Dave Warnock (no relation!) has produced a post that convicts me somewhat, although I have always agreed with his sentiment at least in theory! Essentially he seems to be outing me as someone who exhibits “a consistent assumption echoed by many others that mainstream ‘traditional’ Churches are dying, non scriptural, liberal, non evangelical and in some cases even non Christian.”
I dont think I have ever said exactly that in a blog. But perception is everything and so I owe David and others an apology. It is easy to attack faceless people with whom you differ. It is easy for us to form ghettos. To my shame I have to admit that for years now I have tended to retreat into what I know. What we see on the internet can reflect what happens in the real world. Sadly for example I know very little of preachers and teachers from other backgrounds to my own. For example I have never even listened to a sermon by T.D.Jakes who I have heard described by some as possibly the greatest preacher alive. Why not? Am I so arrogant as to think I have nothing to learn from people who are wrestling with God’s word but come from a different perspective to me? I hope not.
I suspect that the main reason I do not listen to preachers from outside my “circle” is that I simply havent tended to talk to many christians from outside my circle. Blogging really can bring people togther to discuss what they have in common, and yes what they differ on. I believe that there are very encouraging signs accross the christian blogosphere that demonstrate that christian bloggers are beginning to interact accross the barriers that typically have separated us.
David continues:
So why am I writing this?First, I want to plead with Christians like Adrian from other traditions to move on and stop seeing us as their enemy. To stop trying to find formulations of what it means to be a Christian that are narrow and exclude other traditions.
Secondly, I want to ask Christians to be more open to other traditions, more willing to see the good, more willing to be tolerant. It is far easier to breed intolerance than tolerance, but surely the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit encourage tolerance.
Lets learn as Dave puts it not to “attack those whose faith journey is different.” We must learn to stop confusing doctrine with people. I may strongly disagree with a doctrine but should never allow that to make me critical of another brother or exhibiting an unhelpful harshness. People are all loved by God. We do have a need to engage with one another but to do so humbly and gently with the knowledge that we are all on a journey. I need to try and help my readers and those I interact with both on this blog and in real life to take the next step towards God from where they are currently. Lest that sounds condescending, I need to allow others who may be in a totally different place from me right now to help ME (as my namesake the methodist has today!) to take my own next small step towards God from where I am right now. If we are all moving from where we are now towards God then we should find that over time we get closer together!
To put it simply we have to learn how to speak the truth in love towards oneanother. (see Ephesians 4)
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