What Are the Rules?

A scary thing is happening at CCR. In fact it is the oldest problem that has ever happened at church. It is the substance of both conflict and discovery. People are thinking and asking questions with an open bible, history books, and their own experience.

I love it. I hope you also find friends discussing faith to be liberating. We have been on a journey for several weeks exploring freedom. We've looked at Rwanda's historical examples such our Rwanda's king's refusal to participate in the slave trade, and Rwanda being the source of the East African Revival.

We've also spent the bulk of our time with an old church planting pastor named Paul of Tarsus who wrote a literary masterpiece on freedom to a group of churches in the province of Roman Galatia about 2,000 years ago. Last week we reached a historic section. Paul wrote, "The righteous will live by faith." About 500 years ago, a German monk named Martin Luther found this passage after he spent years upon years being defeated in a quest for God, and it birthed the Protestant Reformation. Grace was rediscovered. Several of you have sent me some pointed e-mails to refine our thinking. Thank you.

"One of you wrote, "living by faith and obeying the "rules:" are they necessarily mutually exclusive?"

I believe that whenever a group assembles on a regular basis to achieve one or more purposes, the endeavor is already rule driven. Church fits this description for me. There needs to be a set of rules to govern social interaction in church; if this did not happen it would be very difficult to achieve clearly defined purposes. For me (and I assume for Martin Luther 500 years ago), rules are counter-productive when they get in the way of faith. But I believe that by observing some rules, regularly and predictably, this can be, for some (many?) an important basis of faith.

If dutifully and regularly following predictable rules (read "ritual") serve as a pathway to God, then I believe that we are heading in the right direction. If following or not following rules is used by congregants and/or church leaders to judge if someone is on the pathway to God, this is where the problems lies"

This is a point well taken. I've had to go back and read through some familiar stories. Jesus of Nazareth repeated a phrase, "Come follow me." Then those that followed listened to him teach, observed him in action, lived with him in the day to day, and discovered a greater relationship with the Father, God. Jesus clearly had a process that he used to nurture men's spirits.

Paul of Tarsus said a similar phrase, "Follow me as I follow Christ." He also was very systematic in his establishment of churches and the nurture of men's spirits. He has a pragmatic side that is quite flexible. He has an ethical side which is uncompromising. He is convinced that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead, and he will do anything he considers ethical to persuade men and women to believe. However, he can not tolerate any rule that obscures faith in Jesus.

We at CCR have a solemn responsibility to nurture spirits. This will involve process and rituals. However, the process and ritual can never disrupt our desire for the finished product of a greater discovery of God. This week I am taking a side bar from our journey through Galatians. I will speak about CCR and the process we are trying to develop for spiritual nurture.

If you have some questions about CCR and our process or how you can best fit in I hope you will join us. We deeply desire to be a liberating environment for discovery and renewal.

I look forward to seeing you Sunday.

Imana ikurinde,

Dave Jenkins