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From: gregngrace@earthlink.net
Date: 6/19/01
Time: 10:08:27 PM
Remote Name: 38.37.140.98
There is much in this article that struck a chord with me. But it also left me with many questions.
If I leave the church to find it, how does this work itself out in day-to-day life? Do I still attend IC worship services? Do I still participate in an IC? Or do I totally abandon it to search for Christian community elsewhere?
It seems like it would be very easy to leave the church and then not have fellowship at all. For me, it would certainly be tempting to sit in my armchair on Sunday and mutter about all those hypocrites in the IC.
But that is clearly not the way of Christ. Even though we all have the Spirit within us, I think the Spirit is more powerfully present and active in a community of Christians (even just two or three) than in each of us as individuals. So it seems to me that you must be part of a community of believers. But this article really didn't get into specifics about how that works itself out once you leave the IC behind.
The article seemed to take issue with authority within the church. I agree that Christ should be THE authority within the church. But isn't there also a place for spiritual leaders to have authority within a congregation? Not in the sense of "ruling over us" but in the sense of leading by example (1 Peter 5:2-3)? Otherwise, what in the heck is Hebrews 13:17 talking about? (Or any of Paul's letters to troubled churches, for that matter.) Or perhaps I misunderstood what the article was getting at.
In one of his books, Thomas Merton described the IC (which for him is the Catholic Church) as scaffolding for the real Building, i.e. the real community of Christians. Sometimes people get lost in the scaffolding and miss out on the real building. Sometimes the scaffolding is mis-directed or poorly designed (because we're sinners with motivations that are often all messed up).
But can't the scaffolding serve its purpose as a framework within which Christians can meet and worship with other Christians and have an opportunity to develop real community? Is there no hope for the IC to be a starting place (as opposed to an end in itself)?
Or am I missing the point? (Wouldn't be the first time :-)