July 03, 2006
Turf Wars
It’s not unusual for kids to have their own version of turf wars. Growing up in the 1950’s, it was a treat for Bill and his brothers to visit their cousins (also boys) because they had a television. “It didn’t matter what we watched. It could be Ed Sullivan for all we cared; we were just excited to watch TV.” One of the cousins, ignoring the scolding and threats from parents, would stand in front of the TV with outstretched arms obstructing as much of the view as possible. We might sigh and say, ‘boys will be boys’, and ‘kids will be kids’, but embarrassingly we adults do the same thing. It was only a couple years ago that I bought coffee for my area of ministry and hid it in a cupboard so other ministries couldn’t find it and use it. How’s that for Christian maturity?! Our church leadership implemented a budget system requiring ministries to purchase all their own supplies, including coffee, plates, plastic forks and spoons, etc. Ministry team leaders, in order to protect their budgets and supplies, become very creative…and selfish. While I stashed coffee, others stored their supplies at home or put padlocks on large plastic containers at the church. Compared to the early church we have a few shortcomings! Luke tells us, “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” (Acts 2:44-45 NIV)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
----Before Jesus returned to His Father, He prayed that His followers would have unity so that the world, by seeing this unity, might believe that He was sent by the Father. Paul refers to this as "unity in love," and "unity in the Spirit." But through the ages the church has responded to His prayer as if it were "unity in doctrine", "unity in mission", or even "unity in church paradigm". They have even fought wars to maintain these diferent unities. All the while there has been abject failure to understand that unity is in setting yourself aside in order to understand and serve the brother who stands beside you without pretext, and without pretention. And as leaders have come and leaders have gone, as denominitions have risen, and denominations have faded away, there has always been, constantly, those in the body who are sure that what they have found in the Lord is where all of the good for everyone else has been stored, and that they are somehow God's distribution channel for the good there stored. Innevitably we find these types standing in front of the picture of true unity with their arms outstretched (as if somehow that will imply Christlikeness), obstructing the real view of what Jesus wanted the world to see.
Post a Comment