Our church family recently united with another local assembly in our community. This Sunday we publicly launch as an independent New Testament local church. Our emphasis will continue to exalt the authority of the scriptures and the necessity of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit for life and ministry. Here is a really condensed video from my Co-Lead Pastor, Dustin Pennington and me which explains how we began this great work together.
Posted in Church Life, Pastors & Pastoring
That I may understand, Pastor Lyle, do you believe then that unity is of more importance than doctrine?
Thank you for your response.
The simple answer is, in certain situations, of course unity is more important than doctrine. Perhaps this scenario (based on a recent situation I learned of) will help us to see that these types of things require prayerful contemplation before we draw hard and fast lines which sacrifice unity on the altar of some doctrinal difference.
In an extremely backwoods part of Tennessee, there is a great need for food and clothing to be delivered to impoverished families. A Christian organization makes regular trips there to take large amounts of supplies to those in need. This organization is rooted in a specific Christian denomination which has very firm positions on God’s sovereignty and the timing of Christ’s return and future reign. As word has gotten out about their ministry to provide mercy ministry to the poor and hungry, a couple in our home church committed to partner with them. We invested money to purchase food, clothing and health care items for the families in TN. As the day came to deliver the supplies, the couple in our church packed up their vehicle to the roof with the supplies, and headed toward the meeting point from where the ministry teams would leave to deliver the goods to those in need. When the leaders of that ministry learned that the couple from our church was not a part of their denomination, they refused to allow them to be a part of the team. They literally would not welcome them to travel with their group. The motivation in their separation from the couple from our church was based on the doctrinal differences between their denomination and our church. Fortunately, the couple from our church did not respond to these differences in the same manner. They traveled separately from the group, delivered the items to the people in need, and returned home having fulfilled their part in this Kingdom endeavor.
The question that you posed was ‘is unity of more importance than doctrine?’ My response to that would be formed in a question for you to consider: do you believe that, if the Lord Jesus had been physically standing there that day when the goods needed to be delivered to the poor and hungry, would He have commended the denominational/theological/doctrinal separation that was employed by the organizers? Would Jesus have smiled on their rejection of the couple from our church who are indeed the spiritual siblings of those who rejected them? Would the Lord Jesus have considered it wise that the organizers of the mission sacrificed unity because of doctrinal differences?
Lyle said he was aiming to depart from “dead, dry doctrine.” What does he mean by that statement? Is he referring to Dispensationalism? Baptist distinctives? Or something else? What does he consider “dead, dry doctrine”?
I would like to hear a response to this question.
Thanks
Kathryn, so sorry I missed this question. Thank you, Randy, for highlighting it again. Whenever I use the phrase, “dead, dry doctrine”, I am referring broadly to those who have the letter of the law, but not the vitality of the message. Doctrine is good and necessary, and I am deeply committed to rightly dividing the Word of truth. However, when doctrine becomes an end in itself, it will inevitably become dry and lifeless. Theology/doctrine is not the end, but a means to an end. What then is the end? Living relationship with God Himself. If doctrine does not result in this reality, it should be classified as dead. Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, we will remain dead to the substance of Scripture. The Holy Spirit quickens us to the Word. Many atheists/agnostics know Christian doctrine better than many Christians. Knowing the doctrine, however, does not profit them one iota. Many Christians also know scores of bible verses, moral norms derived from the text, and precise sectors of theology. Knowing these things does not necessarily mean they have internalized them. The doctrine is, in one sense, dead within them. There is no animation of the truth manifested in their lives. Jesus described this clearly in one of His rebukes of the Pharisees when He noted that they precisely tithed on everything (in obedience to orthodox Jewish teaching), but they neglected the “weightier matters of the law”, namely, justice, mercy and faithfulness (Matthew 23:23). They knew the words of the Scriptures but completely missed the heart of the Author. The Apostle Paul also mentions the potential to have “a form of godliness but denying the power thereof” (2 Tim. 3:5). We could also consider Jesus’ classification of the religious power-brokers of His day as being “whitewashed tombs, full of dead men’s bones”. The basic point is that there have always been people who magnify the outward shell of connection with God while, simultaneously, living with hearts that are devoid of His habitation. I often think of these types of things when I speak of dead, dry doctrine.
This reality can appear in countless numbers of ways but, at the core, it is little more than embracing objective truth while declining the potency of Kingdom love. I had an intense discussion with a Christian brother one time who was angry with me over the very issues I am addressing in these blog posts. This man is much older than me, brilliant and an extremely capable preacher. In our discussion he repeatedly told me that Christians’ unity with one another is rooted in doctrine. I cited numerous passages which declare otherwise, and established that the vitality of Christian unity is in Jesus Christ Himself, not our particular flavor of theology/doctrine. When we are in Christ, we are eternally linked with all others who are in Christ, no matter what shades of differences exist in our various doctrinal beliefs. The brother told me verbatim, “Our unity is not in Christ. Our unity is in theology.” This, in my opinion, is bibliolatry – the exaltation of the perceived truth of the written Word above and beyond the person and work of Jesus Christ. Theology/doctrine did not die on a tree for me. Theology/doctrine did not raise from the dead. Theology/doctrine does not impart gifts to us. Theology/doctrine cannot birth love in our hearts. Theology/doctrine is simply the cognitive recognition and communication of truth. Our understanding of theology/doctrine is neither perfect nor complete. To exalt one’s understanding of God and His Kingdom above that of God Himself is what I am referring to when I use the phrase “dead, dry doctrine”.