Published on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 in Uncategorized
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One of the staples of the church of Christ faith has been its observance of the Eucharist. Every Sunday, Christians in the church of Christ brotherhood break bread (or Matzo, pie crust or some other unleavened treat) and take a sip from a small cup (each has their own, typically). The elements are also brought to those not sitting in the sanctuary, so they can partake (nursery, bouncers, etc.) If one is unable to attend on Sunday, usually an opportunity is provided to take it on Sunday night.
The emphasis is typically placed on the day that it is taken, not on the reason WHY it is taken. This is, in a word, bad.
While reading a blog post on Evotional.com I had a realization.
Celebrating communion is something that we should do as often as possible, maybe everytime we come together. However, I don’t know if it is necessary or best-used as a part of the corporate worship service. Very rarely is the focus of the service on communion. It’s usally done as quickly as possible with cursory devotional to “prepare our minds” for what we’re about to do. (A quick aside: when I was in high school, my fellow tray passers and I would draw up “plays” for the passing out the trays. We would figure out the most efficient way to pass out trays. It was pretty awesome.)
I think we’ve missed the point.
The early church came together to break bread. (Acts 20:7) This verse has been used to argue that communion can ONLY be taken on the first day of the week. However, the emphasis of that verse has been distorted. Rather than arguing for a certain day to partake in the bread, the verse “argues” for the purpose of coming together. How many of our churches come together to “break bread?” If an unbiased outsider were to visit our church and we asked them why they thought we were meeting, would they say to take communion? Probably not.
We need to be intentional about taking communion. We need to pay attention to what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. I have no problem with traditions as long as they serve a purpose. I fear that our every Sunday tradition has lost its purpose.
Churches that take communion every Sunday without being intentional are no more “right” than a church that takes it sporadically. Let’s stop missing the point.
Published on Wednesday, March 22, 2006 in Uncategorized
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In Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis, he mentions the concept of binding and loosing from Matthew 16:17-19. I’ve never really thought about this idea before, never really knowing what it meant. Bell proposes an interesting explanation for binding and loosing.
He says that the disciples are given the liberty and the responsibility to interpret and explain the teaching of Jesus. I’m still working this out, but the implications of this are pretty incredible.
First of all, the liberty aspect. For a long, long time interpretation of scripture has been anything but liberating. It has been dogmatic, uniform and resistant to questioning and change. Imagine the possibilities for growth and open mindedness when we’re open to new ways of reading God’s words! Our eyes, hearts and minds could be opened to radically new truths about who God is and His will for our lives! His words could be new every morning and the lamp unto our feet could receive a brighter bulb.
However, as the great poet Stan Lee once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” We can’t be careless in our new reading of the scriptures. We can’t add to God’s words. God still speaks, God may have spoken in other mediums than the Bible, but any words, written or spoken, contrary to the words in the Bible lack credibility and authority.
We must be responsible in our binding and loosing. Jesus has given us incredible authority to communicate His truths. We don’t create truth or reality, but we certainly have a hand in shaping it. We can’t be flippant or careless with this responsibility.
Published on Monday, February 20, 2006 in Uncategorized
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I picked up a new book this weekend by Brian McLaren (pictured above) titled A Generous Orthodoxy. I’m not sure what I think about it yet, but I’m intrigued by what I’ve read so far. Specifically, the part that talks about correct orthodoxy (knowing what’s right or true) leading to correct orthopraxy (doing what’s right or true).
For too long I believe churches have been focused on having correct doxy with not enough emphasis on praxy. Scott Waltman, our education minister, addressed this on Sunday. He estimates that he’s spent 10,000 hours learning about the Bible. 10,000 hours. Imagine what could be done if Christians spent 10,000 living like Christ?
Our church building is a perfect example of a -doxy emphasis. We have dozens of classrooms. Our church is built like a school!
I don’t want to downplay the importance of studying and knowing the Bible. Feasting upon the word of God is essential for anyone who wants to be a committed follower of Christ. But until we start doing what the Bible is teaching, what’s the point?
Our church is starting something I’m very excited about. On Wednesday nights, a night that has typically been spent as another hour of study, we’re focusing on service. There will be no class (aside from a 4-week class that shares service opportunities) and every member who shows up will be put to work.
If we as Christians can focus less on knowing and studying and more on believing and living the church will never be the same. And I think that’s a good thing.
Published on Monday, November 21, 2005 in Uncategorized
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I had a radical thought a few days ago. I’m sure I’m not the first to have this radical thought, which means it probably isn’t that radical after all. However, with that rousing introduction, read on!
I was raised in the church of Christ (as evidenced by my lowercase “c”) and I still hold onto much of the teaching I received (I still flinch when people say pastor, for example). One of the major lessons I was taught has become a motto, or very nearly a mission statement, for the church of Christ: Speak where the Bible speaks, be silent where the Bible is silent.
I was taking a shower the other day and I started thinking about that phrase and the foundation for it. It seems to me that the phrase itself is not a Biblical concept. Obviously those words are not in scripture (which I didn’t know until I was in high school), but neither is the basis for the statement.
The closest we come to this idea is in Rev. 22:18-19. However, it appears that the author is talking about the words of prophecy included in Revelatshuns rather than the entire Bible. Of course, there was also no Bible when Revelateshuns was written, nor did the authors know that their writings would be included in a collection, so how could the verse be written with the whole Bible in mind?
I’m interested in what others think about this subject. I haven’t explored scripture exhaustively to discover if “Speaking and silence” are somewhere else, so if there are some valuable verses out there, please share them.
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