What exactly is it about so many Christians, including me too often, that we seem to define ourselves by who we agree with and perhaps more so by who we disagree with in the church. I am not talking about confronting actual heresy or false belief systems. I talking about the kind of mindset where conversations like this: "I love John Piper but he likes Rick Warren and I don't like Rick Warren so now I don't like John Piper" are not considered irrational.I guess I would rather see John Piper have an honest, civil conversation with a brother in Christ, even one I disagree with on many levels, than listen to those men who hide themselves away in their self-defined doctrinal bunkers where they snipe at men they don't like. The internet has made this even worse. Which ministries do you "like" on Facebook. Who do you retweet on a regular basis? Which blogs are in your blogroll? The church has taken on the look and feel of a high school lunchroom. Who is in the "in crowd"? Who is on the outs with the cool kids?
It doesn't really matter who I "like" or who I friend on Facebook or follow on Twitter. What matters is who Jesus has chosen and each and every person that He has chosen is my brother or sister in Christ.
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Arthur,
"The church has taken on the look and feel of a high school lunchroom. Who is in the "in crowd"? Who is on the outs with the cool kids?"
That was what I said to my wife, very close to word for word, when I returned from my first pastor's conference more than thirty years ago.
I was introduced to a couple of longer serving men, one of whom promptly asked, "how many baptism have you had this year?"
From that time on I never counted baptisms, or membership numbers.
John, that used to be a common question other pastors asked me "how many you run on Sunday?" They also were quite sad for me that I worked a regular job because my church couldn't pay me a full time salary. It was tragic indeed that I had to spend time out among the heathen instead of preparing my Sunday sermon safe and sound in my office.
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