Bias of the Church of Christ

So as I usually do here on the great campus of Johnson Bible College I find myself in one of those interesting little conversations where I don't agree with the masses. You see, I love these moments where I can go the opposite way of the peers around me. There is something that just gets me excited about being different and being separated from the mass. I don't know, perhaps it is the simple remnants of the teenage angst that plagued me so much in high school to the point where I would just start hitting doors and walls in my house to get out this hatred and fire I had within myself.

Now I am not implying that I hate my peers, but rather their single-minded fundamentalist Church of Christ views drive me crazy sometimes. For example I have a friend who made a remark against a book I truly enjoyed. The book was "A Generous Orthodoxy" by Brian McLaren. Now in defense of my friend McLaren is like the face of the Emergent Church and has some pretty crazy ideas out about evolution that paints Darwin as a revelationist rather than a challenger of the Christian faith. But the thing that got me is that in the book McLaren seeks to tell why he is many types of Christian and in the end states that he is unfinished. He combines many aspects of different denomination to form what he paints as his spiritual life. Now my friend says that the problem with that is that it is like syncratism. Take what you like and combine it. 

This mindset falls in line with exactly what I intend to fight against and that is that the Church of Christ is the Way Church in the New Testament. What constitutes a Christian? Is it the time of service? The type of worship? A responsive reading? An experience of communion? Prayer? Quiet time? What if I were to say that to simply be a Christian and to be a part of this body of believers all you have to do is simply believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and they accept Him as their Lord and Savior? Isn't all that is really needed. Isn't that what John said was needed when he quoted Christ in 14:6? 

Who gives a crap about the freaking doctrines and practices of the Church. Yes, I seek to find truth in the Bible. Yes, I want to understand the Bible's originally meaning. Yes, I think doctrine can be beautiful and important and can enrich a person's faith. But to be quite honest, who cares how someone gets to Christ as long as they find the Jesus that died for their sins and has called them to repentance. I can worry about the doctrines and the practices later. The number one priority is to show the people Christ. Not the doctrine. Christ. Not the sacraments. Christ. First we show Christ. And for those that accept Christ and a pursuit of living like him, they instantly become a Christian. Because a Christian should not have allegiance to the Church and their doctrines before they simply have their allegiance to being a follower of Christ. 

So what if McLaren takes parts of other denominations into his life? Are they all not our Brothers and Sisters in Christ? So what if McLaren tries to show the good sides of denominations the Church of Christ frowns upon? You see, I honestly believe that when we start believing that the Church of Christ has it all right, do what they do and you're a Christian, we are turning our faith into a system of belief; a formula. We stop searching. Unlike McLaren who admits to being unfinished, we seem to believe we have it all figured out. Well that rules out us having a relational faith with God. Because relationships are complex and they change, and we are called to be in a deep, affectionate, intimate relationship with our living, breathing, Abba Father. So maybe he is a little weird. Maybe he does combine theological thoughts and has some major doctrinal flaws (in my opinion). I think that all of us could use a little of the unfinishedness in our lives that McLaren seems to have, so that we may never stop searching and our beliefs may go beyond the institutional Church and into the great idea we call the Body of Christ.