Staying open to grace
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
My blogging has slowed down a little bit. That is mainly due to the time of the semester that we have reached, when it seems like you need a few extra hours in the day just to get everything done. I'll try to keep up a pace of 1-2 posts per week, but please forgive me if I slack off here and there.
On a good note, there are going to be some upgrades to the blog in the next few days. Nothing big, but I am adding some extra content that will help fill out what I am trying to do with the blog in general - i.e., combine articles I write in other publications with original writing here in an effort to address relevant issues confronting Gen X'ers in the church. I'll highlight those changes to the blog when they are finished.
I do want to briefly highlight my latest column in the Covenant Discipleship Quarterly, which is on staying open to new avenues of grace. In it, I tell the story of joining a new CD group last fall (which, by the way, has been a tremendous blessing). When the five of us started writing our covenant after much prayer and conversation, we discovered that we had some pretty different ideas about specific acts of discipleship to include. But instead of watering the covenant down and just going with generalized statements, we decided to contribute something of everybody in the group. That means that I am now being held accountable for acts of discipleship I might not have chosen for myself. But at the same time, I am being opened to new avenues of grace I wouldn't have known, either!
Because of our sinfulness, I take it as a given that, when we have the chance to choose for ourselves, we often choose badly. In that sense, having my brothers in the CD group choose for me is not just going out on faith - it is accepting that they might know better for me than I know for myself. Such, I believe, is the true nature of Christian community.
On a good note, there are going to be some upgrades to the blog in the next few days. Nothing big, but I am adding some extra content that will help fill out what I am trying to do with the blog in general - i.e., combine articles I write in other publications with original writing here in an effort to address relevant issues confronting Gen X'ers in the church. I'll highlight those changes to the blog when they are finished.
I do want to briefly highlight my latest column in the Covenant Discipleship Quarterly, which is on staying open to new avenues of grace. In it, I tell the story of joining a new CD group last fall (which, by the way, has been a tremendous blessing). When the five of us started writing our covenant after much prayer and conversation, we discovered that we had some pretty different ideas about specific acts of discipleship to include. But instead of watering the covenant down and just going with generalized statements, we decided to contribute something of everybody in the group. That means that I am now being held accountable for acts of discipleship I might not have chosen for myself. But at the same time, I am being opened to new avenues of grace I wouldn't have known, either!
Because of our sinfulness, I take it as a given that, when we have the chance to choose for ourselves, we often choose badly. In that sense, having my brothers in the CD group choose for me is not just going out on faith - it is accepting that they might know better for me than I know for myself. Such, I believe, is the true nature of Christian community.
posted by Andrew C. Thompson at 11:28 PM
2 Comments:
But, if your other CD brothers are also "sinful" what would make their choices any better?
Craig, I think you raise a really good point. It is just as easy for another individual to point me down a sinful path as it is for me to choose such a path for myself. In addition, even in a community setting there is the danger of "groupthink," where the collective inertia of a group in a certain direction can blind the group's individual members to the error of the group's reasoning.
Discernment is never a foolproof activity, obviously. I guess I trust more in brothers or sisters helping one another out, together with an intentional seeking after the will of the Holy Spirit through prayer and a regular searching of the Scriptures. I think the best guard against the potential of erroneous "groupthink" in particular is for the collective attention of the group to be directed toward God and tested by the rule of Scripture.
There are some helpful Scripture passages that I think have some bearing on this issue. One would be Matthew 18, where discipline in the community is framed in terms of the whole community rather than according to the individual conscience or a one-on-one interpretation. 1 Timothy 5:17-21 is relevant as well; while it mostly has to do with discipline in a negative sense, I think that by implication it suggests that all disciplined living is best done with reference to the whole community.
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