The Fellowship, Pt. 1

"'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?' Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.'" — Matthew 22:36-40.

"If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." — famous saying with various authors.

This is not a great time for the church. In fact, you could argue it's been like this for quite some time. The thing that bothers me most about Christendom is that we spend a ton of time fighting amongst ourselves. It's not that there aren't valid reasons for this debate and inward focus, but it seems to me that all the time we spend focused inward distracts us from our outward mission. We should be reaching the world. But last year, while the PCUSA spent endless hours arguing about its new form of government, it saw a decline in membership and started only 12 new churches. That seems kind of sad to me.

Of course, this has been a tense period, as the divide between "progressive" and "evangelical" groups within our fellowship has grown too large to be ignored. Some would argue it comes down to process. Some would argue it comes down to polity. But, undeniably, it comes down to Theology.

According to the dictionary, theology is "the field of study and analysis that treats of God and of God's attributes and relations to the universe; study of divine things or religious truth; divinity." But that's a little broad. Really, it's the study of God, and God's truth for our lives, which is rooted in the undeniable consistency of Scripture.

Jesus was the fulfillment of the Scriptures. John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God; and the Word was God." Not a lot of room for equivocation there. Sadly, there seems to be too much equivocation when it comes to putting the lessons of Scripture into practice. That only widens the divide between factions of the church.

One of my favorite movies of the last few years was "Doubt." Some see the film as an indictment of the Catholic Church regarding inappropriate actions by some priests. While the film uses that to provide context, what it is really about is the differing view of the Gospel, and how to convey the Gospel to others. I love what Phillip Seymour Hoffman's priest says to Amy Adams' nun about the nature of the Gospel. He tells her the Gospel is about love, but not everyone conveys that correctly.

This week, I have the opportunity to attend a conference where some hope to build something new; something focused on the foundation of Theology and rooted in a devotion to the mission laid out in the Great Commission. It is an exciting, possible future step toward something that more accurately reflects God's will for our lives, and his will for the church.

In April of 2006, I was inspired by a vision of what God could do in Paso Robles. Working to help achieve that vision has been the most fulfilling period of my life, and I can't wait to see how God uses what's happening this week in Minneapolis, and Highlands Church, to establish His vision for the world.