Dead Man Blogging is writing on the Church structure and mode. I’ve been reading him quite a bit due to the Calvinist doctrine thing.
And having nothing better to do, I thought I would comment on the Church. That sounds awful, but I am not driven, just interested this time. Still recovering from weeding out in the garden…
Basically I have had the same issue with the structure as it is modeled as Dead Man, Robert. One of the great injuries done to the Church is to use the corporation business model. Shoot, that doesn’t even work well for corporations.
But I would use different terminology than he does. I would say it is a Worldly Model. And it is not evangelism versus pietism, as it seems portrayed.
Church as it is now practiced is breaking up the families and wearing down the saints. Period. I, for one, have pulled back; and I don’t like that I had to pull back.
….but I was breaking… and my family was weakening because I could not hold it together against the force of worldliness in the Church. As much as I loved some of the very people that were engine-ing that impetus… I had to face that it was destroying and neutralizing my spirit.
If I had not had all the weakness in many areas I might have had the stubborness and grit to go on. I am a very tenacious person, but too much was against me, only God held me together from the core, and I am rebuilding now.
I am not entirely sure we are so functional that we can say “Make the church like a family”. How many times have we so “honored” the elder that we entirely shut out God? It’s happened.
The Spirit led Church of the New Testment had two main identifying characteristics that are exemplified by two brothers in Christ: Paul and Barnabas. They worked together, but their emphasis could not have been more different. It caused a time of division, but came together in fellowship and the confirmation that both had followed God’s call for them. Paul went to the world in outreach, and when individuals failed, he could not sustain carrying them for the possibility that the work would be hindered. Barnabas had care for the individual, and pulled back to minister to the fallen and weakened. He was successful in restoring the brother in question, Mark, and all went forward to the fulfilling of the outreach to the world.
It is a case in point for the Church. There is the greater than ourselves, but there is the importance of nourishing each member to reach the full stature of maturity.
We have our parts, our particular calling. It isn’t worldly or a business, and it is not quantifiable. Not really. I think that is why census taking is useless.
Now a good conscience… that might be a better quantification, but I digress…..