Having spent several years being very critical of the Church here in the states, I'm now realizing that much of what's wrong with the Church is exactly what's wrong with the culture. It is perfectly reasonable that Americans do church in an American fashion. It's unfortunate that you get the bad with the good, but it's normal. So I from time to time may write some criticisms of the Church, but it is my intention here to highlight the bad aspects of our culture, illustrate how they manifest themselves in American ecclesiology, and remind myself and my readers to be more aware of how culture has shaped us.
Modernists place a higher priority on information than on people. As the church has good reasons to reject post-modern sensibilities, it is also highly modern. I think the best illustration of this is the advent of denominationalism. New denominations form by a group of people leaving a denomination because that denomination has its facts about God and the Bible wrong. In essence, they forsake all of the relationships they had built in order to maintain their loyalty to the correct information. This point was made clear to me in my Baptist History class. 400 years of petty bickering and parting ways over who was more "right".
We can see this manifest itself in other ways. The central focus of the Church is a weekly religious lecture. And the quality of the information of that lecture is considered the most vital element to the health of the church. Sunday school is another example, stuffing kids away into the corner until they have been sufficiently educated on God to participate with the adults.
The wrong response would be to desire to be in a different church where they did everything correctly. The right response is to not be so worried about how the church does things, and to invest in people's lives.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Information vs People
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4 comments:
Hmm. I see what you're saying, but would the people leaving say that they're being loyal to information or loyal to God's will? Perhaps it breaks down to the same thing, at least that's the way they would likely perceive it. Good food for thought. Thanks!!
I think there are exceptions. The Unitarians are highly non-dogmatic... most congregations don't even require that you believe in the divinity of Christ. Neopagans,
all welcomed into the congregation.
A Unitarian church is generally not a place for worship (as most would perceive it) but rather for fellowship and coordination of 'social justice' activities.
And yet, Unitarians have their schisms, too...
So, was Jesus a "Modernist" then, as He watched crowds of people turn away, because they couldn't accept His teaching? (like in John 6:60-68)
Was He guilty of putting information before people? If we allow ourselves to describe his message of the Gospel as mere "information", then I suppose he was guilty of that...
But if the Truth isn't simply a bunch of innocuous data, but instead the only thing that can set men free, then we shouldn't be surprised when Jesus said He didn't come to bring peace, but a sword (i.e. controversy & division)...
I don't see the drawn out history of denominationalism as a symptom of "modernism" so much as a fall-out from the error of trying to run the Body of Christ as an hiearchical institution (beginning w/ Constantine)...
Mustard: There are some important differences between what I'm talking about and the situation you brought up.
1) Jesus is not the one doing the leaving.
2) The sword of division is supposed to only divide the sheep from the goats. You will find everywhere in the NT condemnation where there is division among the sheep.
3) To be more specific, the "information" I'm addressing fall under the category of secondary doctrines. Primary doctrines are beliefs that separate the faithful from the lost, i.e. the Gospel. Secondary doctrines separate the faithful from each other. Tertiary doctrines are those where differences need not cause division. I'm arguing that modernism in the Church has really placed a heavy emphasis on secondary doctrines when biblically there should only be primary and tertiary.
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