Besides rendering hate-filled, anonymous slander, it feigns captivity of God:
God fits into OUR methodology and you must jump through our hoops to "get Him."A lesson for our churches is spoken through nature: the power of a majestic tree lies in the health and maturity of its root system. If the roots are brittle and loosely anchored, the tree's presentation (the part we see) cannot thrive.
Local churches have both a root system and a visible presentation.
The root system of a local church begins to mature as it releases its feigned captivity of God and prays instead to be captured by the love and radical grace of Christ.
Its visible presentation will be an outgrowth of this healthy and mature root system, and it will begin to display Christ as He lived on earth--embracing and serving the broken, teaching truth through the conduit of love and grace.
Maturity in church attenders is fostered when we let God grow us rather than insist on futile attempts to downsize Him into steps and definitions.
There is no hatred in maturity in Christ. The overarching theme of Jesus is reconciliation--first with God, then with each other. No swipes at each other, no hiding behind the cowardice of anonymity, but rather respect for and learning from each other's personal and collective pursuits of Christ.
When a local church allows God to grow its roots with health and maturity, those roots begin to reach toward those of other healthy and mature churches in the area. These are the churches and thus, the blessed community, that await the power of the Holy Spirit that unites and ignites.
Tomorrow: churches as leaders in the prep of Acts 1.
