I learnt a new word today - watchblogging.
Apparently it is a pejorative term for 'heresy hunters'. I can see some truth in it. Evangelicalism does seem, even if inadvertently, to encourage a kind of reactionary response to culture. Hence lots of blogs set up simply to 'watch' the church and the world and to keep us informed as to what they've done wrong now.
As we have seen in the book of Revelation, deception is one of Satan's main methods of attack. Therefore watching out for false teaching is a good thing. Nevertheless, discernment implies sifting the wheat from the chaff, not just scorching everything!
So, my new month resolution is to try and to be positive about what is good as well as to criticise...
... here's something good about the Orthodox church - its corporate emphasis on the church, but not as an institution, as believers in Christ. A healthy corrective to western individualism.
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4 comments:
A useful and timely corrective to an all too easy trap.
three cheers!
Indeed, I confess to being too quick to 'scorch' rather than 'sift'. Perhaps you can help me with some redeeming qualities of Hillsong? Have some friends who just paid hundreds of dollars to fly over to Sydney to attend their conference.
Hi Sofie,
Well, at least they didn't spend that money on drugs or guns ... :-)
More seriously, Hillsongs represents the other end of this spectrum.
They are very 'culture affirming' and therefore want to do everything well... great music, video, publicity, coffee ... you get the point.
As one might expect this has strengths and weaknesses. It rates high on the doctrine of creation. God made this world good and we are created in his image. It is fulfilling our creation mandate (from Genesis 1) when we do these things well for His glory.
However, such a view is not very critical of culture. We were created good but we are fallen. So the need for redemption can be squashed. The gospel is essentially counter-cultural ... we need saving, we cannot save ourselves, ultimate good is not found in money, great music, even .... stagger ... great coffee - it is found in Jesus. We don't want to do anything that distracts from that.
Therefore, we need to avoid both extremes. If church is too 'professional' this distracts from the gospel message. But equally, if church is too 'daggy' this distracts as well. Our aim is to present Christ clearly so that the world can hear.
Just testing account...
Cathy
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