...about things that interest me and are (hopefully) edifying!

But our God is in the heavens;
He does whatever He pleases. Psalm 115:3

Soli Deo Gloria!!

Thursday, December 08, 2005

On Purpose Driven Criticisms

I am 100% behind testing Rick Warren and the Pupose Driven "method" against Scripture and doctrine, but I wonder why there is such a vehement rejection by many in the Reformed faith of a movement calling folks back to the "Heart of Worship" and a message rejecting the "me" centered pop-culture?

What is wrong with recognizing the effectiveness of diversity in worship and the leveraging the power of the Arts to reveal the Master Artist?

I absolutely do not posit that we should tailor the Gospel to the culture, but why not tailor worship to be as efficacious and edifying as possible?

I am all about the Regulative Principle of Worship, but the Principle should be a "guide" rather than a "shackle" to Christian liberty.

"His yoke is easy and His burden is light"

The problem ( as I see it) with many of the historic and reformed denominations is that we have forgotten that we have kindred out there with different measures of faith and that the church is like a great banquet.

At the banquet you have infants, children and adults.

If you only provide rich meat, the infants starve and the children grow tired of the plainess.

The adults are happy, because they know the value and rarity of the rich meat.

If you want to draw the infants and children in Christ to the banquet, you must prepare a table for them. (Feed my sheep!)

Knowledge of God cannot be consumed in one great bite - we must have charity to those whom the Lord has appointed to set the table and feed the sheep "pure spiritual milk" ...and prepare them to become adults in Christ.

I am fairly passionate about extending grace to those whom at least are making an impact and I do not think it is our place to judge a brother that we have not gone up to and said - "Brother, you have offended me."

Maybe I am just concerned that we look at all the reasons why NOT to support our kindred as they prepare a winsome environment. Besides, if you examine the literature, while it may be elementary, it is not error filled.

It seems that we are so "zealous" here to combat error that we see it in everything around us - we begin a process of endless regression that peels away our unity bit by bit until the remnant is a distillation of applied Law - binding our Liberty in Christ.

Every expression of Liberty is NOT the path to the slippery slope toward license and heresy.

So my point is: Associating with sinners and trying to test everything and keep the good within bounds is not necessarily an indicator of heresy - it can be the pathway to growth or the doorway to righteousness and forgiveness.

But if you only set the table for adults...

No comments:

...about things that interest me and are (hopefully) edifying!

But our God is in the heavens;
He does whatever He pleases. Psalm 115:3

Soli Deo Gloria!!


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