A friend....and former church work associate, Mark Wisniewski.......recently wrote me and asked for some material on the Restoration Movement.....the movement out of which our churches evolved. Instead of answering him privately.....I have chosen this venue because this could also be entitled....This is Where I Stand. So here goes..... Mark....I do have some material that I would teach a mini 4-5 part series on. However, it is in outline form....and without the background info might not serve you well. However, I have a bigger reason for not wanting to send it to you. I would suggest a different course of action. Once Alexander Campbell made some very gracious comments concerning denominational people and he was confronted by a lady in Lunenburg, VA who sent him a letter (aka...the Luneburg Letter) where she asked him about his comments concerning the pious unimmersed. In short....she wanted to know if folks who had not been baptized and/or were from sects could be considered Christian. I am only going to give you the gist of his response. You can Google Campbell and the Luneburg letter and find it in its entirety. He stated that while he believes the Bible to be clear about how one becomes a Christian he was hesitant to make any one aspect of the gospel the definitive standard for determining Christianity. He went on further to say....If I found a pedo-Baptist to more possess the spirit (i.e., attitude) of Christ.....then one who agrees with me to the letter on baptism....I would hold out the hand of fellowship more quickly to the former rather than the latter. Now Campbell readily admitted that this was in his opinion. Mark....I think Campbell was right....and I will quote scripture. ROMANS 13:10: Love is the fulfillment of the law. Mark....you and I saw this first hand at the church we served at. We saw people who knew the jot and tittle of the law.....but the love of Christ was far from them. As John says in his epistle....You cannot say you love God and hate the brethren. Mark.....they cannot say they love God and do what they did to us. What they did bordered on evil. Same thing in my last church. As a leadership....they knew they Bible better than any leadership in any church. I know.....because I taught them for 13.5 years. BUT....you cannot love God....and do what they did to me....and others in the church. What they did was pure evil. There are so called conservatives in our fellowship who could have done more to help me.....but barely raised a finger. They remind me of the Good Samaritan story.....where the hurt stranger was bypassed by the priest because he had to get to church. I have found the conservative branch of our movement to be very good at preaching to the Amen choir (i.e., Hillsborough Camp).....but very poor at reaching the lost and sharing the love of Christ. I say all that to say this.....if it were me.....I would worry less about Restoration History....and truly study to discover what it REALLY means to love as Jesus loved. I am not saying doctrine is not important. I love our history. But if love is the fulfillment of the law it seems we would be well served to understand that more fully. I would suggest......a lot of the love of Christ spread to others....covers a lot of mistakes in doctrine. Otherwise....we become a noisy gong and a clanging symbol. I find myself less and less impressed with denominational names or titles. I want to know....do you love like Jesus loved? That is the determiner of whether I consider you a Christian or not. As I think of some of the most Christlike people I have ever know.....few of them came from the Christian Church. Those deer in the headlights looks you sometimes get from your folks......are the looks of people who need a shepherd. I want to see people like that. In Matthew 9 it states Jesus saw the crowds as sheep without a shepherd. It is a shame that in my 31 years of ministry I saw more ugliness from church folks than I have even begun to see in the secular world. I have been treated better by my secular employers than I have by any church leadership (East Tampa being the exception). I pray God gives me another chance of ministry someday. I am going to strive to learn how to love more like Jesus.....not just the folks in church......but the world that needs to see a church that truly loves. That is my challenge to you....and all who read this.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 00:10:06 +0000
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