For the sake of clarity, let’s define church in a really narrow way today; in about the same way that we say we are going ‘to do church (insert descriptor here) today.’ In other words, today, church is going to mean communal times of worship, fellowship and learning, the norm being the Sunday service.
Depending on your faith tradition, church can mean something very different to you compared to your christian neighbour (whom you are to love) down the street. Take, for instance, the difference between your general post-brethren community bible chapel vs. your general Canadian Reform church. Big difference. At the former, you will generally find full-band worship music (generally contemporary works by Hillsong, Matt Redman and a whole slew of others worship artists), lots of talk about evangelism through community projects and maybe, if you’re lucky, a drama before the sermon. At the latter, on the other hand, you’ll find organ-and-piano-singing of the psalms (with a few hip new hymns that were written 60 years ago), rigid liturgy, lots of talk about the covenant and piety, and if you’re lucky, you’ll get out after an hour, to come back after lunch for round 2.
Are they both right in the way they do church? Yes. Wholeheartedly Yes.
People do what their traditions and passions guide them to do. I’ve run the gamut from attending Roman Catholic Mass weekly to attending Conferences at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship (the Toronto Blessing, for those in the charismatic ‘know’). I’ve found meaning and a love for our Lord in both. Personally, I like new takes on hold hymns – the re-working and refining of tradition to blend the old with the new. Now, few people do that in their entirety (well, none as far as I have seen, at least), but it works.
What doesn’t work, however, is when people impress form on others to suit their own views. A Presbyterian goes on about those heretical Pentecostals. The Heretical Pentecostal goes on about those dead Baptists. The Dead Baptist goes on about the Devil’s Roman Catholic. You can see where I’m going with this. This impression of form on others oppresses the content as a whole.
The thing that people should keep aware of, when being concerned with another faith tradition laying claim to Christianity, is through adherence to doctrine (Nicene, Apostolic or Chalcedon – take your pick) and through the fruits of their labours. And the latter you can’t really weigh too heavily upon, as each tradition has their own preconceptions involved with that as well, but that’s another post. Let’s go with love as a standard, that’s a good one.
Ultimately, I’m just saying that everyone needs to leave each other alone and quit griping about the church down the street. Do your thing; they’ll do theirs. Maybe you guys can get together and bowl or something. Bowling is a neutral, christian standard for fun.
Or so I have been told.
-WK
