Thoughts on Being a Christadelphian – Part 3
July 27, 2009
Dear Friends,
2. We have to institute ecclesial discipline the way that it was practiced in the first-century. The idea that mercy and forgiveness mean tolerance of false teaching or immoral behavior is a cancer that will prove fatal. We must stop it now. We also must stop all the sinful, legalistic nonsense that is causing so much of the discontent to foment in the first place. If we are honest, few ecclesias genuinely follow Matthew 18 in both letter and spirit. In fact, when it actually does happen it becomes a cause c=E9l=E8bre for the simple reason that it is so rare. Most ecclesias put a veneer on some sort of process and call it Matthew 18 when is simply a way to check off that we have done “the right thing.”
Combining items #1 and #2, one of our greatest obstacles in this regard of ecclesial discipline is that some of our non-Biblical traditions are enforced as if they were from God. In other words, we treat non- fundamental issues as if they were fundamental and make them a test of fellowship. Now, let me speak blasphemy: among the non-Biblical traditions that need to be cast aside is the way we use Statements of Faith and portions of the Ecclesial Guide. Some traditions are good, and some traditions are bad. Traditions are like people in this regard; by their fruits shall ye know them. Some of our traditions are rotten to the core but we still use them such as bloc disfellowship and other divisive practices.
3. We need to get back to the essentials – touching, teaching and preaching. Is your ecclesia involved in your local community? Are you preaching – I mean REALLY preaching – not just holding public lectures which the public doesn’t attend? Are you teaching? Are your children encouraged to participate in a meaningful way or are they shuttled off to be entertained during ecclesial functions? Most of the things we need to do are very basic. We have not done a good job of this in the past. If you want to sidetrack an ecclesia, bring up a point of minutiae. Often ecclesias will spend hours talking about things that don’t add up to a hill of beans while completely ignoring things of significance. A few years back I wrote a TFTW called Eight Signs of a Healthy Ecclesia. It might be worth going to the archives and taking a look. They are all very simple and basic fundamentals that we tend to overlook.
4. We need true, Biblical elders, not big mouths with big agendas. If you have something to say, and you say it long enough and loud enough, you can get an audience, no matter what it is you are saying. If I could sum up the one defining attribute of a Biblical elder it would be that they walk their talk. They are examples of what a brother should be. They might not be eloquent speakers or able to touch on the smallest details in Scripture, but when you look at how they live, they are doers of the word. Somehow we have come to accept that the defining attributes of an elder are a good public speaking, writing or even worse, readiness to make personal hang-ups into public arguments or having the most family in the ecclesia. I would rather attend an ecclesia with a board of one true elder than seven willing yet unqualified souls (see my previous blasphemy on the Ecclesial Guide!).
5. We have to engage our congregations. We have far too many people sitting on the sidelines. “Idle hands are the devil’s playground.” Or in our case, idle hands give occasion for the flesh. Do our children have excess time for video games and TV? Do we see 80% of ecclesial work being handled by the same 20% of the people? Are brethren finding time to go to Jazzercise but can’t make it to a Bible class? If the answer to these questions is “yes” then we have a problem for which there is no answer because the answer is being subverted by the problem. We can pray, work, study, praise and worship our way out of all these problems that face us, but we are not going to go to our worldly vocations, recreate and vegetate out of these problems.
For the elders in this particular matter, let me suggest to you that our old method of “guilting” people into attending and participating is not sufficient or effective. You must lead by example showing them of what a happy, healthy life of ecclesial service is. You must give them uplifting, beneficial and even exciting things to do. We have to break the molds of Sunday evening public lectures that no one attends and get involved in our communities in new ways. Ecclesial events can be as exciting and engaging as anything the world has to offer even if they are significantly different and appeal to a different set of emotions. Boring and holy are not synonymous unless we make them so. God certainly didn’t make them that way.
In the end, I believe that the name “Christadelphian” may very well go the way of the name “Christian”. Being a Christian meant something 2,000 years ago, now it is a nearly meaningless label. A modern day Christian is often indistinguishable from the rest of the rabble. God’s truth will go on in some way, shape or form regardless of the label of those who attempt to serve Him to the best of their abilities. I guess much worse can happen than losing the substance behind the name. It would be nice, though, if we could find a way to fix what is broken without losing those things which truly make us what the name Christadelphian means – “brethren in Christ.”
Here is the bottom line as I see it. If we all recommit ourselves to God and Christ (not to Christadelphia, not to traditions, not to John Thomas or Robert Roberts, not to even to each other), we stand a chance of keeping this thing we call “Christadelphia” going until Jesus returns. If commitment to God and Jesus are not firmly in the center of everyone’s hearts and minds, it is not worth saving anyway.
Have a great week,
