Courage to be a Truth Seeking Christian.

The following is a compilation of thoughts that I have thought for years as I experienced college and then being in a local church. There seems to be question within the structure of evangelicalism as to whether or not we hold to the bible as "THE authority" or "AN authority." I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that my life needs to be modeled within the confines and structures of God's word and his word only. This is the genesis of this discussion.

I have been thinking recently about the structure of the local church. I went to college with guys part of "Gen X" who were thinking in this paradigm of "emergent church structure." Let me attempt to define what I mean by that statement. Emergent Church structure would be a networked church, intertwined with relationships, small, focused on each other and the community that the people have missed for years with large church structure. It is a church that seeks to be "different" and has begun to redefine (or at least tried) the face of Christianity. Emergent Church structures recognize that we are living in a very different world today than was 25 years ago. We are working with different types of people that have very different experiences than the "tradition" church often understands to be the general audience.

While my emergent church "Gen X" friends wouldn't like that I defined what there church is about, I have my questions with the emergent church and the questions come back to the very basic belief of the authority of God's word. I am a believer in this idea of deep intimate community where we share things together. Where there is authenticity, where there is powerful connections and believe that God's word says this is important for the believer to be a part of. My question comes with the straying from God's word. My emergent friends would say that God's word is certainly "an" authority. I believe that God's word is "the" authority. And if we are going to engage in a game of symantics, I would say that God can work through any structure that truth from his word is foundational in! God's word is powerful, it is sharper than any double edge sword and will penetrate the depths of our heart.

Maybe the following is what i respond negatively too...

It's a thought about truth and instead of truth being already defined, all of a sudden the truth is being defined now. God's word has already defined truth! It's already there for us!

This discussion of emerging church (changing the face of Christianity) has become more about change than looking at God's word and really understanding the roots of our faith, the foundations that God has given us to work with. No doubt that church structures in America need to be evaluated. No doubt that we need to be biblically sound in the way that we "do church" and instead of doing church, we need to "Be the church." No doubt that we need community, intimacy, accountability, but we also need truth to inundate and capture our hearts and that truth must be gleaned from God's word.

I love West E. Free Church. I love what happens here week in and week out. One of the "programs" that West E. Free has put into place is "life groups." This is a small group of people that get together for the sole purpose of accountability and community. And that is exactly what I have experienced. We experience the biblical element of community with God's people weekly. But we don't water down truth at West E. Free. There is a comittment from leadership to establish God's word as "The Authority." It is what we look to for direction and decision making.

I also love the fact that West E. Free is focused not just on one age group but on all age groups. If you look at our church, we have someone or a group of people from age 0 to age 90! One of the marks of emergent church structure that I have seen is reaching the "Gen X'er" and while I think that it is the dream of the emergent church to reach out to all age groups, the focus, target audience is the Gen X'er and so that is who this structure will reach. God's word reaches across boundaries of Generation, it reaches across boundaries of experience and penetrates deeply! I am reminded of Psalm 145 that says that "one generation will commend your works to another!" We will tell stories of God's faithfulness to the next generation as we seek to teach and admonish them in the faith.

J.D. Grear posted an article back in July that I began to process and think through which was the catalyst for this discussion in my head.

I'm excited about where the "Church" the body of Christ is going in its' quest for truth. I am shocked at the lack of authority that churches (local churches) have put on God's word as they make decisions within their communities. I am shocked at the focus on community rather than focus on truth first.

I do not mean to be harsh in this statement with the emergent church. There are some focuses of those that would call themselves part of this movement that are very biblical. I would love to see someone hold to the authority of scripture and yet bring scripture to light in some of the areas that the emergent church has brought it to light.

This is a conversation that I have had with myself for a few years. It's an ambiguous definition-less excercise that is often fairly frustrating for me to sort through.

God, give me the wisdom and understanding to follow your word completely and understand what your law and definition of following YOU is. I desire to seek your word and your truth and base everything that I do from those seekings and findings.

Amen.