June 29, 2006
No Laughing Matter...
I got a chuckle out of the reports that a shopping area of Sydney, Australia is trying to rid itself of undesirable hooligans. Apparently these youth have a low tolerance for the music of singer Barry Manilow, so the plan is to play his music continually over the public address system. The hope is that the young people, unable to stand the music, will just vacate the area. Stopping in mid-chuckle, I’m taken back for a moment. I’ve seen this before…in the church…and it works! Today’s church is using the same tactic to attract and repel specific audiences. Sadly, it’s really only about marketing. Offer a steady diet of loud worship music and repetitious praise choruses long enough and the ‘untargeted traditional group’ will vacate the premises. Some people stop coming all together, while others church-hop looking for a place of worship that is inclusive. And then there are those creative folks who time their arrival to avoid the music and catch the sermon. You’ve just got to love their stick-to-itiveness. I can’t champion the hooligans, but I do identify with their situation.
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4 comments:
Gail;
----I got derailed from your line of thought on that last sentence, until I realized the hooligans you were referring to were those in Sydney, not those in the leadership of our contemporary churches. So I looked up the definition of "hooligan" to see why my mind so easily slipped tracks. The American Heritage Dictionary says that a hooligan is a young ruffian, or hoodlum. It identifies both "ruffian" and "hoodlum" with gangsters and thugs. Though these men (and I suppose women in some churches) would never raise their hand to physically harm another, the spiritual harm they have done in beating up their traditional brethren and leaving them to lay in their own pool of spiritual blood exactly befits the character and actions of these spiritual thugs. After I sat in meeting with the elders of our church and fended off all of the spiritual blows they were able to throw, when the dust cleared, I pondered momentarily on one idea they used regularly in that meeting, and regularly everywhere else. "We are in total agreement amongst ourselves about everything we do. We will not do anything until we have total agreement. By this we know that we are led by the Spirit!" They call that being led by the Spirit, but to me it just has that strong, strong flavor of conspiracy, like what you would expect from gangsters. They reach to the same level of unity amongst themselves, yet we do not consider them to be led by the Spirit.
dearlylovedchildofGod,
It’s nice to meet you and thanks for commenting. I’ll let Steve comment for himself, as you can see he is never at a loss for words! Briefly, I’ll tell you that Steve has been our church Treasurer (yearly elected position) for almost 20 years, he’s a CPA and has a Bible College education. Just yesterday our current group of elders removed Steve from his position as Treasurer, and he and his wife from church membership. Speaking for myself on our particular church issues, rather than gangsters and conspirators, I’m thinking ‘agenda’. When implementation of man’s agenda does not line up with Scripture it is appropriate to address those issues. However in our present church environment, it appears that to address those issues can result in excommunication…and we’re not even Catholic! Peter went to Antioch where Paul confronted him about his favoritism and then later had the chutzpah to write about it (Gal 2:11-21). I have visions of Peter’s wife saying, “Oh great Peter, you’re front page news and believers will be reading about this from now until the day the Lord returns!” Again, thanks for your comments. I find it fascinating that we all share the same Spirit, yet He gives each of us a different perspective and we can both be right.
DearlylovedchildofGod;
----Love is a strange thing. In fact, it is so strange to us humans that we hardly know what it is. Worse than that, we don't do well in practising what little we do know about it. But one of the basics of love that is simple to understand is that it must fall into the parameters of truth. That is where it gets difficult for us humans to understand it.
----We make the mistake of thinking that love is about all things affectionate. We mistake it to be always sugary, always pleasant, and continuous in nicities. But in a world of fraud, deceit, and disaster, the truth finds a lot of difficult paths to follow, and love finds a lot of sad observations to make and respond to. But it still must be done.
----Do I really think the elders at that church are gangsters? I am not sure that I as outrightly called them gangsters as you have implied. But I do know that their spiritual actions in that church have been very akin to the actions of gangsters. I don't have the advantage of knowing who you are, like I've given you to know who I am, so I don't know if you have even witnessed some of their activities at that church.
----They did not build a church and assemble a congregation of like minded brethren to serve there. A few men at a church that had existed for 90 years decided the new "mindedness" that they thought was proper before God. They developed a core group of like thinking, gained place in the eldership, used that position to change the church into their desired aspect, and either ran off anyone who disapproved or intimidated them into silence. From a heart that admires truth, I have to admit that is very much the tactics of gangsters.
----Now, having love for my brethren, I will speak that truth as it is observable. I acknowledge that these men who have reshaped the church have a different way of looking at what they have done. I know that they have called it "serving God" and "obeying God not men." I know that their zeal for God is strong. And I know that they are my brethren in the Lord.
----But none of that reduces the facts about their tactics into non-existance. They ignored the pleas for mercy coming from the brethren they injured. They ignored the calls to repentance coming from the brethren who were obserevant and studied in the Word. Finally when one couple could not abide the unscriptural practices anymore and presented to the church an accounting of the leaders' actions juxtaposed over the scriptures that rebuke those actions, these leaders spiritually machine-gunned them with libel, inuendo, and disfellowship.
----Now, let's be like Jesus who had the courage to stand up to the money-changers in His Father's Temple and drove them out. Let's be like Jesus who had the courage to look the Pharasees and scribes straight in the face and tell them what they were, often with properly harsh figures of speech. Let's be like Jesus who was desirous enough of obedience that He gained enough understanding of the Word to discern the division of right and wrong, and who called His disciples to stand for right. Paul was enough like Jesus to call those who twisted and distorted the meanings of the Word "dogs" (Philippians). He was even enough like Jesus to rebuke Peter in strong terms (Galations). Although we must show respect for those in positions of authority, as well as all men, and not pronounce reviling judgments upon them like Jude says, we must contend for the faith, or it will fade away with the passing of generations.
----It is love for one another that would have us to stand and preserve what God gave to us all.
DearlylovedchildofGod;
----Have a happy blog. As for me, I'll have a truthful blog. If its happy, then well done. If it hurts, then so be it.
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