Being picky with our preferences
Brent has a great post, "Personal Preference and Churches ." An excerpt:
If you’ve been involved in “church life” for any extended period of time, you surely know that people are not casual about their preferences. We’ve all heard the horror stories of churches splitting over the color of carpet. Some of you may have actually lived through that. Yet most of us are willing to overlook matters like the color of the carpet, but don’t you dare sing too many “contemporary” songs, or “traditional hymns,” depending on which side of the argument you come from.
One of the things that breaks my heart in this discussion is that, for a good many people, the more theologically informed we become, the more picky we become, when I’ve come to believe it should be exactly the opposite. For many people, the more theology they understand and become convicted of, and as they begin to formulate positions, many of those positions become boundary markers of what their idea of church should be when in reality, there are godly men and women on the other side of that theological conviction who just as strongly believe otherwise. In other words, many of our theological convictions are simply strongly held personal preferences, just (hopefully), with Scriptural backing.
Makes me think.
I have a handful of convictions I’m willing to die for, but many silly preferences that muddy the water making it look like those are more important.
Let’s not make good things into ultimate things. Christ is the one supreme treasure in all the universe.
Is HE my preference?
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Brent and his family recently planted a church in the Phoenix area.
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