community

Christians don't always agree.

Life might be an awful lot simpler if we did agree. But we don't. At least, not always.

There are issues on which, in any church, the leaders are called to pronounce. Where do they stand? What line will they take?

Leaders have to put their heads above the parapet and provide a lead. Not all will understand, no doubt. Not all will agree, for sure.

And the question arises when it's in regard to big, contentious issues that a stance is being adopted - Where does that leave folk who take a different view?

Well, here's what I say in response.

I hope it leaves them no less welcome, appreciated and respected than (I trust) they’ve always been in a congregation which is both submitted in our discipleship to the authority of God’s Word and at the same time committed as believers in Christ to the expression of genuine community, where such community lies, as Bill Hybels is fond of saying, not so much in the absence of conflict as in the presence of a reconciling spirit.

I hope it leaves them no less able to exercise their gifts and participate in the life of the congregation, humbly willing to accept and respect the lead being given by those called so to do, and at the same time, through that gracious submissiveness, ministering in a fruitful and fulfilling way by the power of the Spirit of God and for the enrichment of the people of God.

And I hope it leaves them no less grateful for a body of leaders who won’t duck difficult questions but who, conscious always of their fallibility, will seek humbly, prayerfully and boldly to address them in accordance with the Word of God, and to provide a faithful, godly leadership with an over-riding desire for the honour and glory of the Lord.

We're called to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Which cuts right across the grain of modern life.

And submitting to one another only when we agree with what's being said is not submission at all.

A life of genuine submissiveness is a costly thing. But it's the key in some ways to a fruitful manner of living.

It's something we're having to learn.