"I think God gives us our doctrine [our ideas about God] to see if theology will take the place of relationships with people."
"'Anything you can believe, I can believe better' is the mentality we get into."
-Trevor Durbin
Trevor + I talked about community on one of our recent long drives together. I jotted down these comments he spoke because they resonated with me as profound truth. The reason divisions exist in the church is the belief that one church has doctrine and practice "right" and another "wrong." Or perhaps, one place has it "good" but another church has it "better." We may all admit that we have brothers and sisters in Christ outside of our denomination, but there's a reason we've chosen the church home we have. Do we subconsciously pass judgment on anyone else - another brother or sister - in a different church? I know it doesn't always happen, but I think it can definitely be there. Do we leave room for the preferences of others or do we claim that a difference of opinion (on such "non essential" matters) actually becomes essential, needing to be identical to our own? This can apply to doctrinal beliefs or practice of faith, worship services or music or...
Then the bigger question: what happens to our relationships with other people? Will we show them love and acceptance, and as Justin McRoberts has sung "meet [them] at the cross"? Or will we isolate them from ourselves and "our" community (whether physically or just mentally separating them from ourselves), forgetting that we are also flawed?
Thoughts?
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