Reaching Out...

Yesterday, for our small group meeting, we went to a new group that was being started by some of the older members and more knowledgeable teachers that would focus on having an environment to allow people to bring friends or acquaintances to a non-threatening bible study. Our group went along just to help support the leaders and to have a few people there, since a number of our usual group were gone on either vacation or personal reasons. Essentially, the point of the group as defined by them is to have a place where people can bring questions or things that they want to study, and that will be the objective for the day. That way, if you meet someone who you don't feel would be comfortable in an intense study within a particular group, you can bring them there and allow them to dictate more of the direction if they should feel so inclined. I think it's a good idea, and it would do well for new Christians or people seeking to learn more. However, I don't know if that's how it will end up working in practice.

The main problem that I had with what was discussed last night dealt with the mind-set of the people that are going to be leading it. After a prayer and some of the usual chat when you've got people together, we got into some discussions. Well, the older people got in to some discussions while I sat back and listened. Now, I respect the older members of the church, as I feel like they have unique wisdom and insight, but I also feel like a lot of what they say is based on traditions, and that they go to Scripture in order to support their traditions. People were saying that if it's not expressed in the Bible, then they won't go along with it, but then they go on to make assumptions about things that are said in order for it to fit their view. Is that not contradictory? Maybe it's just me...

The main point of the evening was talking about unity. Do I think that unity is a good thing and that we should strive for it? Absolutely. But it comes to the point of what you define as unity. My impression was that unity, for the majority of older people was that everyone should become CoC. Stereotypical of Coc, but clearly evident here. They spent probably about half an hour talking about how some of them grew up in the Baptist church, and how they now felt that they had to go and show them how they were wrong and we were right. Are you kidding me? When I think of unity in regards to religion, I think of Christian unity. Not CoC, Baptist, Catholic, or any other type of unity. If you think that unity is making everyone believe what you believe so that there aren't differing ideas, that's not unity.

And then I got to thinking about how that type of discussion would have worked had there been someone there visiting or seeking to learn. What would their impression have been? Probably that we view ourselves as holier than thou and that it's either our way or no way, and if you can't accept that, then we will ostracize you and not give you the light of day until you come around to what we think. It seems to me like that is not a good way to go about reaching out to people who perhaps have never heard the Gospel.

What ever happened to things such as grace? Is it our right to take the place of God and decide who is right, who is wrong, who is saved, and who isn't? Yes, we need to stand firm in our faith, and we need to teach those around us that do not know Christ. But there needs to be love and understanding to go along with it. And you need scriptural back-up. Not tradition, with scripture turned in the direction you want it. I don't claim to be right, or to know everything. For all I can tell, I might be way off on my own island in the middle of nowhere. But at least for me, the idea of unity being everyone to CoC or in the wrong...that misses the point. And to me, it's concerning if that's the type of mindset that people leading this group are going to take.