18 June 2008

overly biblical

I participate in a church which is part of the brethren movement, which places a great amount of stress on its statement: "The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible."  This sounds great and quickly cuts through a lot of garbage which otherwise gets in the way of a sound biblical church, but is showing kinks within its armor in some of the church polity and practice.  This is primarily because it does not allow for theory and practice to integrate well enough.

Although it is necessary for a church to be built upon Scripture before any creed or statement of faith, there is still a very human element which is found to the workings of the church.  Ignoring this as a reality does not help the situation, it hinders a practical and effective outworking of the community.  At present, I am participating in meetings which are trying to explain various procedures concerning the church government and it seems as though the leadership is trying to go out of its way in order to make sure that everything in our government is "biblical."  Again, this sounds better than it really is.

Question: Is there anything wrong with churches admitting that a certain portion of what we do is human and comes from a human perspective, so long as it is guided and driven by Spirit and Word?  Is not the message of the church that the kingdom of God comes to unite heaven and earth (individually as exemplified in the Incarnation), so that a fallen and corrupt humanity can be cleansed and integrated with a holy God.

I might be treading on ground which needs clearer thought, but my ecclesiology leads me to think that the church is both human and divine - the partnership which reflects a restored people of God and which foreshadows the ultimate joining of the new heavens and the new earth.  Thus, our approach to church should reflect this.

But I probably would have been just fine if we could just admit this and stop making everything sound so super-spiritual (super-biblical?).

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