Still in post FC = beleiving church is just one of Gods ways

[Anonymous]

The one theme that I keep hearing over and over from people that have gone through a faith crisis yet stayed reasonably “with” the church is that they see the church not as the “one True church” and God uses many others outside the church to bring people closer to God. I can only think of a few that say much different (such as Bushman). Anybody else notice that also?

[Anonymous]

I believe that and I also hear it from others, including here. As we were just reminded in another thread, we are a very small percentage of the world population – I’m not sure God would give this small group of his children vastly more than he would give anyone else. And, when I look at the core principles of the gospel I see them taught and practiced throughout the Christian (and Muslim) world. Surely we are not so special that whatever there is to the “fullness of the gospel” prevents others from teaching and living the vast majority (I actually believe all) of the gospel.

[Anonymous]

I found that my definition of church expanded to be more inclusive.

There’s the whole kuriakos (pertaining to the lord) vs. ekklesia (community) thing. I guess I’ve expanded my definition of church to be that which pertains to the lord, i.e. every living thing on earth. With that definition there is no outside the church, it wouldn’t be “church” if there were any exclusions. We’ve got lots and lots of little subdivided communities but all put together as a whole we make up a church. The church changes over time as contributors leave us and as new perspectives are born.

I don’t mean to purposely be obtuse, I know the focus was on the small subdivisions and the one we select to play out our part. It’s just really hard to leave my church.

I think everyone has their Truth that is based on their perspective. People probably have a lot of commonalities with others in the community that they adopt. I think we even see a pull to build on commonalities within communities. We might start off with a few core commonalities and there may be pressure within a community to come to a consensus on all things as a group, yet everyone still retains their own version of Truth. The words used to describe our perspective may be the same as someone else but that doesn’t mean that the experience is the same.

So what happens when core differences emerge? Do we seek out a new community and start the process all over again? Do we try to apply pressure within our community to come to the new consensus? Neither? Both?

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