“Our home church is going through a difficult stage - different views on theological issues are causing discomfort!” So I was told during the week, and in fact I am often told about this ‘problem’.
1. Of course members of any group will hold different views on all sorts of things. Why should a home church be any different? Those who come from different traditional church backgrounds often come to a home church experience with loads of ‘baggage’. If we focus on these ‘differences’ we will have ‘difficulties’ because relationships go deep in home church.
2. Our focus needs to be NOT on our ‘theologies’ or our differences, but on the Lord Jesus Christ who is the head of the church and always seeks to unite us in Him. A home church needs to constantly come back to the base line of why we gather -
a. to build one another for the Kingdom - NOT to sort out our ‘theology’. We can give each other elbow room as the Lord seeks to change and grow each of us. We all have imperfect theology and funny ideas about things if we are honest. We often take views on secondary issues too seriously and ’strain at a gnat and swallow a camel’ (Matt. 23:24! )
b. to express together our love for the Lord in the way we love one another so that the world will know that Jesus lives. It’s by our real love and not by our ‘theology’ that the unbeliever will be convinced. If we open ourselves to the love of the Lord who is in our midst, then all sorts of views can sit alongside each other while we grow in Him.
‘Theology’ and ‘differences’ will melt along the way if we bring one another back to the base line of the ‘One Anothers’ of New Testament church life, and keep an outward focus to keep us healthy - we gather to scatter. Naval gazing in a group can spell doom and gloom. I suggest you click here to download the list of ‘One Anothers’ and go through them as a group from time to time. the-one-anothers-of-church.doc Let us know your experience.
“and keep an outward focus to keep us healthy”
rather than a by-line, I think focussing outwards is one of the most important motivators to make us do the one-anothers. When we are squarely oriented on developing the neighborhood (or city) around us in accord with God’s Kingdom at work here, then we realise we need to encourage and be encouraged. This missional focus necessitates the encouraging. And the theology follows as you need answers.
By contrast, without this core outward orientation first, we can theologise all day and still not really care about each other.
Left by Geoff on April 8th, 2008