To Be Honest, I'm Kind of Bored

Some thoughts on Church of Christ Issues

The denomination in which I was raised, the Church of Christ, obviously means a lot to me—even more so now that I recognize it as a denomination. It has a rich history and some interesting characters. Members of the Church of Christ are known for their good singing, knowledge of the Bible, and high standard for teachers and ministers.

Of course, like with any organization made up of and organized by humans, there is a lot to critique. While we tend to pretend we can trace our lineage back to the first century and that we have no creeds or confessions, things aren’t so simple.

Our creeds are found in commentaries and pamphelts written by great preachers of the last 150 years. Preachers, especially those associated with schools or the lectureship circuit, are the watchdogs of the faith and make sure that everyone else stays in line. Papers written by those same preachers often serve as a system of checks and balances. This brother would write on that, and this other brother would respond.

And with any fundamentlalist group, those, like myself, who step away from a lot of that thinking, often by force, need to spend many long hours and lots of study critiquing, rexamining, and questioning what we were told were matters that were solved.

This post will unlock for free on Tuesday.

But…it’s been a little over seven years, and I am bored. Here’s a passage taken from a novel I’m currently reading that sums up my boredom and general lack of interest mingled with exhaustion:

Those men could go on all day about the sins of the flesh or the amount of water needed for baptism or whether you could go to Heaven without being baptized or who could or couldn't go to Heaven, but they couldn't say why, if we're to take some of the Bible literally, we don't take all of it literally, or why we kill our enemies, or why we pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that we may be seen of men. - Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry, p. 52

Debates about baptism, instrumental music, women’s roles in the church, pattern theology, and, to some degree, eschatology just bore me. While these are important questions, I’m just tired of talking about them. In my mind, I don’t have any major questions about these issues anymore, so talking about them again and again, often repeating myself, is more harmful than helpful to my own walk with Christ—and sanity.

Now I don’t mind answering questions or doing the occasional podcast on one of these subjects, but I just don’t see myself writing too much on them in the near future.

What am I interested in you might ask?

I’m interested in nature and camping. I’m interesting in getting my house in order. I’m interested in reading novels and poetry with a little bit of spirituality and theology sprinkled in. I’m interested in writing my sermons, teaching my classes, and doing the work of a minister. I’m interested in spending time with my kids and growing closer to my wife.

I’m not much interested in the five acts of worship, the plan of salvation, or debates about the Holy Spirit, creation science, or Calvinism.

Part of my disinterest stems from more than just the non-stop work in these areas over the past seven years. Part of me just finds the whole system absurd. If only people who associate with the Church of Christ are going to heaven, and then only those who associate with a certain faction of the 2,000,000 members, then what kind of God do we serve?

Is the Creator of the universe and everything in it really worried about instruments or how one interprets Genesis 1—at least worried to the point of sending someone to eternal hell over it?

Like Calvinism’s version of God, if these things are actually true about the Father of Jesus, then what’s the point?

Instead of erring on the side of caution, which really paints a bad picture of God according to the parable of the talents, I’m going to put all of my talents into then markets of infinite grace, mercy, and love, and if James was correct and mercy does really triumph over judgment, then I don’t have anything to worry about.

And in view of that…I just can’t justify writing yet another article on specific Church of Christ issues.

Eschatology is a bit different. I enjoy the study of the last things, and I think there is a lot that needs to be explored, but there are already so many teachers. Don Preston alone does enough teaching for just about everybody, and with the size of the preterist community, it seems like anything I have to say about martyr vindication or the olivet discourse has already been said, and I just don’t have the time to explore some of the more novel ideas that Don and others have time to dissect.

Another major point on this last subject has to do with my own personal convictions. I still interpret Revelation the same way, and the same could be said about most other passages, but there are some I have a hard time with that I just don’t think I have all the answers for, and because of that, I don’t feel drawn to be as dogmatic and demanding as I once was.

I’m not confessing to anything major here; instead, I’m voicing I’ve said all along: anyone who says he knows anything has yet to know as he ought to know (1 Corinthians 8:3). In view of this, I have a hard time being overly confident in much of anything outside of one truth: God is love, and we know this because of Jesus.

Everything else takes a back seat to that fact, and I reckon I can be in fellowship with anyone whose life bears fruit of that beautiful truth.