Comments on: Loving a Flawed Heritage

By: Nancy Grace DVD: The Director’s Cut » Mark Elrod’s Lame-O Weblog

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:54:22 +0000

[...] about her, you’ll have to try another blog. I highly recommend either Travis Stanley or Mike Cope. « Let’s Play Ball, Mr. President! | True, False or “All of the [...]

By: PreacherMike » Blog Archive » On Lightening Up a Wee Bit

PreacherMike » Blog Archive » On Lightening Up a Wee Bit — Tue, 09 May 2006 12:00:59 +0000

[...] I’ve mentioned before the three views one can have of parents: a child’s view (my parents are perfect and have no faults); an adolescent’s view (my parents are embarrassing embeciles); and a mature adult’s view (my parents have strengths and faults). [...]

By: Leanne

Leanne — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 13:35:27 +0000

History shows us that no generation has NOT been judged harshly by the next and I don’t think it’s reasonable to think, somehow, that our generation will escape that criticism. That’s a very humbling thought, and one that reminds me to focus MORE on my own walk with the Lord and less on criticism of the past and of others.

By: Carl McLendon

Carl McLendon — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 01:56:22 +0000

I have a sense of great joy in how we are helping to shape our CofC traditions for the people who will follow us. God is doing great things…

By: Joseph

Joseph — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 19:32:08 +0000

Alot of these accusations aren’t the church of Christ’s fault. Case in point: “101 Questions to Ask Campbellites” by Pastor A.A. Davis of the First Baptist Church in Nowata, OK. Denominations spread false information about the church of Christ.

By: Kelley

Kelley — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 19:30:16 +0000

There is much to learn from anyone’s flawed past. Mine, yours, your marriage’s , your family’s, your individual church’s , your career’s, your nation’s, your state’s, etc.
If we were perfect people with a perfect past, we wouldn’t need Jesus.
So praise God for our flawed past experiences! It’s there at His perfection is magnified.

By: qb

qb — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 17:20:31 +0000

My wife and I left the CoC for the Indie Christian Church about a decade ago because of what we perceived as stifling legalism and the cognitive dissonance that it engendered. But we haven’t wandered far, largely because I find this heritage so rich indeed. In fact, since I began work on an M. A. in Theology at ACU this past January, I have been exposed to a lot of what Abilene seems to be about. It is astounding. I used to think of ACU as being one of the institutions whose mission was to preserve CoC orthodoxy at all costs; and what I have found, in contrast, is a Graduate School of Theology that does not make “challenging orthodoxy” its central focus but that is singularly unafraid to do so when and where it’s needed for the sake of the Kingdom and its integrity. And I’m also finding that some of the very best, most topical and relevant Biblical reasoning and writing being done today is coming out of the CoC tradition – by my reckoning, anyway, for what it’s worth. It is greatly encouraging and heart-warming to see it close-up.

So carry on, folks. I love what I’m learning from you. qb

By: Joel Maners

Joel Maners — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 05:19:10 +0000

I just found Pastor Tom Rhukala’s e-mail address. How about all of us write him a note repenting of our attitudes and asking his forgiveness.

tom.ruhkala@kolumbus.fi

By: Joel Maners

Joel Maners — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 02:24:40 +0000

I just finished reading The Last Wrod. One of the best books on scripture that I’ve read. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that Wright is one of “us”. It’s amazing that you have to travel half way around the world to find someone as knowlegable and eloquent about matters that are so central to what we are about as the Restoration Movement. Every person in our fellowship should read this book.

Thanks for your comments Mike.

By: paul

paul — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 02:23:10 +0000

I have often been tempted to leave the old CoC because of our humans traditions but I keep going back to the Word and a belief that we really do respect and try to follow it as the Word of God. We are imperfect at best. Our arguments are shoddy and biased at times. Our heart is sometimes prideful. But deep down there is a love for God that drives many of us to seek truth over tradition, love and mercy over correctness, and mission over status quo.

Many of our returning missionaries have trouble finding a place in traditional churches because we have had to study and discern the difference between Biblical christianity and white, middle class, North American christianity. God is there if we will seek him. He loves his church and so should we. Where else can we go?

By: Paul Clark

Paul Clark — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 02:00:22 +0000

Danny, That Crazy Dog video is just plain scary……..

By: Kathy

Kathy — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 20:25:32 +0000

My spiritual journey has been such a blessed one!

Talk about being raised in a CofC tradition, that was my fortune and in some respects, misfortune. But that tradition taught me to fear the Almighty, to know He is, was and always will be, to know He established His church, and most importantly and gloriously, that through the sacrifice of Jesus, there is salvation and promise of eternal life with Him. I learned what He has done.

The past 14 years have found me in other traditions, same basic beliefs, but different decor, if you wish. This part of my journey has taken me through the doors of less traditional CofCs and also those of the Evangelical tradition. These two fellowships have brought me through the pain of recovering legalist, to “in Jesus there is freedom” /o\ PTL!

These later years have shown who Jesus IS, not only what He has done – I’ve heard the heart cries for unity in the body of Christ, in HIS church, have participated in quite different ‘decors’ including types of music sung, played, in worship and praise. These later congregations had one overriding aim – reach the lost through following Jesus in all we do and say. In none of these congregations have I heard a demand that we be the first, last and only voice of full truth. Central, core Christian beliefs became even more precious as the trappings were stripped away, leaving room to rejoice in those beliefs, to explore them more deeply.

These have been ministering congregtions – loving and serving the needy and those in pain and difficult areas of life, including divorce recovery, single parenting, addiciton recovery, living with the affects and effects of AIDS/HIV, et al. These congregations have been far more concerned with knowing more about Jesus and mirroring His love in service to the neediest and lost in their communities than they have been in furthering a tradition. May I say Hallelujah! and Thank YOU LORD, for congregations such as these. May their numbers multiply!!

By: Danny Mercer

Danny Mercer — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 20:02:23 +0000

This has to be what God sees when we bicker and fight with each other in the church. http://youtube.com/watch?v=4cSRpu7bI04

By: SG

SG — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 19:40:25 +0000

Yes, I think we must learn to love our flawed heritage, because really, does any one have an unflawed heritage? I also thnk you can love something while still recognizing a need to grow, change, and adapt away from it. Great quote here Mike!

By: Larry James

Larry James — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 19:21:04 +0000

In what sense is scripture itself simply or also a record of the traditions dveloped by those past pilgrims and disciples who responded to God and to their experience and understanding of God by recording the truth as they understood and received it?

Surely, Paul’s rabbinic background played a role in the manner in which he spun out directions and opinions about women, slaves and congregations. We see the same reality in the Hebrew Bible do we not?

Traditions are the stuff we work with. The question is what is the nature, the fundamental quality of our traditions?

Do they exclude or include?

Are they of grace or of regulation?

What affect do our traditions have on individuals? On groups?

Do they unite or do they divide people?

Do they incite us to argument and judgment or to love and good works?

Do they cause us to feel superior or do they bring with them humility, service and justice?

Do they lead us to major on the main things? Or, do they distract us, conveniently at times, from the weightier matters?

Our experience during the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s provide us a sort of litmus test.

Where were we?

In the streets battling for justice?

Or in our church houses teaching about the sin of using instrumental music in worship?

Traditions are inevitable, inescapable. The basic nature and practical direction of the traditions we embrace and defend will tell us much about the path we are on and much about our hearts, it seems to me.

We do ourselves no favor by ignoring the dark shades of our past and our present. The only way out is to face truth as we craft new responses, new traditions by which to order our lives.