Here are some of the best blog posts and blog comments I read this week:
Great Blog Posts
- Have you been hurt by the church? Kathy Escobar is starting an online class called “Hope for the Wounded: Helping Those Hurt by the Church.” I encourage you to participate, if you can.
- Valdez from a new blog called “Faith in the Postmodern World” wrote a great article summarize the Emergent/ Emerging/ Missional/ Organic church that has been developing over the past twenty years or so. If you are wondering about these movements, or need a refresher, go check out his post.
- Brad Brisco from the Missional Church Network wrote a great post called “Meeting the Neighbahs.” If you need ideas for loving and serving your community, reading that post is a great place to start, and then head over to Sam’s series on Loving Your Neighbors for a more in-Depth look.
- Eric Carpenter from A Pilgrim’s Progress asked some great questions about how big of a church is too big? What do you think? Go on over and read his post, and weigh in on the conversation.
- I was interested to read what Alan Knox wrote this week about speaking in tongues, since I knew that I would be posting on it earlier today. Alan has some great input on the subject, pointing out that when we are “gathered with the church (i.e., other Christians) [we should] always and only do and say things that will benefit the group.” Right on, Alan! (As always)
Great Blog Comments
Dan B from Living a Sent Life in Real Life wrote this great point about pastoral preaching and the origins of “heresy:”
Sermons also seem to me to be a form of control. The pastor and others who feel sermons are important don’t trust the Holy Spirit to work or speak through the “common” people so they don’t want to give them the opportunity to speak or share. They want to decide what’s most important for people to hear and think. This attitude is reflected in the common objection to home/simple churches when they say these groups lead to heresy, when in fact heresy is more likely when there’s one dominant leader who thinks he knows best. A small group of sincere believers studying and discussing scripture together does not lead to heresy.
Sam from Grace Ground clarified the difference between disagreeing with someone and being divisive when he wrote this on the Heresy of Heretics post:
I’ve been thinking about the people I know who understand many theological/Biblical issues very differently and yet get along very well as loving brothers who level no accusations against each other. Then I think of those who for primarily personal reasons (that would be a very long list to enumerate) seem to look for almost anything whereby they can accuse their brothers and create division.
Does someone simply understand differently, or are they trying to use their idea to create division? Sometimes it takes awhile to figure this out, but almost always the one trying to cause division is the one who first levels the charge of “heresy” against the other, often accompanied by anger and name calling.
In The Charge of Heresy, Clive encouraged us to show the rest of the world a better way to live. This is partly what Jesus did for us 2000 years ago, and is also what we today as followers of Jesus are to do for the rest of the world.
We as christians need to show a better way, but how can we when the Church is divided (heretics) no wonder other beliefs laugh and scorn us. The Roman Catholics believe they are the only ones going to heaven, while the rest of us think we have got it right and there will only be Baptists or Methodists there. We are a rubbish witness. We argue about doctrine which Jesus did not give us, we use it to control and be powerful, that is why people argue and bully.
Katherine Gunn from Truth Makes Freedom did some detective work and discovered an area of my theology that has changed. On the I am Divisive post, she wrote this comment:
“I am sorry to women for our treatment of you as inferior partners in the Gospel.”
I was grateful to see this one on the list (I’m a woman, after all!). A couple of days ago, I read your post “Emergent Immersion” from July 17, 2007. In that post, you said:
“Let me say for the record that I do not believe that there are any biblical grounds for women being elders or teaching pastors of a church. This doesn’t mean women don’t know how to teach the Bible or don’t have teaching gifts. This woman clearly had a gift of teaching and knew her Bible well. I was impressed. But that doesn’t make it right.”
My question… I am genuinely interested to know where your thoughts are on this now and why.
Tommy from Search to Find asked the following insightful questions about my take on “heretics”
… can we conclude that the reformers were heretics?
… and every denomination founders who came after?
Jeffrey Roop from Church Blogmatics summarized all these posts on Doctrinal Statements quite succinctly:
When someone claims to have a corner on the truth, God or the Bible they have relinquished any authority that would have come from the truth, God or the Bible. These must be held with an open hand and not a clenched fist.
Great comments, everybody! Thank you for participating in this form of online community. I appreciate you!
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