All or nothing

Alan Knox posted something interesting this morning Church: Impossible. When we look at the church in the New Testament and then the church as we traditionally understand it, the gulf can seem so enormous that real change does seem impossible. Making matters worse, it doesn't seem like a lot of people (although the numbers grow seemingly daily) seem to recognize or care that there is this gap between our practices and understanding of the church and what the Bible seems to be portraying.

Here is something I was thinking about as well. In our fervor for a "New Testament church", are we guilty of an "all or nothing" mentality? It seems so frustrating that the pace of change is so slow. People are so resistant. Progress is miniscule. I think we need to remember that this situation has taken hundreds of years to create and has an enormous amount of tradition and inertia on its side. Change, if it is to truly happen, is going to take time. Lots of time. In some ways I think that true change is not likely to happen in my lifetime and that rather than focusing on changing the church into a perfect model right now, we are instead laying the ground work for future generations, preparing the church that our believing children and future generations of Christians will inherit.

That is frustrating. I want it now! It is quite unlikely that in my lifetime, or at least in the foreseeable future, we are going to see the crumbling foundations of institutional Christendom come tumbling down: church buildings sold and the money given to the poor, clergy getting tent-making jobs and the savings used to fund itinerant evangelists and missionaries, the divisions in the church by race, denomination and class broken down, etc. In addition, many or most Christians are not comfortable with something “different” even if that difference is more Biblical. Change and discomfort makes people resistant. That means that change we see is likely to be incremental.

I think the impulse and the one that I have been following is to shake the dust off of our sandals at the door of the institutional church and go our own way. That seems very noble in our eyes but it means that we are dividing ourselves from the rest of the church, the vast majority of which is comfortably cocooned in the institutional model of the church. Sure we are meeting “the right way” but we are also cutting ourselves off from the rest of the church. I vacillate on this issue a lot because it is so often an all or nothing proposition. There must be a way to be in fellowship with the greater church and yet still be seeking after a more organic fellowship, Kingdom cooperation and community with other believers. I am growing concerned that the ‘all or nothing” approach is a great way to cut ourselves off from the church and that ought not be our goal.

What do you think? Where do we draw the line or should we not be in the business of line drawing at all?