Thursday, December 2, 2010

Point / Counterpoint

Very interesting discussion over at the Gospel Coalition on the role (if any) of unbelievers in the public worship of the church.

Your thoughts?

1 comment:

w/o a # said...

I do not think unbelievers should lead for obvious reasons. But I do believe we as followers of Christ need to learn and understand the hearts of the unbeliever. Allowing them to play minor roles in church could help us get to a more personal level with them and give them a new respect for Christians. A lot of their views towards us, are extremely distorted. We would have an opportunity ourselves to restore the name of God in their minds. Maybe this would prevent them from defaming His name daily. This helping the state of our world. I also believe God would seize these opportunities to shake and open their hearts. A lot of unbelievers,I see, are intelligent and loving people. But they are lost and unhappy. Some are not even aware of the state they are in. These people act strong but they are weak. These weaknesses are our openings and opportunities to reveal to them for once, what the truth is. Closing them off from church or minor roles, can send a potential insult that will push them further away from their own reflection. But doing the opposite of this can have the adverse effect. We are the strong. It is time we reach out our hands to the crippled man. Even if they do not know they are crippled. I also think Christians today need to do some repair work in these peoples minds and hearts, where other Christians have judged them or not led by the example they are suppose to. In a lot of ways, the history of Christianity,criminal acts of the Catholic Church, and poor followers of Christ have led them to unbelieving or contributed to their sorry state. We should be willing to share our place of worship for we all know what it was to be lost. Being lost in todays life is so very easy. Do we really believe they are confident in their decision? They have been conquered by the enemy. Most when they were children. How lost is someone when they never knew of innocence or had a hope. This is a great chance for us to be monitors of God's lost and found. We of course need to always protect the purity of the church. This, I believe, can still be accomplished. Would Jesus deny them these opportunities?