Spirit and Truth
I grew up in a very conservative church tradition. So conservative, we call ourselves a tradition rather than denomination — denominations are evil, God only created one true Church and it was ours. Our leadership (local, of course, the New Testament says nothing about a hierarchy of leadership) and the leadership of most churches of Christ spent a lot of time making sure we were doing things the “right way”. No instruments in church, that’s not in the New Testament. To be a Christian, you had to have the Lord’s Supper every Sunday — if you missed Sunday morning you had to come back Sunday night and partake. As you went to take communion, it seemed like everyone was wondering what sinful thing you were doing that you weren’t at church that morning. Please realize, this is colored by my feelings, that there were wonderful Christians in our churches. People who worshipped in spirit AND in Truth. It just seemed like a lot of the time we were more concerned with doing things right — our truth — than the spirit in which they were being done. It wasn’t until I came to Trenton Church of Christ that I realized there were lots of CoC’s where spirit was just as important. Mark is one of the people God used to knock me upside the head and show me that He won’t be put in a box — and I can’t keep him out of one either. Mark’s post today brings me to tears every time he tells it, partially because I know he comes out of that staunch, strict tradition. And he got it. We can all get it. Communion is spirit, not function.
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January 4th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Hey, when I read your first line, I was laughing and decided I had to come comment, since you must have grown up in the same church I did. But you did!
And I think our group has gotten better in the last twenty or so years. I’d never thought about Sunday night communion being a problem. I’ve always just figured folks had to work or were sick or their house caught on fire. (Okay, probably not the latter. The only people I knew whose house caught on fire regularly didn’t go to our church.)
My family moved around a lot and I went to a lot of churches. My favorite cofC, the one I still refer to as my home church even though I don’t even know where they meet now, was constantly speaking of God’s working in our everyday lives. It was a blessed time, though it was not a perfect church by any stretch of the imagination. …Some churches are a blessing even when there is bad stuff happening and some churches couldn’t be a blessing if they tried.
January 4th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
That’s such a good point. I think people who get all caught up in the letter of the law sometimes miss the joy. Thanks for sharing that.
January 5th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Thanks for your kind words. “Amen” on trying to keep God in a box. He just won’t stay put!
January 14th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
I was thinking the same thing as Suzi, when I read your first line. I, too, am a member of the church of Christ. It’s good to know where you are basically coming from. I would probably be considered fairly conservative by most members of the church, but I think that labels aren’t really helpful. I have come to learn that most times it’s not about the congregation I worship with, but about me. If I am going to start somewhere, it should be with myself. By the way, I always thought that the people who go for communion in the evenings had nursery duty or something that morning! :p God bless you and yours.
January 31st, 2007 at 2:56 am
I found this interesting and enlightening… so is there much variance between the different assemblies who are part of the church of Christ? Just curious, since I know no one of that persuasion personally.