what that phrase might mean - holding each other accountable to the Gospel - off the top of my head I'd say it means we call each other to account whenever we see the other slipping away from what the Gospel is about. Which of course requires that we agree on what the Gospel is about, otherwise we can't have mutual accountability. If I believe the Gospel is about having the right kind of biscuits at coffee time after the service, I'm not likely to pay much attention to your suggestion that I should be in some way conveying to non-believers that God loves them.