How is the church like the New Testament Gospels?

My big thought from Sunday school reading this week:

The New Testament has four Gospels; three are "syn-optic" -- they see Jesus together but each with a different perspective. The fourth one is way out there with its own perspective (arguably).

How is the Church (or my local congregation in particular) like the four Gospels? IMO: If we uphold the unity of the four Gospels as part of one book of God, while recognizing their differences, we should in like manner uphold the unity of the congregation/the Church universal while recognizing the diversity of perspective of Jesus & God within that body.

Dr. Ed Meadors always asked this question in his NT classes at Taylor: "What would you miss if this book/this pericope was absent from our Bibles?"

Similarly, we should ask: "What would we be missing if this person/this theological perspective was absent from our church?"

[This is the entire blog post.]

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"Make me a channel of Your Peace."

-St. Francis

Read the full post.

Baptism and Ordination

Thoughts from theologian Ben Myers on baptism:
(faith-theology.blogspot.com)

"If you want to be ordained in order to become a really serious and committed disciple of Christ, then you have denied your baptism. If you want to be ordained in order to progress beyond ordinary d...iscipleship, then you have denied your baptism. If you want to be ordained in order to “serve the Lord full-time”, then you have denied your baptism."

This makes sense to me as a criticism of certain improper motives for seeking ordination. Others also might take it as a criticism of the institutional practice of ordination. What do you think?

(This is the entire post.)


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"Make me a channel of Your Peace."

-St. Francis

Read the full post.

I had this idea a while ago and forgot to post it here for discussion until today. The prompt for my doing so was its appropriateness as a response for this post on Halden's blog.

Regarding the fact that 1 Timothy 2 roots its “I do not allow a woman to teach” doctrine in the creation narrative…. I had what was, for me, a bit of a brainwave the other Sunday. There’s another teaching in scripture that is rooted in the creation narrative: Exodus 20:8-11. Yet the Sabbath commandment is unique among the Ten Words in its NOT being repeated in the NT. And while our strategies may differ in how we deal with the Sabbath commandment in our lives, surely we can all agree that Moses’ idea of how to “Keep the Sabbath holy” is bound to his culture, time, and place, and is not for us today.

(This is the complete post.)

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"Make me a channel of Your Peace."

-St. Francis

Read the full post.