Living what we are believing

One of the big pushbacks regarding a truly Biblical ecclesiology I hear is the “Yeah, but…” response. What it normally boils down to is that even though the Scripture is clear on an issue, we feel free to say “Yeah, but how does that work in real life?” Because we are either unwilling or perceive that we are unable to make it work in “real life”, we fill in the blanks with what “works” and what is traditional. Alan Knox has started a new series on church life that promises to be very helpful. You can read his intro here and the first post “Church Life #1” here.

I am very interested in reading this series. As you start to really explore what the Scripture teaches about the church and how Christians live together, it is jarring because many of our traditions, even in the most conservative, Reformed streams of the church are essentially unsupportable from Scripture. Where we as a family gather with the church has many of the earmarks of a Biblical ecclesiology but still falls short in the daily living out of the Body of Christ. It should be great reading, I encourage you to check it out, weigh in and most of all really think about the church. Virtually every Christian recognizes that something is broken and has been for a long time. What I hope we will do is look to the Scripture first to see what God has said about the church instead of to our traditions or pragmatism. There seems to be a movement afoot to do that very thing, and that can only be healthy for the church.