*Dear friends, as we begin a new year, I wanted to share this vital message co-authored by John Stonestreet and Shane Morris. This is Part 2, so if you missed Part 1, please go back and read it before reading Part 2. Please allow the Holy Spirit to guide you as you read. Blessings, Ed
Like C.S. Lewis’ famous image of making mud pies in the slum when offered a trip to the seashore, we’ve baptized (and watered down) the habits of the world in place of the riches provided in the testimony of Scripture and the God-ordained practices of the Church. Why would our neighbors be drawn to warmed-over versions of the world’s leftovers?
In every age, a true and real Christianity finds much to critique as well as to affirm. If we aren’t willing to challenge the sacred cows of our day, if we aren’t up to preaching what Tom Holland called the “weird stuff” of our faith, we will find (and perhaps even now we are finding) that no one is interested in what we have to say because we aren’t saying much worth hearing.
Our embodied and relational nature, which required an embodied and relational salvation, is one of those things. Thus, the author of Hebrews warns his readers not to forsake gathering together “as is the habit of some.” And thus, when the Apostle Paul sought to explain the relationship between Christ and His Church, he invoked marriage. The love between a husband and wife symbolizes the love Jesus has for His Bride. The profound “mystery” to which Paul refers is the total union (body and soul) between the Savior and His saved people.
Our lives in Christ are just as physical as marriage. If you wouldn’t try a purely virtual relationship with your spouse, you shouldn’t try a virtual relationship with Christ or His people. Both require and deeply involve our bodies, and Christ could not have made this any clearer than He did by placing a family meal at the center of Christian worship, commanding us to “take and eat.”
Unless limited by a health issue, attending a house church, or using creative sanctuary furnishings, Christians should always choose pews over couches. And churches should choose the truth-claims and practices of Holy Scripture over market-driven research.
For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to colsoncenter.org.
Walking With Jesus 