I’ve written on the topics brought up in this post a lot since. In fact, I’m working on a larger work (ebook?) about the heresies we believe in Evangelicalism which are synchrotisms with the American Dream.

- What is worth dividing over?
- What does this have to do with long-suffering?
- More discussion of our broken DNA as evangelicals.
- Stories of restoration.

Anything else?

Amy- I’m glad you’re sticking up for the theological core… Rock on!

What I believe (and sounds along the lines of Adam’s recent dialogue) is that people are often saying, I REALLY don’t like _____ about my church. Now, that can be either a healthy statement or a poisonous one. It all comes down to the response. If the response is, “I’ll just get my needs met somewhere else.” That’s a selfish attitude. Period. Instead of hitting the eject button, hit the pause button for a minute… Ask a couple questions that make the issue less about what we get out of it, but how to CONTRIBUTE to the cause. What can I do to help _____ be better? Can I help _____ improve? If you’re not willing to be part of the solution, do you really have the right to complain? I don’t think so. To me the sin becomes evident when abandonment is just easier than rolling up your sleeves and helping out.
Another issue is that people often don’t understand the goal of how something functions. They reserve the right to complain without the opportunity of feedback. It saddens my heart when I or another leader get ‘hate mail’ (Definition of hate mail= negative feedback letters mysteriously without senders name or signature) That shows an unwillingness for discussion or understanding… and ultimately, again… selfishness and being unteachable. Often people bolt before even taking time to understand why something is the way it is. This is where consumerism of the church drives me crazy. Don’t like the music selection? I’ll shop, ahem, attend Wal-Mart Community Church instead. No, parking lot’s too big. I’ll try Kmart Christian’s Blue light Jesus. No, the Aisles are too crowded there. How about Church-A-Lot? Nah… It’s like Seinfeld episode where Jerry breaks “The Pact” After deciding to change his ways, and ‘be a man’, moments later, he breaks up with his girlfriend because she eats her peas one at a time, but scoops corn nibblets. How vexing! People need to take a long look and make sure it’s not the trivialities that cause them to leave the church.

I think the bigger thing I want to point you to is just a statement of fact. If people left churches, started denominations, etc. over serious theological differences I think that would be ok. But to start a new denomination because you think baptisms should only be done in flowing water and never indoors? You’d agree with me that it’s pretty trivial.

As I served in local churches for the past 10 years, I rarely encountered a single person who left a church because of doctrinal issues. Typically it was a “I like ____ better” decision. I like the pastor better, the youth group better, the worship better, the ___ better.

As far as being relativistic… I dunno. I think that maybe the problem here is that people go to church not relativistic ENOUGH! When it comes to theology we need to use a bigger, more forgiving pen. Even Bible colleges are starting to back down from the rigidity that I was trained under… Shifting from SysTheo to Biblical Theology is a big step!

I dunno, I don’t have all the answers. But I did want to point out that most of the problem isn’t theological differences on meat issues but on the trivial.