Why shouldn’t Christians live near each other? Why shouldn’t Christians participate in life together? Why shouldn’t the good deposit of the Church’s teachings be passed down through elder leadership of churches? Why shouldn’t all men be encouraged to one day be such faithful imitators of Christ that they would be recognized as beneficial to their church in the capacity of elder?
Will we Christians give up all our cultural beliefs about individualism, materialism, and consumerism so that we can do life together, make disciples, and be satisfied in this life? The Church is our mother, and we must place the Church above ourselves. We must do so because the Church is entrusted with teaching us truth. We do not know truth on our own. Truth comes from the Bible, which has been entrusted to the Church. We must come together as Christians and live in community in order to work together for our own joy and the transformation of society.
5 comments:
I like the idea of community that you're getting at here. I agree that most churches nowadays lack a sense of community -- and that's a problem.
However, I'd like to ask you a few things to see how you respond. Some of these are rhetorical, some are more practical...here goes:
1) What about women? You mention the role of men quite a bit...but not much about women. Why can't women be elders? What kind of leadership do they have? What are they striving for?
2) Who gets to decide who becomes an elder, and what politics become involved?
3) Is the "First among equals" more "first" or more "equal", and what is done to keep him from becoming more "first" than he should be? What politics are involved in this role?
3) Is "cooperative homeschooling" an oxymoron? What does it look like, and does it really fit a definition of home schooling?
4) Is it necessary that Christians isolate themselves from the culture in order to experience community? How does this mesh with "In the world but not of it?" What is the level of isolation here?
5) What level of disagreement with the communal church is allowed? Are we talking "Only Calvinists" here -- or is discussion allowed?
Just some thoughts to discuss.
The only issue i have with your idea here is that it seems as though you are talking about making a society away from the world. That is clearly not what Christ would have wanted. He calls us to be in the world but not of the world. I agree that there are pluses to this idea but where is the outreach that God desires of us. Where is the love for those outside of those communal areas. Another question i would ask is, Would Christ if he was alive today want to live in on of these places? I do not think so, he would rather be with the hardcore sinners. And i feel that is what you will be missing by doing this. If you live in other communities you have the chance to meet your neighbors and thus share Christ with them. I do like some of your ideas behind it but i just do not think it is smart.
To anonymous: this community is more in the world than you seem to perceive. Please read Wayne Gordon's Real Hope in Chicago.
Moreover, read some of my titled posts on the sight, esp. "in the world not of it."
This is not "a community" it is doing life together. I think you'll get the picture better when you read more of the articles.
Thank you for commenting. I'm sure you're one of my good friends since I only sent out this website to my good friends, so no hard feelings, please keep reading, and maybe we'll be in ministry together in the future.
Note: In the world there are "closed" and "open" communities. ONLY THE CHURCH CAN BE BOTH!
To my good friend M. (by the way, thanks for your questions).
Responses according to #:
1. I firmly believe that once women have children then they should strive to help raise them (1Tim 2&3, Titus 2).
I know you haven't read all that I have on the website, but there is an article in which I talk about how women ought to be just as intelligent (OR MORE!) than men. You see, we men must be out in the world raising money, working jobs. Women need to help raise the family (whether that is homeschooling or a Christian school).
The reason women might be able to learn more than men is they can incorporate into their time teaching older children into their own time studying the material.
Lastly, I see the man's role as being out in the world - IN DANGER. The man should be in the hostile places sharing the gospel, but women should be in safer places. Women can join their husbands, and they must rise up when the men are chicken.
I must add that mothers who stay at home work harder than most businesswomen, and raising godly children is more blessed than any other occupation.
(If you can find a godly woman who will work, then you should stay home with the kids. I would love it if I could stay home with children and teach them. Alas, I must bring home the bacon).
2. The congregation nominates elders. Congregations also send out groups of families including some elders and deacons to start new church plants.
3. The "first among equals" is really more of the equal. The "first" just comes in because there is always someone recognized as the leader, and with church planting sometimes only one elder can be a part of the group. So as new elders are elected as part of the congregation, the older elder is recognized for what he is. The title is more understood than official. But although it is not official it is not outrightly denied, nor should they try to suppress leaders whom God has gifted (their furthest reach though is their local church, so things should be kept in check).
3b). Cooperative homeschooling (check out VisionForum.org) is a way to take the stress of moms or "stay-at-home" dads. It lets homeschoolers see other homeshcoolers more, and it keeps the homeschooling Christian atmosphere, but it lets some parents focus on math and others on English. Cooperative homeschooling allows students to know more than I, a college graduate does, before they graduate high school, possibly middle school if you count foreign languages, an understanding of history, knowledge of Christianity, Bible memorization, and having a coherent, functional worldview.
4. This is not isolation. This is living near each other. My insights in this began through my preaching to co-workers at Red Lobster. They could see my family, but I couldn't get them to see my church "in action." Some came and saw us at church... "in actuality." But they did not see us outside the walls doing life together. We've got to be entrusting the faith to the next generation in such a way as the world sees it.
We've got to be transforming communities by coaching soccer teams, organizing events, fellowshipping with unbelievers - I'M EXCITED. CHRISTIANITY IS EXCITING!
5. God's sovereignty is essential. None of this open theism heresy or anything that the Church whipped a long time ago (Christians don't know their history).
For the most part, anyone who cannot affirm the Church's creeds would be out of leadership.
As far as Calvinism goes: My local church will teach it and require belief in it for leadership.
HOWEVER, THIS IS CHRIST'S CHURCH. I hope you can use this church model and I hope our churches have great fellowship together in the future.
We can talk about Calvinism and leadership later - or surely someone else has a blog for it.
DL, I don't have time to read into this much now, but I am bookmarking this as my home page as to read a little more each day. You should really read Bonhoeffer's dissertations - Sanctorum Communio and Act and Being. Follow that up with an afternoon of Christ the Center and Life Together. Look for the continuity of Christ and Community. Talk to Cody King, he as become quite the expert on this. In love and peace.
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