understanding of God (our scholarship) dominate our spiritual lives to the point that these priorities relegate ministry and justice to places of less significance than what our true faith should require. But, when we have been at our best, this has not been a problem. When we have truly worshipped, including our Sunday corporate worship, and when we have experienced true theological understanding, even in its most ivory tower, esoteric forms, ministry and justice have also been priorities, because all of these elements are part of what it means to authentically live out our faith.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Avoiding False Dichotomies in Faith and Ministry
If Jesus is our model, authentically living out faith means understanding that relating to, ministering to, and instructing/leading needy people must be what we do much of the time; this must be a priority not just for faith, but for life. At the same time, I don’t think this day by day, moment by moment focus on blessing others makes coporate worship less significant, but enhances its importance because here we not only participate directly in worship, but we also minister to the faith and very significant spiritual needs of others, along with ministering to their needs for community (yes, I think true community can happen in Sunday worship; it happens for me all the time!). Further, I don’t think that making ministering to others a priority means that time spent gaining personal intellectual understanding and knowledge of God or Scripture, or even focus on doctrinal fidelity, somehow become less important, because these parts of faith are crucial not only in our personal relationships with God, but in what they enable with respect to our ministering to others. My point is that holding up ministry and downplaying worship is a false dichotomy for faithful people. We do not—cannot—choose ministry or justice over worship in order to get Christianity right. In fact, to do so de-legitimizes our efforts at ministry as much as choosing worship over ministry or justice de-legitimizes worship. Further, holding up ministry or social justice and downplaying personal intellectual understanding of God or Scripture is an unbalanced approach to prioritizing. We do not—cannot—choose ministry or justice over personal intellectual understanding and knowledge of God or Scripture to get Christianity right. Granted, the history of my faith tradition in Churches of Christ has at times made it look like Sunday mornings and/or knowledge of the Bible or doctrine are higher priorities than day by day, moment by moment faith-fostered focus on blessing others. So, it is a good thing that we would challenge ourselves to not let Sunday worship or personal intellectual
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agreed! i wrestled with this for years in a conscious way, and i think i still do sub-consciously at times. by that i mean that there was a time where i was so fed up with only seeing church as a sunday morning thing, that i very nearly threw that out to simply focus my faith on social justice issues, as i saw that being the main focus of Jesus. but i know now that this view was incomplete and i let my frustration with the tendency to see church as only a sunday morning time cloud my view for that which i was most passionate about. at any rate, i agree with your assessment above, but i do still sometimes fall into the trap of lessening the importance of sunday morning, even though i know how valuable it can be and is for connecting, worshipping and building each other up.
ReplyDeletegood post.