West Cocoa Chat

I was having a conversation with a brother the other day concerning worshiping acapella vs. those who worship with instrumental music. The context of our conversation had to do with our (churches of Christ) fellowships’ strained (although they are trying to improve on many fronts) relationship with our fellow brothers in the Conservative Christian Church, fellow heirs of the American Restoration Movement.

He made the comment that those in our fellowship that hold to the notion that worshiping with instruments is inferior or worse, is a sin, in his words, “Have been burdened by a curse to our brotherhood.” I agreed with him and both of us have a unique perspective having attempted to merge with a local Conservative Christian Church a couple of years ago. In our “dance” with each other we re-discovered that except for the instrument, we are identical. Their doctrine of baptism into Christ for the remission of sins as well as other tenets of our faith are exactly as ours.

I was reminded of the following from Galatians 2:11 - 14

¹¹When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. ¹²Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he (emphasis mine) began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. ¹³The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

¹⁴When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

Part of our heritage is one of “patterns.” Now, most of us know the fallacy of this kind of thinking since trying to establish a “pattern” within our own fellowship has resulted in Mac Lynn’s abbreviation code for all of the different varieties of churches of Christ. Nevertheless, I see a pattern.

It seems that Paul is really hacked off at Peter. When Peter is with Gentiles and he can hang out with them and even enjoy some Gentile cuisine. When his fellow Jews show up he switches his taste to kosher cooking. Now, that seems to be the pattern – when you’re with Gentile Brothers, be a Gentile and when you with Jews, be Jewish.

The problem – it seems when Peter is with the Jews he completely cuts himself off from the Gentiles. The Gentile “Brothers” that Paul has been working so diligently to bring to Christ. What’s worse, other Jews such as Barnabas are also withdrawing from brothers in Christ as well.

I think there is a pattern to be discerned that transcends this little discussion between our fellowship and the Conservative Christian Church but for purposes of our discussion, we’ll keep here for now. Does not Paul seen to send a message to us today to accept our brothers in Christ even if they’re “different.”

BTW - This business of eating, what you’re eating, and whom you’re eating with was a doctrinal issue to many of that day. Yet, Paul seems to say that we can and should be able to do both. When I’m with my brothers in the churches of Christ and even those who insist that worship be acapella, I can do that. And when I’m with my brothers in the Conservative Christian Churches who worship with the instrument, I can do that as well. The sin seems to come in when I do one and cut off the brothers who are doing the other.

In the early days of the American Restoration Movement, brothers on both sides of this issue remained brothers for where an “inference” needed to be made, tolerance was the norm. Somewhere down the road “tolerance” was traded for “pattern” and a strict allegiance to my pattern was demanded or fellowship was severed. That my friends is a curse that we’re still trying to undo today within the confines of our church. We have no business trying to effect change at other churches. They need to be the Body of Christ as they see fit within the bounds of Scripture in their community as we strive to do the same.

To denounce a fellow church in any kind of public forum or in another church would seem to fly in the face of Scripture and risk the wrath of Paul as he got in the face of Peter for doing the 1^st century version of the above.

Those are my thoughts. We as in 20 of us from our church, leave for Colorado on Friday for a 5 day (http://www.wildernesstrek.org/) Wilderness Trek in the Colorado Rockies. Keep us in your prayers and God bless.

// posted by cwinwc @ 7:48 PM