Left of center

While I'd much rather spend my blogging time extolling the riches of our inheritance in Christ and praising Him for who He is and all He has done... I will undoubtedly have times like this where I feel the need to 'vent' a little. If there is any downside to growing deeper in the message of God's grace and the New Covenant, it is that the chinks in the armor of the church at large become more and more obvious to you.

With that said, I now offer an example. The following is from a weekly bulletin published by a large church in my town... in fact, it is the church I grew up in. While their denominational heritage is for the most part Christ-centered and Bible-believing, they have unfortunately drifted away from their moorings. Here goes...

A new professor at ___ awhile back sent me an e-mail asking for information about our church. It occurred to me that you might be interested in seeing what I wrote to him about our church:

Dear Dr. ______, thank you for your e-mail inquiring about ______ Baptist Church. I believe that we have a wonderful warm-spirited church and we would be delighted to have you and your family come and visit us and see first-hand what our church offers.

Our church has a proud heritage of openness, freedom, and flexibility, and we seek to maintain an atmosphere of biblical freedom within which all persons may grow, serve and express themselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We encourage our folks to worship God through faith in Jesus Christ, without having to be measured, tested, or approved in some binding dogma, or by some other persons’ credo.
We have been especially interested in providing women every opportunity to serve God. Women at _________ minister in all capacities, including serving on our Councils of Deacons and Trustees. Also, one of our primary staff members, _________, is an ordained Baptist minister.

Ministries to children and youth are also very important to us, and we maintain a full and active program for all our children and young people.
Our style of worship is blended, with a leaning toward the classical and traditional. My preaching is more topical than expositional, though they are strongly based in the Bible. We do not expect our people to leave their minds at the door when they come to church here.

Another important facet of our ministry here is our mission outreach. We are dedicated to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ locally and throughout the world.

A fellow teacher at ___ is Professor ______, one of our fine church members. Please feel free to ask him about our church. We warmly invite you to come and be a part of God’s work here----the fellowship, the joy, the ministry that is ______ Baptist Church.

I find this rather disturbing for several reasons. While I am certainly an advocate of freedom within Biblical bounds, I question whether or not the 'freedom' being advocated here is a healthy one. In fact, it seems as if theological 'freedom' and the types of programs offered are more important than what the true mission of the church should be. Case in point: one of the first things mentioned here is the ordination of women. No mention of the Gospel of Christ until nearly the end of the letter... it's almost as if Jesus just makes a cameo. "We believe in openness, freedom, the ordination of women, this type of worship style... oh and by the way, we minister Jesus!" Tell me... if the church is not about Jesus first and foremost, than what is it about?

We as a church (speaking of the church at large) have been given SO much in Christ. Our sin debt has been paid in full. We no longer have to work to earn God's favor... instead we place our faith in the work of Christ. We have been given the Spirit who lives inside us. We have been freed from the Law and placed into the economy of grace... the glorious New Covenant that the Law and the Prophets spoke of! We have been made holy and righteous in our spirits. We are able not to just go to heaven someday, but to experience the life of Christ NOW, flowing in and through us as we trust Him by faith! I could go on and on, but my point here for all of us to consider is this: why is it that the church so often emphasizes peripheral issues, preferences, issues, programs, strategies, etc. over Christ? When we consider everything that He has done for us and that we truly have such a minute grasp of it all... why waste time doing anything else? We could spend many lifetimes mining the deep riches of these truths and NEVER come to grips with it all. My prayer is that God will awaken the church from its slumber and take its focus off of all these other issues and put it back where it belongs... on Jesus Christ as Lord, Savior... and LIFE!!

OK, that's enough venting for now. I promise that I won't turn into one of those bloggers that only rants and raves about everything they see wrong with the church. My intent with this blog is simply to discuss the amazing grace of God and the riches of the New Covenant that Jesus has ushered us into. Lord willing, next week's post will be more along those lines. Thanks for indulging me!