Biblical Compromise?

OK, we all need an arbitrator.

What are the arguments. Seems one side puts orthodoxy over works, the other, works over orthodoxy. OK, easy enough, WE HAVE TO HAVE BOTH!

True, faith alone brings us salvation. Not any amount of good works will do, but that doesn't release us from the responsibility to BE the church to our neighborhood. Look no further than the Book of James, "Faith without works is dead." If we gobble up our salvation and keep it to ourselves we create the have/have not atmosphere that existed in Jesus' time with the Pharisees. This is the exact complaint of the "We like your Jesus, but hate your Christians" crowd. We have a history of alienating people that are truly intrigued with the life we have in Jesus by our patronizing, holier than thou attitudes. I'm not talking about being nice. There is nothing nice about the consequences of not embracing the message of the Gospel. This is the same legalism that Jesus railed on. The problem with legalism now as it was then goes back to the "throw the first stones" message. We are all guilty and no one sin is greater than the next in the eyes of the Father.

OK, next.

Yes, we have to go into the community, just as Jesus did, and "interact" with the culture but not at the expense of our beliefs. We have to change them and be careful not to let them change us. We have to be strong in our faith and confident in the truth of the Gospel. Works are the fruit of Faith, not the other way around. The fact that anyone can say that we can "create" Christ followers regardless if they stay Muslim, Buddhist, Islamic, etc., is absolutely ridiculous! Bringing people to Him and His saving grace is the number one goal of our mission. Striving to be like Jesus springs out of our relationship with Him and will lead to loving the community, which in turn will lead people to Him! It all goes hand in hand.

Watering down the message to attract "seekers" and whatever sub-culture we're going after is going to create a generation of Christians that don't completely understand the life or death consequences involved. Whether intentionally or not doesn't matter, but I truly believe that going over the top, immersing ourselves in other cultures without holding to and teaching the principles we live by can have disasterous results. We don't need a bunch of impressionable "young" Christians thinking, "I'm saved, what does it matter what I do". They'll be wrong and won't last long.

One thing I do agree with John MacArthur about is that when us emergent guys try too hard to reach certain group, alot of the times we're a few months behind and end up looking foolish. We don't have to be these forty year old guys I see at youth conferences doin the whole look at me, I'm down crap. Imitating isn't always the most sincere form of flattery and people can see through any facade we try to create. Jesus didn't get a job as a tax collector and beat down people for their taxes to reach Matthew or don one of those goofy "broom" hats to get the centurion to believe. He was real and people noticed. That's a good lesson for us all.

Here's a small list of those involved in the discussion, you can link to the rest from comment sections (if they allow comments)

Pyromaniacs

The Naked Pastor

Apprising Ministries

Brian Mclaren

Christian Research Network

Rob Bell

and now joining the discussion thanks to the Dumb, Dumb post:

Adam Mayfield