Yesterday, I talked about the error of believing that we can "preserve" anything without killing it. It is simply true that preserving always kills the life in whatever is preserved. A preserved historic home means not a home at all, because no one lives there. The blueberry preserves I love to eat are dead. They will never get any better or change except to decay. The smallest blueberry bush has more life than the preserves on my shelf.
We cannot preserve our churches for the same reason. All we can do is freeze them artificially and make more and more rules to prevent life from changing them, even the life of God. The church is to be the expression of God's will and His life in us, not a museum piece.
But, you might say, what about protecting? Aren't there things we need to protect in the church? Doesn't the church face an array of enemies and dangers from which it needs protecting? Well, yes and no.
Yes in the sense that those of us who make up the church continue to sin and err. We are to protect the message of the church (the gospel). We are to protect the purity of the church (combating sin). We are to protect against false worship. We are, as elders at least, to be alert to the dangers of false prophets. Paul's warning was clear:
Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has
made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own
blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not
sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking
twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.
Acts 20:28-30.
Notice that the scriptures say nothing about what we sing (except to describe "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs"). Continuing to sing songs from the 1800's is not "protecting" the church. It may be the right thing, given your congregation, but do not pretend that the songs of the 1800's are inherently better than a song of the 2010's. (Some of them have quite odd theology, in fact.) Protecting your church from modern personal pronouns is not the work of God.
Our problems is that we often focus on protecting against things that are not sin at all. We want to control things that God left open, while we tolerate real dangers from false teachers and confused theology.
Our goal is to protect the church against sin, put simply. Sin on the part of its members and sin on the part of its leaders. Our mission is to watch for false teachers carefully, to warn against false teachers constantly, to teach pure truth in an effective way to our people.
Every day we spend arguing over other matters is a wasted day. Let us focus on what matters.
We cannot preserve our churches for the same reason. All we can do is freeze them artificially and make more and more rules to prevent life from changing them, even the life of God. The church is to be the expression of God's will and His life in us, not a museum piece.
But, you might say, what about protecting? Aren't there things we need to protect in the church? Doesn't the church face an array of enemies and dangers from which it needs protecting? Well, yes and no.
Yes in the sense that those of us who make up the church continue to sin and err. We are to protect the message of the church (the gospel). We are to protect the purity of the church (combating sin). We are to protect against false worship. We are, as elders at least, to be alert to the dangers of false prophets. Paul's warning was clear:
Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has
made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own
blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not
sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking
twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.
Acts 20:28-30.
Notice that the scriptures say nothing about what we sing (except to describe "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs"). Continuing to sing songs from the 1800's is not "protecting" the church. It may be the right thing, given your congregation, but do not pretend that the songs of the 1800's are inherently better than a song of the 2010's. (Some of them have quite odd theology, in fact.) Protecting your church from modern personal pronouns is not the work of God.
Our problems is that we often focus on protecting against things that are not sin at all. We want to control things that God left open, while we tolerate real dangers from false teachers and confused theology.
Our goal is to protect the church against sin, put simply. Sin on the part of its members and sin on the part of its leaders. Our mission is to watch for false teachers carefully, to warn against false teachers constantly, to teach pure truth in an effective way to our people.
Every day we spend arguing over other matters is a wasted day. Let us focus on what matters.