of Christian Freedom in a Corporate Sense
November 19, 2007 by Randy
Filed under Christianity, Church, Current Affairs, Friends, People, Religion, family
Please Read Mere Orthodoxy » Critiquing Christian Freedom: Karl Barth on Romans 14:16-18
If you are not reading Mere Orthodoxy Blog by Matthew Anderson … I would highly suggest you add it to your rss feed. I find the blog to be well thought out and a blessing. Please click on the above link for an especially thought provoking post.
My post is in line with the above but flows down a somewhat different path (not much … just a tad.) I am going to hit on the issues of the corporate Body of Christ a little more.
Back around 1993 I was going to a bounce around, up and down woohoo! kind of charismatic church. I love that church. One day the Pastor came to church wearing a tie. Before the service, he walked around as usual and there was a lot of joking around. He was/is a jokester. After worship he took the pulpit and kind of flipped around his tie and said, “A lot of you have noticed my tie.” And there was a little ripple of laughter. He continued, “Many of you have asked, with sarcasm, why I was wearing it, I said because I wanted to and some of you outright laughed at me.” When he said “…outright laughed at me.” He wasn’t smiling and there was a strange heaviness in the air. Pastor continued, “I have noticed legalism has crept into our congregation and my tie experience is just a very small thing, a symbol really, but I have noticed that our church has viewed any form of tradition or constraint with disdain or outright mockery.” “And those of you who I didn’t talk to but looked at me with your rolling eyes and arched eyebrows…you aren’t off the hook either.” We were all a little stunned. He said, “and I am going to wear this tie the whole time just because I can.” He smiled and the tension eased a bit.
I loved that he said he was going to wear the tie because he can. I liked this because I had seen an “old school” preacher take off his tie in the pulpit because he could. The tie is as the preacher/pastor said, a symbol of cultural expectation and custom but in Christ… it doesn’t really matter about the tie… it matters what we are focussed on. As for the rest of that sermon… the Lord used Pastor to convict the snot out of all of us. He led the way by repenting himself. There was a lot of repentance that day.
Personally, the question of Christian Freedom has come to mind a lot in the journey with Christ and especially as of late. Many churches are making a name for themselves in breaking away from “traditional” church in the name of freedom. They say they are not bound by the legalistic cultural baggage from the past. I have visited churches like this over the years and have had many more conversations with people of similar mindsets. What I have found is that there isn’t much difference in the greater scheme of things. In fact, on some occasions, it’s the same legalism dressed in a different marketing approach to attract a different niche. It is exchanging the corporate structure of cultural Christianity of the past for a form of corporate structured cultural Christianity of the present.
We do need “corporate” because we are a Body of believers. We do need “structure” because the Kingdom of God is built on it. God is a God of beauty and part of that beauty is His design of structure and order. “Cultural” is absolutely relevant in order to meet people where they are at. When I mention those three words strung together in the previous paragraph, “corporate cultural Christianity,” I mean it in the sense of earthly capitalist mindset of rules based generational morality as opposed to the Kingdom of God, built on Truth, Grace and Mercy, as described in the scriptures.
… to reiterate, some (not all) of the new generation of churches proclaim true freedom from the past character flaws but are really manifestations of the same issues. Legalism is a very strong struggle throughout all of church history. The modern conflict is nothing new and yet another cyclical distraction that keeps the Body in turmoil.
As Matthew’s post above asks, is the freedom we live in for the kingdom? The Freedom of Christ and His purposes? … or for our own? Is the freedom we seek to help others find Christ or is it to pacify our own indulgences?
To be sure, I love traditional churches and breaking new ground churches. The “Church” inhabits both. The Kingdom exists … in both…and a whole lot more than the West’s view of it. The parable of the wheat and tares tells me that the good and bad will exist side by side until Judgment Day. What I find distressing is the denouncement of one movement against the other when the underlying issues are not acknowledged as being common to us all. We are all One Body
May we corporately act as One in Him and challenge each other as appropriate never forgetting we are one Body.
May we structurally replace any semblance of capitalistic goals, and views of success, with an eternal Kingdom mentality of contentment regardless of circumstance.
May we be culturally relevant in a manner that is not at the expense of our own siblings in the family of Christ and being mindful of the broader family of Christ around the world.
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This post is loaded with Christian lingo and is also an ongoing meditation in process. Please feel free to add your own thoughts, challenge me or ask questions.
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Wow. Great post. And thanks for the link to that other blog… I’ll check it out.
Good Brian. I think you will like Matthew’s blog.
Thanks for linking Matthew