Here’s the flip side of the coin: Church of Christ Pride
Our rigorous “back to the Bible” efforts turned Christianity into more of a head-trip than a journey with Jesus. Christianity as head-trip focuses on reading the Bible in such a way as to get everything just right: the who, what, when, where, why and how of baptism; the frequency of communion; the style of worship; the structure of our leadership; the administration of charity to orphans and widows; you know the drill.
Somewhere along the way we got the idea that God’s ultimate desire for his people was to get all of these things right. Modernity just happened to supply us with an epistemology that told us we could. Armed with a constitutional view of Scripture, a “command/example/inference” hermeneutic, and a salvation-as-scientific-equation view of the gospel, we confidently set out to restore New Testament Christianity. At some point, we came to believe we had done that very thing. I remember being told in High School that we had come as close to restoring NT Christianity as any group not possessing a time machine could.
Head-trip Christianity makes believing the right things the key to salvation. Take baptism for instance. We haven’t just taught that baptism is essential for salvation. We have taught that believing that baptism is essential for salvation is essential for salvation. It’s not enough be immersed in the name of Father, Son, and Spirit. We also have to believe certain things about baptism while we’re being immersed. Seems to me this puts the real power of salvation not in the hands of a gracious God but in the folds of our clever brains. We’re not saved by grace. We’re saved by our ability to figure out what God wants us to figure out about baptism.
(If eternal salvation depends upon our adherence to the hear-believe-repent-confess-be baptized sequence, don’t you think God would have prominently featured “the plan of salvation” somewhere in the New Testament? Would he really leave it up to a group of sincere restorationists to cut and paste verses together from all over the New Testament until they finally got it right?)
This is not so much a salvation by works version of the gospel as it is a salvation by right belief (which is not to be confused with trusting faith). Believing that we have been able to figure out all the important stuff (we call them salvation issues) has contributed to an ingrained arrogance that at times seems insurmountable.
This is what I mean by “Church of Christ Pride.”
We may no longer think we are the only ones going to heaven, but there is still an air about us that says we think we are the ones most likely to go to heaven. We’ve made our reservations. Everyone else is flying standby.
I find a residue of this kind of thinking in even our most “progressive” of congregations. We congratulate ourselves for being more open to those outside our tribe, and yet there still seems to be an attitude of superiority seeping through the cracks of our inclusive rhetoric. We are humble enough to admit that we haven’t always been right about everything, but in our heart of hearts we still believe that pound for pound, verse for verse, we’re more right about most things than all the other churches out there. We still think we are “The Lord’s Church” because we’ve figured out some things that other groups haven/t. And maybe we have. It’s ok to be right about important things. It’s not ok to be arrogant about it.
Church of Christ pride is not going to play well in a post-Christian Peoria.
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
It’s funny you mention that ‘progressive’ churches have Church of Christ of pride, but’s it true….
Last fall, I had the pleause of visiting with Dr. David Darnell a minister works with the old disicples church in Frisco, where I’m interning with a church-plant from a Church of Christ heritage. Dr. David Darnell grew up in Churches of Christ but got ran out sometime in the late 50’s early 60’s and ended up with the Disciples. Anyway…he ministered with a Disciples church in Plano for a number of years, but also got ran out of that Disciples church because he helped established a food pantry that was feeding poor African-Americans and bringing them into the church in Dallas, at the height of civil rights movement. I tell this story because he and another former Church of Christ minister tried to start a church for recovering ‘Church of Christers’ and recovering ‘Disciples.’ He said, “It’s funny, these Church of Christ people were so anxious to be free of legalism that they were just as dogmatic/legalist about having a contemporary worship service and refused to accomodate the disiciples who desired a more solemn/liturgical service.”
In my young experience, I’ve found there to be just as many legalists on the more progressive side of the ‘Church of Christ’ as there in the tradional camp. It just masks itself in different ways. Oh, that we would find out identity in the humility of the cross of Christ and not patternistic traditions (thought not neccessirily bad when understood), or new found freedom that somehow in some people’s minds makes us better and superior to those we’ve left.
Great post!
