A Continuing Reformation

We had this drum and shakers played skillfully in church recently. It sounded beautiful with our African sounding melody.

The historic reformation went as far as they could see, and changed as much as they were ready to experience. In the Protestant wing of Christianity it might be safe and kind to say that many of our denominations were at one point, efforts to recover or reform essential truths.

It should be more than the proper grasp of a doctrine, it should be the truths that transform us, and those can be practiced and improved and developed and become flexible with the needs of the hour.

It is hard to know if something you believe has been tainted with man made ideas or false concepts. You must have a healthly distrust of your own traditions and a willingness to hear fresh approaches. The discussions must be respectful. I was impressed by Scott McKnight when discussing something as potentially volatile as atonement theories, described it like a bag of golf clubs, in which certain sticks accomplish certain results...he thus enabled readers to look at different views without pulling out thier green sticks and matches to roast a brother alive.

Usually reformation comes when tensions are discussed and people become willing to reconsider without fear of being attacked by those he or she respects. The tendency for people to build a hardened wall of truth and defend it to the death is an enemy to reformation. Can reformation come without an institution imploding, or exploding or splitting? That is a difficult question. Sometimes the youngest, with the largest passions, and the shortest patience rush the desire to change and become agents of hurtfulness. Sometime the older saints, can become the most sincere roadblocks to growing in the fullness of reformation experience. We are at the cusp of a new reformation, please examine your willingness to listen and change.