tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15860677.post8086123597237296336..comments2024-03-25T14:27:40.121-05:00Comments on Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength: Church search: What is a deal-breaker (other than doctrine)? Weekend Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10425001168670801073noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15860677.post-37544738403763009392019-02-24T21:25:55.346-06:002019-02-24T21:25:55.346-06:00Hey Martin
I definitely agree with that. And it&#...Hey Martin<br /><br />I definitely agree with that. And it's almost impossible for a place that is partisan to be healthy; it cuts off too much of the view to be balanced. <br /><br />Take care & God bless<br />Anne / WF<br />Weekend Fisherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10425001168670801073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15860677.post-80259988610420109692019-02-24T21:23:39.522-06:002019-02-24T21:23:39.522-06:00Hey Kevin
Lots to think about. Thanks for that. I...Hey Kevin<br /><br />Lots to think about. Thanks for that. I definitely agree that hardness of heart is all over the place, and is a huge part of why the problems are so stubborn. <br /><br />& Good to see you again!<br /><br />Take care & God bless<br />Anne / WFWeekend Fisherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10425001168670801073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15860677.post-40346345423569681732019-02-24T18:06:52.984-06:002019-02-24T18:06:52.984-06:00Politics (any variety) plays too big a role, so mu...Politics (any variety) plays too big a role, so much so that rights (or lefts) don't feel welcome.Martin LaBarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14629053725732957599noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15860677.post-66688887577488607512019-02-24T13:58:12.759-06:002019-02-24T13:58:12.759-06:00Such a sad question. I'm sorry. I very much li...Such a sad question. I'm sorry. I very much like your list, but I won't leave my answer there.<br /><br />You seem to be listing deal-breakers for more conservative churches, and that's cool. A list of deal-breakers for a more liberal church would look very different. That's also cool. And then there'd be a list for more ecstatic churches and more intellectual churches. It goes on and on.<br /><br />I like big, generalized ideas that might apply to all churches equally, so I'll throw one out here.<br /><br />Jesus said, "Moses gave divorce because of the hardness of your hearts". It's some kind of hardness of heart that can't be endured, but it's complex to define. I believe it's the thing in a man that makes him believe all the world is a stage on which he's performing, and all the world is his audience. It's that world view that informs his greatest acts of magnanimity, for what performance is complete without greatness, and defines his lowest deeds of selfish cruelty, because any disrespect to him is almost a slight against the universe itself.<br /><br />Let's just call it narcissism.<br /><br />It's possible, or rather easy, or maybe even unavoidable, for any Christian to sometimes be narcissistic toward God; the Christian can believe God mostly exists to save him and to be sure at some times God is thankful for the gift he is to the Divine. It's easy to see that narcissism in the Pharisees, but it takes a special honesty to see it in ourselves. It's there.<br /><br />And so, we come to the pastor.<br /><br />There may be no job on earth more easily abused by a narcissist or more naturally attractive one. We can all be sure many of the pulpits in our land are filled by true narcissists. But to remember the point, narcissism is a part of every one of us. It's not a binary thing, but a spectrum. I can't ask whether I'm a narcissist, but to what degree.<br /><br />The only church I ever fled, I left because its leader declared himself the last hope for Christianity in America. He'd so totally bought into his own narrative of romantic glory, there was no hope of recovery. As a church, we'd lost sight of others, except as a field of the needy for our message and our salvation. We'd taken to calling ourselves *the* church. There was no question I'd stayed too long, by the time I left.<br /><br />We can't flee every sign of narcissism, so what's the deal-breaker? I'm voting it's the moment a church breaks fellowship with the mass of other good Christians, the moment their narrative requires them to declare themselves the beacon to whom all others should look for hope.<br /><br />I'm willing to go a long way down the road of heresy with brothers and sisters who realize they're not God's gift to the world. No cult can do that, but any humble, erring group can. I can be happy around people confident enough to qualify as proud, as long as they're not narcissistic. You list a few things I don't mind at all. Altering passages, altering church teachings, and displacing creeds can all be done as experiments and prods to deeper thinking. It takes a smidge of pride to do that, but I'm happy to go there. It's when those things are done to isolate the church from other Christians and make them dependent on one man's interpretation of everything, it gets scary.<br /><br />All this aligns with Jesus statement on the subject. He said you'd know a tree by its fruit. It's not the doctrine of a man or his teaching, but the way he loves others, or by contrast decides to love himself at the expense of others. Most of your list is filled with things like that, things of fruit rather than teaching, so I'm happily impressed with it.<br /><br />May the Lord guide and bless you through this decision.Kevin Knoxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16788817477327510023noreply@blogger.com