Our Only Incorporation is the Body of Christ. Free Christians and Churches.
Let My People Go
One of my favorite Christian bloggers, Ed Bahler, recently observed,
With this discovery of our spiritual independence from the interference of denominations, dogmas, and traditions of men, comes the opportunity to strengthen our spiritual dependence on Jesus Christ Himself. The growing ranks of the unchurched are no longer merely populated with atheists, agnostics, and intellectuals. Instead we are seeing an emerging movement of unchurched Christian believers. Those who cannot accept the Non-Christian aspects of established churches, but wish to participate with other believers as we all follow the one true teacher and God, Jesus Christ.
In his book, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope, Brian McClaren summarizes our need to rethink our practice of Christianity like this:
Today 71% of adults develop their own set of religious beliefs rather than accept the teachings of a particular church. That is also the response of 82% (yes 82%) of those under age 25 and 61% of born-again adults.
With this discovery of our spiritual independence from the interference of denominations, dogmas, and traditions of men, comes the opportunity to strengthen our spiritual dependence on Jesus Christ Himself. The growing ranks of the unchurched are no longer merely populated with atheists, agnostics, and intellectuals. Instead we are seeing an emerging movement of unchurched Christian believers. Those who cannot accept the Non-Christian aspects of established churches, but wish to participate with other believers as we all follow the one true teacher and God, Jesus Christ.
In his book, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope, Brian McClaren summarizes our need to rethink our practice of Christianity like this:
To be a follower of Jesus in this light is a far different affair than many of us were taught: it means to join Jesus' peace insurgency, to see through every regime that promises peace through violence, peace through domination, peace through genocide, peace through exclusion and intimidation. Following Jesus instead means forming communities that seek peace through justice, generosity, and mutual concern, and a willingness to suffer persecution but a refusal to inflict it on others.
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Comment by Clark Echols on July 13, 2009 at 5:17pm - I judge that I am a member of such a community in my local men's group. Ought it to be a goal to change the US Federal government through election of people who agree that the US ought to be such a community?
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Comment by Stephen Simons on July 13, 2009 at 8:27pm -
Change comes at every level, from the individual believer no longer accepting injustice, violence, domination, exclusion, and intimidation -- to communities of believers choosing to live in covenant with each other to establish peace and expand its influence on earth -- to nations accepting their roles to facilitate the freedom and peace of their people to be proactive citizens of the world and to collectively support change in the greater global community.
In traditional ways of thinking the push to change governments have typically melded church and state. But far from establishing a theocracy, Jesus' vision for His church was that it would improve whatever state it was a part of, but would remain separate from it,
"My kingdom is not of this world" - John 18
This may be the greatest Biblical argument there is for the separation of church and state. Only when the church is kept separate from the state can the citizens of that state have the freedom required to embrace Christ with all their heart.
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