The Church

I am still only in chapter one--I don't have a lot of time to read, and honestly, it's a very long, detailed chapter and there is a lot for me to process. There are two different authors who write the chapters separately, and they write very differently--one who writes--um, how do I say--sometimes above my head! I mean--I can get it--if I pause after every sentence.....but I really have to stop and think about what I just read. I'm reading most of this book out loud to Karry, and I stop and we have in-depth conversations about what we just read....So it might take me a while to get through this book....

The book is downstairs, so I can't quote anything (I'm upstairs and too tired to go down there and climb back up again!), I was just processing some things I'd read with real life today...

One of the issues these authors mention about the emergent church (and one that I have witnessed myself) is that they (in general) will say that the only truths we know for sure are:

Jesus died on the cross for our sins

God loves us

We're supposed to love others

And the emergent leaders say (and this is a generalization) that everything else is pretty much up for debate--that maybe it applied to the culture "then" and not now. That we don't have to focus on those things. Thus--I believe--many emergent church attenders could go to church for years and never once hear the book of James, or the book of Titus, or any book where believers or the church are told specifically how to live. (On the other side of things, there are some ultra-legalistic churches--like one we attended when I was a freshman in high school--that only preach on such books....So there is a balance that needs to be found here...).  I believe that the entire Bible is important for believers to hear. Even if it's not popular. Even if it doesn't make us "feel good."

When I saw Brian McLaren in Portland, somebody asked him about how we should handle homosexuality in the church. He never answered the question. He beats around the bush about this question in his books, too--though sort of hints to the fact that he's really ok with homosexuality and that the Bible isn't clear on it. (The Bible isn't clear on it??? Really???).  The authors of this book say that when a church refuses to take a stand on particular sin issues, really, their silence is condoning the sin.  

Because how does a pastor handle it when there is a person choosing a homosexual lifestyle in his congregation? I know this is a touchy subject. And another one where one could argue "well, times have changed...." But the truth hasn't.  I believe the pastor ought to love on that person. I believe that he ought to welcome that person into church. But--a couple of weeks ago at church, one of our pastors said this, and I really like it----loving somebody doesn't always mean being "nice." Sometimes being "nice" isn't very nice at all.....Because honestly, if we love somebody, we will tell them (in love) when they're messing up their life. Friends don't let friends keep on sinning, and sinning, and sinning and sinning....right?  So how should a pastor handle the homosexual person in church? Let's say they keep going to that church for years, and they really seem to be growing in all areas of Scripture--but will not drop the lifestyle.....How should the pastor handle it??  Pretend the sin issue doesn't exist?  Be nice to the person and hope they get it, eventually?  Think, "well, we're all sinners...."?  Think "well, I'm not really sure if it's wrong, in this day & age"??  

I think, like our pastor, Hans, said, loving someone, sometimes, means pointing out those tough things....And I think a responsible, God-fearing pastor would indeed approach that topic with that person, eventually.  The thing is---I don't think the pastor of an emergent church would ever get to that point. Which really isn't "loving" on that person anymore, it's just being "nice," and like Hans said...It really isn't very nice.....  

Again, these are huge generalizations, I know there are pastors out there who consider themselves "emergent" who would handle this situation differently....But how do we talk about a movement without generalizations? :)

Now---on the other side of this coin---I see a need for the church (all churches) to be more loving, accepting, and welcoming of people who do not look like everyone else in the church...There are too many stories I've been hearing recently from people from all different kinds of churches who have felt completely left out at their church--or that they did not "fit in."  The emergent church, I will say--welcomes the typical church outcasts.....However--I argue--the emergent church creates new outcasts.  Rick McKinley wrote about the people in the margins being welcomed into church, and that's good, and great. But how would a white republican homeschooling-soccer-suburban mom who stays at home and bakes cookies do in his church??? Honestly??  His church provides a great place for people with tainted pasts, and who have lived on the streets, etc.--but what about the people who grew up in the church and who have never had a beer in their life? What about them? Would they make friends there or be shunned?

Every church--even the ones who are trying to reach the "outcasts"--is exclusionary in some way. I hate that--I think it's wrong. I think we need to change it, all of us.  What is the person to do who feels left out by the church? Keep trying? Leave? Stop going to church?

We're in a place right now where we really, really fit well. We've only been going to this church since June? May? Something like that. We've been invited to people's homes--we've had some over to ours. We have people sending us messages (who we just had over 1 or 2 weeks ago) saying "we should get together again soon!"--more than one family!  We FIT!  FINALLY!  I can't tell you how that boosts my confidence level and makes me want to go proclaim Jesus to the masses. Because when I didn't feel like we fit--and I felt like people inside the church didn't like us--my confidence was down....Why would any unbeliever want to come join in with this church that doesn't love us? Why would any unbeliever want to believe what I believe--why would they even like me for that matter--if the people in my own church family like me??  And I'm sharing this to say, there are other people feeling this...There may be people feeling this in the very church we are at, where WE fit......So how do we fix this???

Do we just keep it the way it is and let every believer go searching to find the church that "fits them."....and let some fall through the cracks---and become 80 year old stubborn men who say "I tried the church thing before, and it didn't work for me..."???  How do we do it?  

I love the natural connections--the people who we're like & who we want to hang out with--who we could honestly have over every Sunday after church (after shared meal) and would always enjoy their company..........But are we (all of us) getting lazy in our approach to relationships?  Do we only seek people "like us" and not seek out the people who need to be loved??  Or--in the emergent church--do we only seek the people who need to be loved---and leave out those "normal" looking people???  Who is in the margins in our church? I think we all have to be thinking of that....