With this post I am almost certainly going to offend someone. In a recent post I asked for people to let me know about ministries they considered radically effective so that I could highlight them. For the record the near-silence in response did not inspire a great deal of hope in me. Either no one is reading this blog or those who are reading have no knowledge of a radically effective church.
It was near silence because the one response I did get was from my youngest sister's fiancee. He's a really great guy and I'm thrilled for my sister and him as they plan their wedding. They're great together and lots of fun to hang out with. The church he encouraged me to look into is Mile Hi Church in Denver. When I checked it out I found a church that is certainly steeped in spirituality. It's not a Christian church but it claims a membership of over 20,000 people. If you dig into their pages you'll find that they have a great respect for Jesus and even declare his divinity...in the same way that all of us are divine. I'm not sure how they deal with Jesus' declaration, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." Herein lies the problem.
We are all spiritual beings. We are all hard wired by our Creator to know that something bigger than us exists. Most seek this "higher power" and the truth of God's existence is reflected in every religion on the face of the earth. But when we embrace all expressions of faith as equally valid we render none of them valid...including Christianity. Since each world religion presents a worldview and a view of humanity that contain elements that are diametrically opposed to the other world religions it simply cannot be true that all of them are right.
Now, most of us hate conflict and rancor. The declaration of Christ that he is Lord and the only path to the Father is problematic for many people. It makes Christianity seem exclusive when it's not. Christ's death on the cross paid the price for the sin of all humankind that has separated us from our Creator. The Christian Church is open to everyone and should reflect the love and acceptance of Jesus to all people regardless of color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, or anything else.
Pay close attention here. The Christian Church does not, can not and should not accept all belief systems, wrong thinking, sinful behavior masquerading as lifestyle choices, or any of the myriad of mistaken thoughts and ideologies embraced by spiritually seeking people. We love the people and confront untruth with truth. Mile Hi Church seems to be a place that happily embraces truth, untruth, half-truth, sin, rebellion and ignorance all the while calling it enlightenment. And many, many people flock to have their ears tickled by this.
I write this blog for the sole purpose of challenging the Christian Church to wake-up, get real with both speaking the truth of Jesus and sharing the love of Jesus without reservation, without limits and without fear. Radically effective churches find a way to be fully engaged in their communities with every member of those communities while standing firmly rooted in the truth of scripture. The whole truth embraced unapologetically. That will upset some. So be it.
2 comments:
Hi Tim, my name is Don. I'm a friend of Steve Krass. He used to be in your youth group. Anyway, I've been disillusioned by churches lately so he showed me your blog. A friend of mine had recommended to me a book called Pagan Christianity? by Frank Viola and George Barna. When I read it, I found it was explaining to me what I was feeling about churches that I had trouble explaining to other people. I was just wondering if you have read it and if not, I'd like to recommend it to you.
Kid,glad you're reading the blog and thanks for the recommendation. I've not read that book yet but I'll get a copy and read it. Watch for a post about it. It might take some time, but I'll do it. Thanks!
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