by
Jane Kerber, JD, MBA
Our faith is our treasure. It’s a treasure we’re called upon to defend with
our lives, should that ever be necessary. In our society, in our time, at
the moment, it doesn’t seem to be necessary. But that doesn’t change the
nature of our faith.
Our faith is personal, and yet it is not of ourselves. We’re born into the
kingdom of God through an act of God, not an act of our will. It’s a
spiritual event that results in the renewing of our hearts and our minds,
through Jesus Christ.
We’re called into a personal relationship with a living God, and we live by
a faith for which we should be willing to die. So what do we look for in a
church?
Because my answer to that question appears here on the VOW. site, anyone
reading this can probably guess that I’m going to say something very
positive about The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Can we walk into all of our member churches and sit back and relax because
everything is exactly the way it should be? No, we can’t. And that should
concern us. But it shouldn’t cause us to conclude that church life is easier
elsewhere. In fact, I’m more troubled by the dangers I see outside this
church family. They’re more subtle, and there’s often no room for
correction, through the type of reasoned dialogue we enjoy.
What worries me when I look outside our church? For one, popular trends -
the ones that are driving growth charts. I recall something about entering
by a narrow gate. I’m also worried, sometimes, by churches that live in
doctrinal harmony, not because harmony is bad, but because too many people
have been harmed by harmonious error.
And I’m troubled by any church model that says our beliefs are handed down
from somewhere above us in the hierarchy, so that all we have to do is
follow, safe in the knowledge that we’re being given the truth. It’s a
luxury our Lord seems never to have given the early churches. Instead, they
were always defending the truth against incorrect teaching. It was often
error from within. And, largely because of that, the New Testament was
written, and handed down to us, so that we could defend the same truth, the
same way, in our day.
If we’re called upon to die for our faith, then certainly we’re called upon
to defend it. But how can we defend it if we run? And if we run, where will
we go? To other churches? To deal with these equally serious, if less
apparent problems? Or will we form new churches of our own on the theory
that they alone will be immune from difficulty?
When we are new in the faith, we draw upon the strength of the church. When
we are mature, we give back to it. There is a time to withhold fellowship.
But short of a Scriptural mandate for it, I would argue there is work to be
done.
Our salvation is personal, and comes from God, not from an inerrant church.
So we don’t have to worry that if we get too close to the source of the
problems that disturb us, in our efforts to defend the truth, our salvation
will become invalidated, somehow. To the contrary, what we have we won’t
easily find again, if we let it die. I’m a newcomer to this church. I’ve
seen what the other problems are like. And that’s my reason for being here.