If Christ pastored your church, the grace debate would remain. His
actions would be criticized and His leadership, challenged.
But His example would be unmistakably and unquenchably strong. I'm
made freshly aware that we are continually at a crossroads of decision
as the Church. It would seem more appropriate that the body of Christ as
a whole address this issue, but it will in fact take local churches to
do that.
Sin hasn't changed from one generation to another.
The propagation of it, maybe. How we respond to certain sins and the
sinner, in general, continues to bring the potential battle. But, why
the conflict? The reasons are too numerous to write in a blog. Suffice
to say, we are afraid... We are afraid of being too gracious or not
merciful enough, too tolerant or too legalistic. So, we grab an extreme
and avoid the healthy balance that Christ taught. And, when we do
this, greater intensity in this grace debate is created and we lose
opportunity to be the hands and heart of God. Strong language, but this
is the reality. John 1:17 says, "For the law was given through Moses,
but God's unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ."
The answer is what Christ embodied - GRACE and TRUTH!
Consider
the narratives of Matthew (Matthew 9), Zacchaeus (Luke 19), the
criminal on the cross (Luke 23), the Samaritan woman (John 4), and the
adulteress woman (John 8). Grace changed these individuals because
truth was present. Someone said, "Love without truth is hypocrisy;
truth without love is brutality; love and truth together builds maturity."
Andy Stanley wrote in his book Deep and Wide,
"We believe the church is most appealing when the message of grace is
most apparent. We are equally as convinced that God's grace is only as
visible as God's truth is clear."
The grace and truth
ministry in the church starts with how spiritual leaders view
not-yet-Christ-followers. Are we disgusted by or broken for the
wrong-doer? If someone is really "lost", why wouldn't we be
compassionate? Is there an authentic "welcome mat" at your place of
worship for those who are far from God? Let's take time to grapple with
what church life would actually look like if Jesus was the lead
pastor...and, let's consider allowing compassion to rule no matter the
criticism!
5 comments:
great post, darren...challenging! (and isn't "deep & wide" a great book?)
Thanks, Randy! Appreciate you reading. Yes, enlightening and challenging book. I'm blessed by Andy's honesty on what he's still grappling with. Straight ahead, friend!
Great post Pastor Darren...I as well have been reading Deep & Wide and have really been challenged by some of the things he is "grappling" with...The battle between Grace and Truth is a constant battle that we as leaders have to face. Thanks for opening up the conversation with this great post.
Thanks, Brian! Yes, we need to have such a conversation, and I appreciate you engaging in it. Let's encourage the conversation to continue...
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