During my blogging absence, I’ve been doing some reading, both online and off, as well as bugging folks. It seems the fear of meat is a huge thing, and imho a real disservice to the body of Christ. I don’t have the atonement deal wrapped up by any-means, but the backlog of writing ideas is expanding, so its time to roll. First some observations which lead to the fear of meat deal:

How do we keep Christianity safe?

A partner in ministry from a ways back asked me this, and its been bugging me to no end. Sure, no one wants to have heretical beliefs flying all over the place… but by putting safety on a pedestal, and not providing an outlet for “messy faith”, hard questions, or even anger at God, eek, talk about a disservice!!! The focus on leadership perfection, questions limited to only those with pre-ordained answers, and horrors that one would ever be angry at God ends up for some a major barrier. This is especially the case when folks run up against the unanswerable questions, where the milk wont cut it, and for some purposes, the meat may not either. Is the pursuit of “safe and isolated Christianity” really worth it? Is such just secular escapism with a Christian label? No doubt, there should be some times and places for safety, but in all due respect for my friend, I think he is asking the wrong questions. 

My cats like milk and the status quo

Mikey is 3 years old and is a massive, albeit neutered and laid-back Tomcat. He really likes milk, but his digestive system hates even the idea. As a kitten it was needed, as an adult, he needs meat to thrive. I think its an appropriate analogy for the Christian life. Milk may bring us back to an earlier time, a place of safety, happiness, and joy. Yet, just as Mikey will upchuck if he gets too much milk, a steady diet of milk for the growing Christian is also unhealthy.

I really liked what @tg24 on @jonestony’s blog had to say.

It seems to me that we underestimate our congregations’ faith. They can be stretched, they can be challenged, and if we continue to treat them as fragile infants whose understanding of Christianity can never change, as shepherds, (leaders, lay or vocational, or as worshippers who love the church), we are not guarding it, we are weakening it.

What about the children?

If I hear this one more time….

I’m no fan of separation in worship. Sure,children may not grasp everything, and some of it could be too intense… imho the fear is likely not so much for the children themselves, but for the parents having to answer the resultant questions. Read the whole of Matthew 19… divorce, the rich young man, the camel in the needle, leaving the children for His sake. In light of “what about the children” I can understand why the disciples rebuked those who brought the children… yet, Jesus had something else to say.

Seminary-Congregation disconnect

A common thread amongst many seminarians is “I thought I knew the Bible back then, now I realize how much I really dont know”. Why is this? Egads, since I’ve started hanging out with a facebook group of seminary guys, I haven’t been challenged like that in years. The thing is… why should I have to seek out seminarians to get challenged?

Even look at living together faithfully in the ELCA, or the opinions of 135 ELCA theologicans. There is often a major disconnect between academia and the pew, with vastly different lenses of interpretation. It doesn’t have to be this way. The meat does exist, why must we venture from the congregation to find it? Why does it take congregational change to even search it out?

Some leaders are afraid of meat (faith crisis and stumbling)

Granted, the concern about causing another to stumble is a serious matter, yet to lead another to stagnate and regress is also a form causing one to stumble. 

The relevance of meat to a wide audience

Way back when I asked my pastor, how on earth can one preach to 5000 members, as it seems guaranteed you would miss the mark for some. He had a very wise answer… how can you preach to 5? Its not just the sermon of the pastor, its the word of God and the Holy Spirit acting on folks hearts. Meat will always be relevant, and it may be someone new in their walk would be confused, but where the Gospel is preached, the Holy Spirit will take care of the rest.

Leadership uncertainty

Yep, I know this one… we did a major major rip up and redo some years back. We expected we might loose thousands of members. Yet, we knew scripture was clear, we had 99% peace with the decision… but, an underlying question kept coming back, what if we are wrong? When meat is involved, there is greater uncertainty. Yet, if scripture, prayer, and discussions amongst the leadership team and others indicate a go… to not proceed where God is calling, not cool at all.

Backing up the plumbing and its affect on the status quo

As one grow in Christ, it can’t just be a matter of head knowledge, or even heart knowledge, but further works must start to go forth, or things will start to back up often leading to congregational disfuction. A commitment to meat, also means a commitment to running with it… that is very scary to the status quo. Feral Pastor has an analogy called an L-pipe, there are many parallels.