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Dynamic Christianity
| A recent Christian
forum post on the Internet asked why church was so boring. Honest
Christians will admit that this is often a problem. One reason for
boredom is the same reason why schools are boring. The lecture format
is predominant in seminaries and perhaps the single greatest reason why
sermons are presented as lectures. In Corinthians we understand that
their services were Q&A periods (1Cor 14:35).
The asking of questions is critical to learning as well as engaging
interest. The person fielding the questions may have to handle some
that are off the wall such as will there be cars in heaven (answered by
asking what use a car would be without roads or gasoline). However, the
desire to maintain control and with it to prevent error, maintain
orderliness, and be consistent with tradition can create a static
environment that is boring, inhibits growth, and disengages people. In
a way organizational systems maintain stasis through inertia.
Christianity was always supposed to be relational as opposed to
systematized.
One might expect a new Christian to be questioning and skeptical, This
dynamism can be quashed by ritualistic denominational practice and
pre-packaged doctrine presented to achieve conformity and
compliance. A Christian who has spent his life in a particular
denomination might find it difficult to become skeptical, question, or
challenge doctrines he has heard from his youth.
In recent years a change has taken place in many Christian
denominations so that different doctrines are not so much questioned as
abandoned as a new emphasis of how one feels has been elevated. This
amorphous collection of “woke” ideologies often consists of
self-stimulating activities to provoke sensations that are seen as
“spiritual”. This new direction seems to create an environment where
what is true is less important than how one feels. This can seem
“dynamic” but is actually a diversion.
A dynamic approach to Christianity might be seen in the saying, “I am
embarrassed by what I thought five years ago and I hope to be
embarrassed five years from now by what I think today”. The idea that
one is on a trajectory of continual learning is more consistent with
biblical expectations.
Eph 4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of
the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Eph 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and
fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of
men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
If we use the measure of Christ-likeness as the indicator of Christian
maturity, it is difficult to think of a single denomination, church, or
assembly that produces this result. Those who passively listen to the
same boring sermons are almost as disadvantaged by disconnection as
those seeking self-stimulation are by being diverted. Sadly both fail
to achieve what is available and expected of all Christians, that of
Christ-likeness. |
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