[NOTE: To anyone who may have read an earlier version of this post--I had made some (I thought) oblique reference to a personal situation with a friend. I should not have included that in what really is a post about a general issue in evangelicalism. I apologize for any upset that may have caused. If you never saw it or don't know what I'm talking about....good!]

For the second day in a row, I find myself linking to an iMonk post. In The Problem with Real Christians, Michael Spencer continues his musings about our strange preoccupation with labeling ourselves (and others). In this post, he points out how we have this obsessive need to define who is and who isn’t a Christian.

As I read the piece (and the wonderful, wise words of C. S. Lewis with which it begins), it occurred to me that a whole lot of the heartache and schismaticism (if I may coin a word) that happens among Christians has its origins in this need to precisely define “Christian,” especially in terms of “them who ain’t.” Too many times in the past I have witnessed way too up-close-and-personal the pain, sorrow, and downright madness that occurs when some who “think they are doing God a favor” (John 16:2) use their positions of power to tighten that circle until it only includes “people who think like we do.”

Spencer wraps up with these words:

The problem for many people is their desire to create a church of certainty more than a church of Jesus. On the other side of baptism and the Lord’s Table they want something that is never found in the pages of the New Testament. The churches of the New Testament, like Jesus’ parable, are a mixture of wheat and tares. Church discipline does not happen out at the perimeter, but near the center, where Paul understands the power of inclusion and exclusion will do the most good in making us like Jesus. Where the sharp edges of distinction need to be understood is by those who openly claim to be following Jesus in a relationship of community and accountability.

We are too quick to take up Jesus’ winnowing hook for him, forgetting that the “tares” we slice through just may be wheat in disguise…or wheat we refuse to see.

(Photograph © 1999-2007 Dries Buytaert, used under terms of Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.)

This entry was posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 9:37 pm and is filed under Christian Community, Reformedom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.