Archives for 2012

The ekklesia/church consists of individuals but it is not about individualism. New Testament writers emphasize the togetherness, the "one-anotherness" of the ekklesia/church. God did not send Moses door to door in Egypt, distributing maps with instructions on how to escape slavery one person at a time. God rescued all the Hebrews and all non-Israelites associated with them, in a single, mighty work of deliverance. Jesus does not rescue the world from sin by a succession of single-person saving events. He accomplished redemption once for all--and once done, it will never need doing … [Read more...]

In this unusually-lengthy column I explore the interesting possibility that the self-described "non-institutional" wing of the Churches of Christ might spring from premises that are excessively and unbiblically institutional. In the next (final) serving of random thoughts on this theme, I want to ramble about the American danger of over-emphasizing the individual to the neglect of a sense of community in the body of Christ. The 1950s and 1960s saw the divisive climax of a controversy within the Churches of Christ as an estimated fifteen percent of churches, who charged that certain … [Read more...]

My first published article, as best I can recall, appeared fifty-one years ago in a periodical called Firm Foundation, whose editor Reuel Lemmons was a peacemaker in a fractious brotherhood that glamorized conflict and regarded peacemaking as a cowardly past-time for compromisers and weaklings. According to Jesus, editor Lemmons deserved to be called a child of God, but extremists on both sides called him other names instead and I think that must have made Jesus sad. I called my article "Emphasis Christ," naively thinking that title would be universally agreeable. Within a month the piece was … [Read more...]

Someone might ask why it matters if the distinction suggested by the title to this gracEmail is valid or not. I suppose that the emotional and logical thinking parts of the brains of many believers are so wired that they are never tempted to ponder such subjects. I have encountered a few folks who apparently are allergic to thoughts of that genre and also to the eccentric (in the literal sense of the word, as a wheel "out of circle") thought processes that produce statements of the kind that got this sentence started. Still, I cannot stop it, don't think I need to, and would not want to do so … [Read more...]

What comes to your mind when you think of Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus? Fifty years ago as a college preacher student, I had somehow picked up the idea that those writings were primarily about "church organization" and "church office" (some people use the terms "polity" and "order"). My memory might be messing with me, but it seems like every time one of "our" preachers cited Timothy or Titus, he was explaining how the church should be organized, or defining the "scriptural qualifications" for holding "office" in the church. For the benefit of those who didn't grow up in the same … [Read more...]

IF NATIONAL OR international crises are cause for alarm, it appears that we will remain in an alarmed state. If it is not Asia it's the Mideast. If it's not a hijack in the air it's a political kidnapping on the ground. Closer to home, taxes and inflation spiral and the cost-of-living threatens national economic disaster. The first impulse is to "get away" from it all. Like David, we want to take wings into a desert place (Psalm 55:5,6). Or, borrowing words from the poet Bryant, we would "take the wings of morning" and "lose ourselves in the continuous woods." Vacations are fine from time … [Read more...]