Sunday, February 18, 2007

biblical church

I had a thought today as I drove by a church close to my house advertising Experiencing God on their marquee. Maybe it's because I've done that study and I know what it's about. Maybe it's because that church was Baptist, and I happen to have been having a daily coffee and WiFi fling in a little cafĂ© that is part of Dallas First Baptist in downtown, called LifeWay / Church Store / Biblical Solutions for Life. I thought it odd that it was called a "church store" rather than a bookstore or a Christian bookstore, but oh well. Then I saw the "Biblical Solutions for Life" part—oy! There is so much that annoys me about that phrase! As if...life is a problem or series of problems to be solved. As if...Biblical is the new replacement for godly or good.

I often mull over how to tell people about the church that meets in our home. It's so hard to communicate what it's like, what it's about, and why it is. And I realized at Wild at Heart Boot Camp last week that I have tended to do what institutional churches do—oversell it (I repented). There is no reason to oversell it. It is what it is, and God is happy with us. So I don't care anymore what anyone else thinks about us.

So maybe that brought some clarity as I drove by that sign. The thought I had was that one of the differentiators about our church is that it is not Bible-based. If a church is Bible-based then it is knowledge-based. And if it is knowledge-based then it is puffed up, because knowledge puffs up. Most churches are puffed up. I don't know of a nice way to say that. And I really don't care to be nice about it. When I went to a sermon-centered church (as wikipedia has it) then I experienced church as something puffed up. Sorry. Because a sermon-centered church is a Bible-centered church, a knowledge-centered church. And "if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know."

The point is not knowing but being known, which is why love will always be more important than knowledge. Which is why the sermon doesn't belong in the center, but somewhere crammed in around the edges wherever it can fit in.

So we're not Bible-centered, but what is our center? I hope we could say we are Life-centered. Odd, but if LifeWay would lose the subtitles, I would probably be inspired. To truly experience the Life of the Way even once in a while would make it all worthwhile. Life is in Christ, not in the Scriptures, Biblical as they may be.

2 comments:

MJ said...

Most churches are puffed up. I don't know of a nice way to say that.

I talked about this in my yeast post. It is so like that....Oy! Little pockets of air all connected and "puffed up".

It really sounds like you are getting to a good place. I'm glad.

John Three Thirty said...

I passed a church shign today reading "Knowledge is power only when put to work."

Go figure. More human sayings and human wisdom passed off as of God.

Calgon, take me away.

This song is resonating with me. It's in my heart and has found my voice. I admit to being a Christina Perry fan. I've been known to...