November 08, 2013
Passing Through
On occasion we’ve had people ingratiate
themselves into the church and then after a time they abandon our fellowship and
move on to another body of believers. It appears to me that rather than looking
for a place to worship, they are looking for a place with a readymade audience of
followers where they can teach, lead, and serve without oversight. This
scenario happens frequently enough that I have this image of the congregation
being assessed as a pitiful lot who needs someone to guide us into enlightenment.
Unfortunately these pass-through folks don’t understand that the open arms of
fellowship are not the same thing as an open door of opportunity for them to
step into a leadership role. The Apostle Paul warned the church in Ephesus to
stop giving false teachers a platform, because they were promoting
controversies rather than God’s work. “Some have wandered away from these and
turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they
do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.” (1
Tim 1:6-7 NIV)
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----The more I live in the Lord, the more I notice understanding and knowing Him grows out of acknowledging His paradoxes. His church is not a myriad of sequestered little fellowships indelibly walled off from each other. Neither is it an indefinable population of individuals ever circulating within its all. Romans 14 says each one of us should be convinced in our own minds about religious matters; Hebrews 13 tells us to obey the leaders. Romans 14 says to keep the faith you have between yourself and God; Philemon 1:6 says the sharing of your faith promotes the knowledge of all the good we have in Christ.
-----I would rather be enjoying The Church at Montrose than a Montrose “This” Church or a “That” Church of Montrose or a First “Whatever” Church. One of the most problematic aspects of the natural human mind is group identity. It hardly matters what area of life we approach, it always seems to be sectioned off into multiple little groups each having its own peculiar identity rubbing off onto its members. And it never helps that within any group of people, there are always a few who just innately feel like they are there to be the norms. It becomes a secret duty for them to form a strong defensive wall of the group’s attitudes, lest their leadership becomes successfully challenged by some roaming buck.
-----So, as to the buck bringing heresy against the Word, the leader’s do well to maintain a strong defensive wall. Paul warns often about the dogs on his trail destroying the traditions he taught. It is the leader’s role to guard the purity of the faith identifying the believers around them. For that the wall is maintained.
-----But life in the Lord is a relational thing. It is not merely a relationship with the Lord. This is why “the best place to worship” is not the solitude of your favorite mountain fishing hole. Growing up in the Lord involves learning the relevancy of others. And you can only learn that by living with others, playing with them, and worshipping with them. The relevancy of other groups of others the Lord knows well. We should, too. The passer-throughs for getting to know you are precious. The leaders who would wall them out are not. I suppose the need for discernment shall not end until sin does.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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