If you haven’t noticed yet, the authors of this blog are split on its title, but we are not split on its importance. Each author is committed to quality work regarding our posts and relationship to both the world and the church. However, I don’t agree that we should think in categories of bound and unbound.
I wasn’t raised in the church at all, and my first exposure was at 21 years of age when I became a Christian. I learned quickly, and within two years I was off to Olivet to study theology and philosophy. While I was in the church for those two years I developed a very critical perspective on church goers and lay people, which I carried with me throughout college. With so many critical questions raised against the church and its doctrines, I felt everyone had a responsibility to, “Always be prepared to give an answer to those who ask you….” Why wasn’t the church prepared to answer? Was it because they were bound by something?
Just over a year ago I took over an adult Sunday school class at my local Nazarene church. At first we were using the FC Adult literature, but I got approval to change the curriculum and we choose the book of 1st Corinthians. We took the book at our own pace, talking about the text and issues that arise from it. I was surprised by how active the Sunday school class was in engaging and asking questions. Through the class everyone has been challenged to think critically about their beliefs.
During the year I have been with this Sunday school class many of my assumptions about church goers have been challenged, and I think back about how critical I was of these people and I didn’t even know them. What gave me the right to be so critical of so many people? Each and every individual in the church has a story, and to criticize them without knowing it is doing the church a disservice.
As individuals we are limited; we have biases and assumptions that we assume from a multiplicity of places. Some individuals do more than others to challenge themselves and develop a reliable set of beliefs, based on evidence or perhaps a different and more reliable set of assumptions about things. However, is every individual called to pursue this knowledge to the same extent? I do not think so.
Individuals are created with strengths and weaknesses; a unique set of properties that is part of what makes every human being special. Are these individuals bound by their life experiences; their economic status, quality of education, parents, friends, fate, and chance? Of course they are! How could they not be? These experiences are what define you as an individual, and everyone has a different set of them. Through these experiences we develop our strengths and our weakness, and we bring these into the church. We write on this blog as individuals defined by our own unique bondage, but it is because of this bondage we write, not because we are free from it.
I don’t place myself into bound and unbound categories, they are not useful. We are simply individuals; we are not bound or unbound. We just are. Every individual is going to engage and challenge themselves on different levels and at different paces. However, this does not negate the responsibility of those who are called to serve the church. Moreover, these individuals are important in developing those who have a calling to pursue service in the church.
This blog seeks to challenge those who are willing to listen. Not everyone is called to this challenge, and some of those who are will not be ready to engage, but there are some who are ready. We hope that these people will challenge us as we challenge them. We are here to learn and grow and ultimately strengthening the body of the church. The church needs this challenge. We ought to have a coherent answer to the world and its questions. We should be prepared to give an answer, but we do this as a body, not as an individual.
-Rick Briggs
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