Gp
Arrogance does not discriminate. It is an equal opportunity sin. And, it is so clever that it finds ways to exist, even in the places you would think were off limits. It garbs itself in churchly language, it presents itself as correntness (Whether Biblical or Political), it seduces us and draws out our lust for power and control in seemingly (to ourselves) benevolent ways.
My great concern is that maintaining the clear identity of the Church of Christ is “essential to salvation.” Our fellowship having an identity crisis might be the very best thing for the cause of the gospel, although people get real uncomfortable with statements like that.
Wade, keep on man, this is major league stuff.
Wow… Those are all the things I ever wanted to say as I was leaving the churches of Christ that I never had the nerve to say… The thing is that in the independent Christian churches, most of us are still the same way, we just think it’s okay to rock out to our arrogance…
My wife, who never even heard of the Restoration Movement before she met me, reminds me often of just how far I still have to go.
Beneath His Mercy,
Brian
Wade, GREAT post!! Thank you for speaking the truth in love. I hope we have the ears to hear it. Your comments on baptism were dead on. This should be required reading for every “member of the church”! 🙂
I believe with all my heart that our arrogance and pride are more of an abomination to God than any “doctrinal” error we quickly point out concerning other tribes of believers.
Thank God for his mercy and grace! It is our ONLY hope!
Love you brother,
David U
How do we manage in our minds to avoid the obvious comparison to the Pharisees of Jesus’ time? It’s amazing how many times we can go over the same passages, see Jesus’ stance against them and never see ourselves in the characterization? We share the same arguments, the same neglects, the same arrogance. Somehow we see this conclave of religiously established, loophole seeking, upstart crushing, dyed in the wool conservative theological status seekers… and never see the similarities.
I’m in the middle of this “conflict” right now. I’m a CoC lifer, graduated from DLC (not DLU!) in 1984. Took a “detour” into a community church in the mid 90s where I could use my instrumental gifts (guitar). Came back a few years later. We’re in the Atlanta area now, and our church just had a large (50 or so) group leave to start a new church “plant” that will be a lot more like an ICC plant than a CoC plant. So – overall I’d be very comfortable with the theology, since it will be very similar to what I’ve known all my life. And yet, the thought of telling my parents (VERY conservative COC) that we’ve left the COC for the SECOND TIME is chilling, and would likely be harder and more traumatic than it was the first time. I wrestle with where I/we (my family) can be the most effective in ministry. (I’m spending some time at each place, and the COC side apparently has an issue with my also spending time with the “others”.) I wrestle especially with what is best for my kids – I have 2 daughters, so the COC has some real stumbling blocks for me here in the Deep South. I appreciate my heritage. I don’t like feeling as though I’m trapped in it or by it, though. I think there is SO much that the COC must let go of or die. That our belief system (BS!) is such an obstacle to being Jesus to the world that we will not last another generation.
Thank you for helping frame my thought process with both sides of this issue from a COC perspective. I really respect and appreciate your ministry to us in the blog world.
Michael
BTW – “plant” is in quotes because it was initially positioned as a plant, but the COC-folks won’t let their name be associated with the other church, and they aren’t sending any money, so it’s not a plant.
Sorry – there’s so much context needed here that it’s hard to put it all in.
One of the things that always kind of caught me off guard was there was no place in scripture that commanded that the 1st Century Church be restored I think that was just lip service because it sounded good. What it really was that we want to restore is our version of the church.
Second we have a reductionist theology that is 5 or 6 steps to heaven which even in our own movement we would discredit if we really thought about it.
But along time ago I was told by a very good brother who I love dearly and who holds to a tradionalist background that you can’t change things from the outside. I think Jesus put it more eloquently when he said, “This kind can only come out with prayer”
Placing our trust in our intellect for our salvation is just as wrong as putting it in our works. Very, very thought-provoking article.
