West Cocoa Chat

At the bottom of today's post will be a quote from Mike (http://preachermike.com/) Cope's blog. He quotes Daniel Rodriguez, who is an associate profession of religion and hispanic studies at Pepperdine. Rodriguez comments about the early American Restoration Movement.

It’s hard to know how to start this post. When I think about the journey God has brought our church on I am simply amazed. Some may differ with me on my use of “journey” and “God” but I would dare say that the vast majority of those “differ-ers” (how’s that for a new word) are not part of our church here in Cocoa.

We are a Church of Christ by heritage. There have been many men and women that have sacrificed over the years for this church. The number of good works in the name of Jesus are too numerous to attempt to list.

Like all churches our church has some skeletons. There have been times in the past when the treatment that some suffered at the hands of members and leaders of this church would put some of the politics that goes on during Draft Day at a Little League field to shame. We freely claim the good with the bad.

Just as with our Restoration Heritage. The American Restoration Movement (ARM) was a movement of unity through Biblical understanding. The Restoration Fathers agreed with Paul in Romans 14 in that striving for Biblical understanding will cause us at times to come to different doctrinal positions. Most scholars agree that the Romans 14 issues of eating or not eating foods sacrificed to idols, and “holy days or festivals,” were as volatile as a capella worship and instrumental worship is for our fellowship.

In the early days of the ARM, fellowship was not withdrawn when disagreement occurred over such matters. As we all know, that heritage was lost. Randy Harris said just a couple of weeks ago at the Spiritual (http://www.spiritualgrowthworkshop.com/) Growth Workshop, he felt it was both a mistake and tragedy that churches in the early 1900’s that became “pre-millennial” in their doctrine were dis-fellowshiped along with anyone who fellowshipped them. I liked what he said which was basically he disagreed with the pre-millennial doctrine but if they end up being right and he’s wrong and Christ comes back for a 1000 year reign, so what. We’ll all end up in Heaven anyway.

Yet, this practice goes on today. That’s what I love about our church. From the very moment God began to put us together with a local Conservative Christian (CCC) Church, that kind of anti-Romans 14 thinking / I can’t even eat with you because you worship with an instrument hasn’t been a problem. You only need to talk with some of these folks from the CCC to understand that they are brothers and sisters in Christ. They believe in the inspiration of the Bible, the need to be baptized into Christ, the divinity of Jesus, and the weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper. They are us!

I love our church because it has reached out in the past to local traditional Churches of Christ. Our members who can worship with our a capella praise team or our instrumental praise team, could quite easily go to a local traditional Church of Christ and worship in the style they are accustom to without judgment or walking out. We might believe they are erring brothers and sisters but we’re humble enough to know so are we.

There isn’t one example where Jesus condemns someone for their style of worship. A reading of Matthew 25 will tell you he will condemn you for not using your gifts for God as well as not ministering to those who need it.

I do love our church. Not because it’s perfect. Just by the fact that I’m there makes it imperfect. No, I love our church because we realized we’re on a journey. Have we been persecuted for some of our decisions in the name of Jesus’ plea for unity? You bet. But I’ll leave with a comment a brother in Oklahoma wrote on his blog, “The irrelevant are never persecuted.”

I pray persecution continues to come our way. God bless you guys.

// posted by cwinwc @ 7:12 PM