Developing Leaders & Building a Legacy
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Other Works

Four Questions to Ask When Seeing How "That Church" is Doing Things

4/20/2020

4 Comments

 
Picture
Having everyone's worship services broadcast across the web and through social media is certainly a double edged sword. It's awesome because we get to participate in other churches' experiences. For us it's been good because we can hear from friends of ours and especially my in-laws. The multiplicity of services, messages, and songs are truly a glimpse of glory. But with that comes the inevitable: someone is going to do or say something that doesn't jive with us.

It's an unfortunate but apparent reality that Christian Twitter hasn't lost its outrage edge. Whether it's churches hosting drive in services, at-home Communion, drive-by baptisms, or deciding to not even have anything broadcast until the local church re-gathers, there's no shortage of opinions and hot fire takes.

I'm not saying the way we do church doesn't matter. It does. Our doctrine of the church informs our worship, our fellowship, our practices, our values, our expectations, and our gathered hope. Our doctrine of the church gives us distinct denominational identities shaped and formed by our biblical convictions over secondary matters. Those aren't unimportant. They're part of who we are. But they're not primary issues.

Take your neighborhood, or more particularly your neighbor's house and compare it to your house. Tertiary matters are the interior design. We decorate our homes how we want and how we like it, and it's for those within. Secondary issues are the exterior and landscaping. Sure it's obnoxious to have an eyesore next door, but it's not your house. Primary issues are those that pose a risk to you, your house, or the neighborhood.

What does this have to do with churches doing drive by offerings? A lot. When we criticize, poke at, or otherwise lambast churches whose practices on secondary issues are different than ours, we're like the neighbor who comes over and tells us he doesn't like the color we chose for our shutters or how we've trimmed the hedges.

I think we have to ask ourselves four questions that probe less at the action and more at the heart. The heart of the person/church doing, but more so our own hearts.

1) What are they attempting to do with this? - A lot of these actions are done out of a genuine and sincere desire to maintain some sense of normalcy during an unprecedented trial. They're not trying to act crazy (for the most part), and they're not trying to unseat the meaning of Hebrews 10:24-25. They're trying to live faithfully and obediently according to their conscience and conviction. It may not be what you would do, but it's what they have determined they can do.

2) Is it worth interjecting myself? - Normally my answer to this is a solid no. It's not. In most cases, interjecting yourself into someone else's business means you're meddling. With that said, relational proximity does have a certain margin in this. If you put a lawn decoration in your yard that would make Clark Griswold jealous, and your neighbor who you barely know says something to you, you'll respond differently than if it's the neighbor you have over every Sunday to watch Red Zone. Relational proximity matters. If it's a big enough deal (and there may be times it is), and you've got enough relational proximity, you might be able to ask questions. If not, don't tweet.

3) Am I being humble and gracious? - This was the point Jesus was getting at in Matthew 7. It wasn't that we should never make judgments, but that we do so with balanced scales and a mirror. The balanced scales to be fair, and the mirror so we can look into ourselves. Humility is a virtue missing from most of our social media interaction, even among Christians. Graciousness is its partner. Where you have one, you typically have the other. When we're hot taking churches who do things different than us, are we being humble and gracious? 

4) What's the harm? - All of these questions are interconnected. If we give benefit of the doubt to those who practice differently than us, we also have to think about the harm the practice is doing (or more than likely not doing). For example, one prominent church (Capitol Hill Baptist in DC) has decided not to do broadcasted worship services but to show previously recorded sermons. Not how we're doing it, but no harm. They've been extremely kind in how they've taken their position. We saw a drive-by baptism done the other day pop up on our Facebook thread. Again, not how I'd do it, but there's no harm in publicly recognizing the work of Christ in someone's life. Or the at-home Communion services, whether a recipe is provided or people partake using whatever they have at home. Again, not how I'd do it. But there's no harm being done, and the fabric of the Church isn't unraveled (unless you're a transubstantiationist, but that's another story).

No two churches are going to do things the same way. That's true in normal circumstances, but it's magnified in a global crisis like this. We're welcome to disagree with what we see. That's ok. Your way and my way don't have to be the same. But I'd hope at the very least we'd begin to ask these four questions before we start firing off hot takes.

4 Comments
resumego reviews link
4/25/2020 06:20:30 pm

I believe that people evil always have something to say. Whether we do something good or accidentally do a bad thing, people will always judge us no matter how much we tell them that they don’t have the right to. I guess, it all boils down with the idea that people have their own opinion and we are all free to express it. I am sure that it’s going to the challenging for the churches, but it will be worth it.

