a week?! Posted on May 12th
Wow, it’s been a whole week. I haven’t gone this long in updating… ever (in the whole history of my blog… since January ☺), but I kind of needed a break, and my life got a little hectic after Thursday. In case you weren’t paying attention to the twitter feed, we brought home a new family member on Wednesday.
A 2000 Kawasaki Ninja 250. (For the uninitiated… it’s a motorcycle).
I promise that I’ll post about it soon, as I know my grandparents (who frequent the blog more than anyone else, which is great) are quite desirous to find out what’s going on with the bike.
But, there’s kind of another reason I haven’t been blogging too much recently. It appears my blog has attracted some attention (finally) of those that I actually know personally, and not all are too thrilled. To clarify, I run in evangelical circles, and those who adhere and look up to the thoughts, theology, and ideals of John MacArthur and Ravvi Zacharias (and probably Al Mohler, but I’ve never actually heard anyone besides myself speak of him). So there are some out there that aren’t too thrilled with the theology that both Becky and I are discussing.
I’ve also run up against those who aren’t pleased with some of the words I have expressed over my church, there were some posts all the way at the beginning in which I expressed distress over the level of social justice in my church, as well as more recent posts where I discuss issues with the college group I’m volunteer for. I was chastised for expressing my thoughts on such a public forum where those that know me could read it and would know exactly what church I’m talking about. I was then encouraged to take my concerns to the leadership, a move that I have not done.
It’s not that I’m scared of controversy, or of differing opinions (just the opposite in fact, I find myself listening to opposing opinions quite often just to hear their points), but it’s the fact that sometimes it’s easier to go without it. I was worried about balancing my posts between what I actually have in mind, and what’s not going to piss off the people who are pretty easy to piss off. I think if they had their way, I’d keep all church issues I disagree with private (tell that to Martin Luther btw), and I’d keep my theological mindset within the boundaries of the established Evangelical Systematic Theology.
Well, I won’t. I’m curious though, if any of my blogging cohorts have run up against similar issues.
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I figured you just got on that bike and rode on into the sunset. So, I am glad you are once again blogging. Keep up the good work. Never keep silent and pissing folks off is a good thing. Gets them to thinking.
Commented Veronica on May 12th, 2008.Hey Matt. I haven’t posted for a while either. No muse. Or too busy. Or something. Sadly, I have no motorcycle - but am jealous.
As regards the blog, well, I realised some months ago that there was a danger of being unaccountable for what I was writing, so I started “leaking” the Late Emerger’s address to a few good friends. And, as a member of my church’s leadership team, I told my fellow leaders the address, and so on. I’m not sure that I’ve had many hits from that direction (though “Creationism is Evil” did come up in conversation the other day :-), and I think “Not my people” bothered someone quite a lot. ).
For myself, I think that such integration is very positive: we don’t live in a vacuum, and we do need to be capable of being called to account: living relationally means a certain honesty with all, and submitting to those in authority in the community. If that means greater circumspection than we would otherwise use, then so be it. That is, however, very different from not speaking one’s mind at all. [And if the Holy Spirit had wanted to give us Systematic Theology, I can't help thinking he'd have written a very different bible.]
Commented Andrew Martin on May 12th, 2008.Dude, I totally here where you’re coming from on the whole church thing. Church People can be nit picking, sin sniffing, and down right difficult. My last church tried really hard to find something wrong on my blog. They found some posts where I was expressing frustration about some things in my life. They also found an automatically generated astrological sign which my old blog host generated automatically based on my birth date. Of course this was unacceptable. This meant I was teaching people new age astrology instead of Christianity.
Here’s what I learned from all that: ministerial problems are almost always relational. Unkind or fearful people use theological guises to mask interpersonal problems.
We eventually had to split paths. Afterward, I had a conversation with a counselor friend and he summed it up for me. “People do awful things when they are scared.”
What are they afraid of?
I don’t know.
Commented watchman on May 13th, 2008.Andrew: Motorcycles are fun, learning to ride them is not (as I nurse a twisted ankle, jammed fingers, and a nice cut on my calf).
Yeah, being held in account is good, but to what extent does that reach before accounting turns into censorship? My issue is with the way accountability is done, I guess. Or maybe it’s who does it. I have a friend which I know isn’t pleased with all I have to say here, yet the occasions which I do get his input and opinion on it (most of the time he disagree’s I’d say) I love it, but then sometimes I’d rather not hear it from others.
Watchman- Yeah, I can see that in churches (to be fair, I can be that way too), I’m not quite sure who my blog has gotten around to, I only know of one person who’s really dug around in it for certain, but thus far I don’t think it’s to sin sniff (maybe, who knows?). As far as leaving, I’d hope not, but we’ll see.
Fear? They’re afraid of different people and differing opinions.
Commented Matt on May 13th, 2008.