Thanks for the interaction.

I hope I can visit this blog regularly.

It think that the early christian creeds are broad enough that they include pretty much everyone who is Christian. I agree that there are going to be those at the fringes who would not want have communion with most other Christians, but then that was Michael Spencers’ first point, that we need Christians who are more willing to share and interact with each other. Indeed it is part of the vision of Eclectic Christian.

“1) Evangelicalism would be much better if it would admit that the Reformation and all subsequent divisions divided the one true church of Christ. None of those divisions created a new church or recreated the one, true church. All of Christianity today is the broken parts of what should be whole and entire.”

Sadly, this is true. From what I understand, the Reformation Movement at large contracted the same deadly virus as the Protestant Movement: people started debating theologies and eventually decided, “You’re wrong and we’re right, so we’re going to go over here and do what we feel should be done and teach our children how right we are and how wrong you are.”

However, I don’t want to miss this point: doctrine is important. 1 Timothy 4:16 says to “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” However, from what I see, doctrine is oftentimes placed in front of people, and thereby people are wounded by people in a church and fail to differentiate between the Church as a whole and the God that we worship.

Hmm…one of the things that frustrates me is the menial things that churches divide over anymore. I’m heard of a church that divided over how many cups to use for their Communion; I’ve also heard of a church that divided over the carpet color. I think that this problem is reinforced by a recent statistic I heard about people’s attitude toward the church. From what I heard, about 9 in 10 people who attend church, when asked what the Church’s purpose was, answered, “To meet my needs.” That’s a rough statistic, but you get the idea.

I agree wholeheartedly that we need a major shift back to God and away from defending our own theologies, tearing others’ down, or simply demanding that every little thing be absolutely perfect. I think I shift toward God also includes a shift back to the helping of the poor; Jesus spent his whole ministry helping the poor, and I think that a lot of churches today focus more on satisfying the thoughts and expectations of the people within the walls of a building than they encourage their church (referring to the people in the Church; I don’t think a Church is a masonry building) to reach out to the lost and poor. I’ll gladly admit that there are some facets of giving and helping the poor that I’m in the process of figuring out, but I think that once we have giving at the center of the Church, when serving God by serving the poor and lost are again the central goal of the Church at large, then I think it will be much safer to consider what sorts of doctrine to accept and promote. Also, to prevent arguments over the menial things, one only need read 2 Corinthians 24: “No one should seek his own good, but the good of the other person.”

Thanks for your response. I would encourage you to also post them at internetmonk.com.

A couple words of explanation, and a couple questions for you.

“The full manifestation of the Holy Spirit.” I think too often we try to put God in a box with a line of thinking along the lines of I am okay with what you want to do God, as long as you restrict yourself to X. Our fear of human excess has caused us to miss the blessing of the divine. If it is a true manifestation of the Holy Spirit, then it will only lead in directions that God wants us to go. That is not to say that we should go chasing after every wind that blows, but let ourselves be open to what the Holy Spirit wants to do in our midst. Discernment obviously plays a huge role in this.

“would not fall upon the seld” – Not sure what you mean by this.

Not sure what you meant by your inerrant section. Could you reword it for me?

“Moving to Christ and what He has done…” – Absolutely!

Mike Bell

I’m not exactly sure what “the full manifestation of the Holy Spirit” is.

I’m not so sure anyone else knows either, which could lead us all over the place in the name of Jesus.

I think a better understanding and appreciation of the sacraments would make better Evagelicals. That the whole ‘God project’ would not fall upon the seld and what ‘we do’, but rather a deepening trust of what Christ has done.

I think a better understanding of the Bible, not having to be inerrant, and therefore every verse is given the same weight (leading to a wooden, legalistic, man centered approach to evangelism.

Moving to Christ and what He has done, is doing, and will yet do…and away from ‘us’ and our decisions, our will, our performance, our sincerity…that is what I think would make for a better Evangelical church.