Since this is a discussion I want to ask some questions. I agree that pride is sinful in any circumstances. After all even if we are defending Christ we don’t have the right to be un-Christlike. I have often thought about what you are saying Wade, but I do disagree with it. If we take this argument to it’s logical end it doesn’t make sense. You said, “Head-trip Christianity makes believing the right things the key to salvation.” Well believing the right things IS key to salavation. I’m not saying perfect belief because no one has that but Christ, but at least belief. Was not Christianity from the begining a taught religion? If it was then isn’t it still? After all if you don’t BELIEVE that Jesus is the Christ the son of the living God then you are not a Christian. If you didn’t BELIEVE that Jesus came in the flesh then you were not from God according to John (1 John 4:3) I know that I am guilty of pride daily, but I don’t think I was when I was baptized. Baptism is not about pride it’s about submission. It’s saying I need Christ and His blood to save me because I am totally sinfull and insufficient. Maybe in some cases the problem is not in what we have taught, but the way it was taught. I know that this is not exactly what you were getting at, but we can we take belief out of the picture? Does not belief relate to understanding?
Tom, I am so glad you jumped in with your postion. I am about to say something very contrary here, so please hang with me. Believing is not the key to salvation. Huh? Jesus is the key to salvation. I wonder if there are people being influenced by the Spirit who do not know to call it the Spirit. I wonder if Jesus works on the hearts of men and women who do not know that it is Jesus working on them? I wonder if the name of Jesus has been so corrupted by the Bible-thumping, televangelist, turn or burn, Jesus Seminar, Jesus as vending machine, health and wealth, etc versions that these people couldn’t possibly know the real Jesus and call him Jesus. They may know him, but not by using the word Jesus.
How much does one have to believe to believe enough? Do they actually have to say, “I believe in Jesus” to actually qualify as one who believes in Jesus? What if they are follwing God in the way of Jesus, but wouldn’t dare make such a claim because of the company they would be perceived to be keeping if they did?
For people who have grown up going to church or have had a hard core conversion into a church, we do not have a clue as to the meanings many people attach to the name of Jesus – and it’s not because Jesus did anything wrong. We Chrisitans have done something wrong.
I’m not interested in getting into a spitting match her, but belief, as it is understood by most Christians, is overrated.
We don’t have the luxury of Jesus being a new thing like they did in the first century. We have a Christian history loaded with bad things attached to the name of Jesus. We have lots to deconstruct. Yes, there are good things too, but the word, “Jesus” has been so contaminated by the church that we must find other ways to communicate the gospel without saying “gospel,” to communicate Jesus without making it synonymous with Church, religion, the in-group, the morally superior, etc.
Yes, belief is important, but its a loaded word that has little real meaning anymore for lots of people who love God and are seeking to find a way to relate to God.
OK, I’ll quit on that note.
Wade,
print this series and nail it to the door! You have very succinctly stated what so many want to say…. and ouch that part about “still an air about us that says we still think we are the ones most likely to go to heaven” that hurts.
Fajita -my fat buddy. as head trippy as this may sound, I still hear John’s words about wanting us to believe and have life in His name. But that is God’s currency to do with as He pleases.
I’m not sure people choose their beliefs. I know I can’t. If I could, I could choose to disbelieve something. Try choosing not to believe that Bush is in the White House. Maybe I suffer from a deficient imagination, but I can’t do it.
It’s not that I’m completely powerless in this, but if I said to someone, “For you to be saved, you must believe correctly. So, try to believe this bullet-point list. Go on: believe it! Maybe try harder.” I’ve done them a great disservice.
I cannot imagine God meant to say, “Have feelings of absolute certainty and you will be saved.” Neither can I imagine God saying, “Understand sufficiently and you will be saved.” Fajita’s question is the right one: How much is required? How much belief? How much understanding?
As far as I can tell, the Bible only gives one category of people who receive grace: the humble.
I enjoy blogs such as this that generate healthy and beneficial dialogue. Something struck me, Wade, in your original post when you said “Church of Christ pride is not going to play well in a post-Christian Peoria.” I think you’ve addressed a very important “attitude” shift that must take place within churches.
I am a church-planter here in Salem, Oregon and believe your statement was on target. I just finished a coffee-house planning meeting in which myself and two others got together to talk about our next theme discussion. One of the guys in our planning group is not, by his own definition, a Christian, but he is certainly seeking. He envisions himself on a journey of faith…just like me, he envisions his life growing closer to God. He has not made some of the same faith decisions that I have made, but I will be the first to say that he is more humble and empathetic than many followers of Christ that I know.