Reply
Clarkson Coleman
10/16/2020 01:45:05 pm

HAVE YOU LOST YOUR HARD EARNED FUNDS TO THE WRONG HANDS?
MEET THE PROFESSIONAL HACKERS FOR HIRE TODAY.
[⏱️ 3min Read]
📁 Hiring a professional hacker has been one of the world's most technical valued navigating information.
Regarding:
•Recovery Of Lost Funds,
•Mobile Phone Hack.(Catching A Cheating Spouse).
•Credit Score Upgrade,
VARIOUS HACKTIVITIES via
[email protected].
High prolific information and Priviledges comes rare as it has been understood that what people do not see, they will never know. The affirmative ability to convey a profitable information Systematically is the majoy factor to success.
Welcome to the Global KOS hacking agency where every request on hacking related issues are fixed within a short period of time.
When you wonder “which hacking company should I hire, the first aspect that should concern you is Sincerity. Secondly, Rapid response. Clearly, you want to embark for services that povides swift response, With our astonishing Hackers, you will be glad to find out that our services Implies precision and action.
This post is definitely for those who are willing to turn their lives around for the better, either financial-wise, relationship-wise or businesses.
The manual Operation of this hackers is to potentially deploy a distinguished hacking techniques to penetrating computers.
If your shoe fits in any of the services below, you will be assigned to a designated professional hacker who is systematically known for operating on a dark web V-link protocol.
Providing value added services to clients as a hacker has been our sustaining goal.
Are you faced with cyber challenges like
💰Recovery of lost funds:✅(BITCOIN INVESTMENTS, BINARY OPTIONS, LOAN AND TRADING FOREX WITH FORGERY BROKERS.) 🖥️I would try my possible best to shortly explain this in particular.
This shocking study points to one harsh reality we all face today. It saddens our mind when client expresses annoyance or dissatisfaction of unethical behaviours of scammers. We have striven to make tenacious efforts to help those who are victims of this flees get off their traumatic feeling of loss. The cyber security technique used to retrieving back the victims stolen funds is the application of a diverse intercall XX breacher software enables you track the data location of a scammer. Extracting every informations on the con database. Every information required by the Global KOS would be used to tracking every transaction, time and location of the scammer. This is acheived using the systematic courier tracking base method•
However, there are secret cyber infiltrators called brokers and doom. The particular system used by this scammers permeates them to manupulate targets digital trading system or monetary fund based accounts. Strictly using a dark web rob to diverting successful trades into a negative outcome. This process bends to thier advantage while investors results to losing massive amount of money. An act of gaining access to an organization or databased system to cause damages. We have worked so hard to ensure our services gives you a 100% trading success to recover all your losses•
📲 HACKING A MOBILE PHONE:.✅ Do you think you are being cheated on? Curious to know what your lover is up to online? This type of hack helps you track every movement of your cheater as we are bent on helping you gain full remote access into the cheater's mobile phone using a Trojan breach cracking system to penetrate their social media platforms like Facebook, whatsapp, snapchat etc.
The company is large enough to provide comprehensive range of services such as•
• Email hacks📲
• Hacking of websites.📲
• Uber free payment hacks.📲
Our strength is based on the ability to help fix cyber problems by bringing together active cyber hacking professionals in the GlobalkOS to work with.
Contact:, ,
✉️Email: [email protected]
[email protected]
®Global KOS™
2020.

Reply
Sylvia Mbindyo
1/19/2025 04:25:21 am

My husband has been a hell of a problem and torn on my flesh, ever since we started having too many misunderstandings. Sometimes, he just left and never came back home until couple of days later. I was devastated and tired of his mess.. Doctor Muna made it easy and romantic again.. I confided in a friend and she told me about Doctor Muna and I consulted [email protected] and Doctor MUNA guarantees the result in 48 hours. He said "Trust the Process" He fixed my marriage again with his powerful reunion bond spell. My husband stays and lives with me and he never leaves anymore. Call or Text Doctor MUNA WhatsApp +2347035449257 or email: [email protected]

Reply
Kether Wilson
4/12/2025 02:18:08 pm

Is everything OK? Are you going through a depressing situation? I have good news for you in particular. There is a man trustworthy to help you with your problems and that problem will be solved immediately. Is it a marriage/relationship problem? Health Issues to get a cure? Financial stability such as winning a lottery? Maybe it could be a problem with pregnancy/infertility. Meet Dr. Odunga to help you with that problem. It is important to live the life you deserve and find joy in it. You certainly will be happy you did as I have done. I don't need to write a full note of how he saved my relationship but for clarity, I want to thank him by publishing this testimony to tell everyone that Dr. Odunga is the best. I got my ex husband back within 24 hours. Contact him to help you. Email: [email protected] Or What'sapp number +2348167159012 to help you with that problem

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Scott M. Douglas

    A blog about leadership and the lasting legacy of family ministry. ​

    Archives

    August 2023
    July 2023
    April 2023
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    April 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015

    Categories

    All
    Book Review
    Burnout
    Change
    Crisis
    Delegation
    Digital Presence
    Family
    Family Ministry
    Finances
    Goals
    Leadership
    Legacy
    Manhood
    Networking
    Parenting
    Personality
    Planning
    Relationships
    Salary
    Social Media
    Starting Well
    Student Ministry
    Teaching
    Team Leadership
    Team Ministry
    Time Management
    Vision

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Other Works