I have some questions to ask. Please feel free to leave lengthy comments (or short ones) about this.
1. Who has the authority over the ordinances/sacraments (baptism and communion, specifically)?
a. Would you be ok with your husband baptizing your kids?
2. What does it mean, to you, to be a part of the church (member?)?
3. What does "the church" mean to you? Locally? Globally?
Those are all the questions I can think of right now. After I get some opinions, I will have to share a lengthy issue we have been dealing with. And are tired of dealing with. Sometimes I just like to find out if I'm really weird in my thinking, or if I'm normal and other people are weird. :-) Or, if we are all weird! :-)
3 comments:
1. in *our* church, the baptizer is usually a pastor or small group leader... or the person who to the baptiz-ee saved. Communion is is usually served by council members (the elders) but other times the pastor has the hubands/fathers serve their families... or sometimes we serve eachother & pray w/eachother... really sweet to have the body of christ serving & ministering to eachother
a) i would LOVE it if my husband baptizes my kids! :)
2. in our church (again)to become a member, you have to take a class to learn what the church believes. then you sign a 2 page covenant that basically says, "i will protect the unity of my church by acting in love toward others, by refusing to gossip, by following the leaders... i will share my respoinibility of my church by praying for its growth, by inviting the unchurched, by welcoming those who visit... i willlserve the ministry of my church by discovering my gifts & talents, by being equipped to serve, by developing a servant's heart...i will support the testimony of my church by attending fiathfully, by living a godly life, by giving of my tithes and offerings regularly...i will grow in meaningful, caring relationships atmy churgh by becoming a part of one of our life groups & faithfully attending, by cultiviating caring, nurturing relationships with others,by praying for and caring for the practical needs of others..." each one of those points is backed up with a scripture. and when we haven't kep that covenant, the pastor has taken us aside & talked to us about whether we still want to be members. i really like the closeness & accountability at our church... but i digress
3. church... a body of believers who strive to grown in love and unity with christ & eachother... ideally, serving & praying for eachother...helping those in need--either each other, or the community. Everything in Acts. i guess it would say, simply, the church is people who love God & love others. something to that effect
Thanks Kari. I like the covenant you guys sign to be members. Very cool. I've usually just heard of signing something that says you agree with that church's doctrine, etc. I like the covenant to "love" the people, etc.
I will explain the reason for my questioning later. I sort of need to figure out how to write it down before I just go off and say stuff. :-) Sometimes that actually gets me in trouble!
Okay, I have a few minutes to comment on this post:
#1. I had to think about this one for a few minutes. It seems to me that in the early church in Acts, strong christian leaders were doing the baptizing and serving communion, whenever they were gathered together. Not just your Pauls and Johns. Following this, I would be fine with my husband baptizing my kids as long as he was a strong christian and believed He was following God's leading.
When Jesus created communion, he just asked them to participate in that sacrament 'in rememberance of him' --not specifying 'only if served by your pastor.' So, communion would also be okay served by any christian who understood what they were doing.
#2 I really don't much like the idea of church 'membership' much, although we are members of our church. I hate the 'in crowd' idea, especially as Jesus didn't go in for exclusionary tactics (although he had the 12 disciples, so he had 'members' of a sort, in order to teach them and develop them into leaders who could go out and spread the gospel). However, as far as I understand it, membership has to do with commitment. As in, we're no longer shopping for a church, this is the community we belong to and we are committed to trying to build it up and serve it and know the individuals in it and work through problems together. I don't think membership precludes deciding the church no longer fits you and leaving (after trying to make it work for awhile and doing some soul searching), nor does it give anyone in the church the right to pressure you into manifestations of that commitment (ie, the mormon church requires a specific $ tithe from members).
#3 The church is fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Period. If you meet another Christian on an airplane, you're 'church,' if you go to an evangelical church in Taiwan and don't understand a word of the service, if you go to a Catholic cathedral service in Europe and don't understand the traditions, that's church. Church is a community of believers (by communtiy I mean two or more).
p.s. I vote we're all 'weird!!'
Post a Comment