I find your comments intriguing, especially from a post-modern point of view in which many of the “traditional” boundaries lines are being blurred and where contradiction is often a way of life – and not a crisis of confusion. Just a few thoughts from a guy who probably needs another cup of coffee.
Who got to pick the 5 steps to salvation anyway? Why those 5? What happened to love God and love your neighbor? Those are listed as the top two, yet they are never mentioned in an invitation or altar call. If I were going to make a list of things to do to be saved, it would include way more than 5. Pray, give, serve, humble yourself. I’ve never heard anyone teach that I must become humble to enter the kingdom of God, yet that is specifically mentioned if I am to be lifted up by the Lord. You want lists, I got lists. Short ones, long ones, easy ones, hard ones. Who gets to choose?
Praise God He didn’t make a list. Jesus saves plain and simple. All He asks is that I humbly accept that gift through faith. You can call faith believing certain facts concerning Christ and the Bible, but all faith will ever be is trust, assurance, conviction that God will do what He says He will do. It is surrendering to His work on the cross to save me instead of my own measly, pitiful works and understanding. Praise God for Ephesians 2:8-9.
Somehow I just feel compelled to point out that faith itself is a gift from God:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith?and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God?Ephesians 2:8.
So how could we possibly position it in the reverse, as if it’s our gift to God?
I can’t make this stuff up!
Keith is smart.
I know this is a simple question. Oh, before I ask. I have no really stock in CoC or any affiliation. So that doesn’t matter to me.
Question: If we were able to have it. What would Paul write to the CoC? Would it be good? Would it be admonishing, or would it be encouraging?
p.s. Yeah, I know we can always look at Revelations for letters but, we seem to study Pauls letter a lot more. Its possible the words would be taken more firm…
Just a thought…
Keith,
The subject of Eph 2:8, grammatically, is salvation, not grace or faith. Salvation is (1)by grace (2)through faith (3)not of yourselves (4)a gift of God (5)not by works. Salvation is the gift under discussion. I’m not making the God’s part, man’s part argument, but faith originates in my heart in my humble surrender to the cross. It is not the gift, but my sole response to His gift.
I just want to thank Brad Giddens for his comments. Amen Brother! I also like Romans 10:9-10.
hhhh
As a former coC member, this article described everything I everfelt about the coC and its arrogence. Please keep writing these types of articles. Someday I hope the coC will finally wake up and see itself clearly in the mirror rather than “looking through a glass darkly.”
I worked with David Darnell for a year over at the Plano Church. I took care of the elderly and the people coming in looking for food……….which at that time we (I) took them over to the food pantry over at the First Baptist Church a couple of blocks away. There was no more arrogance there in that church, than there is in any Bible church or Baptist Church today. I have been run off from every denomination just about just bringing homeless women to church with me from the local shelter……….go figure……..getting told by Baptist deacons and Methodist pastors, and Bible church pastors not to bring some one in need to church. What arrogance. I have had a hard time finishing my school, and going on to seminary, so that I can actually attempt to feed my kids doing ministry. I guess I should have brought the women from the local country clubs instead……………If only people understood, that many of the women that I brought from the shelter had lives just like the women at the country club at one time, and fate or a lousy husband sent them the other direction…………May God help all of the denominations………and all of us as well!
This is great stuff! The original post and the comments are awsome.
I agree 100% with your statements on the 5 step plan and on baptism and the perverse view of its significance and application. Good Job!
I only want to add this thought to the discussion. The idea that the church of Jesus Christ ever needed “restoring” is an absurd idea. You know, the church Jesus purchased with His own blood, and said of it the “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it”.
The mystery of godliness, or righteousness, is “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. Since Jesus Christ is the head of the church, and because He indwells every member of the church by the Holy Spirit, the fictional idea that the church needed “restoring” bordered on… Well, you get my drift.
The local churches might have been in decline where the Campbells and Stone lived and ministered, but the fire has never gone out and never will.
There is no formula, no process, no religious rite to be performed, but rather a risen Christ to be embraced by child like trust.