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I recently read a great article by Bill Boniface on my Dad's blog, The South Dakota Anglican (www.sdanglican.blogspot.com), concerning the internal struggle in the Episcopal Church. My dad grew up in that church and in the past few years has returned to minister in the Anglican Communion. He currently is pioneering house church fellowships in, as the title of his blog suggests, South Dakota.
Because of years of eroding doctrine, the Episcopal Church faces a crossroad. Many who favor a return to conservative Biblical values are leaving, or considering leaving, the church. Others are rising up to fight the liberal religious thought that has pervaded the church for a number of years now. But the fight to change the church back doctrinally will not be easy. And many good people will be maligned in the effort.
And this all is happening now because declining attendance in so-called mainline denominations caused many of them to re-examine their spiritual and doctrinal positions. In order to attract more people, especially young people, in the 70's and 80's, a shift away from teaching solid Biblical doctrine took place. And that has resulted in the turmoil the Episcopal Church, and other denominations like them, are experiencing. But it is not just those mainline, or nominal as some call them, churches who face crossroads. And it is all to attract a crowd.
Whatever Destination God may become in the future, and I am not sure of what that is to be at this point, I know that it will not follow the path being blazed in the emerging church movement. Many within that sphere are doing just what I was afraid they might if they did not keep their doctrinal focus. They are drifting left. And by that I do not mean the political left, but the religious left. And, like in the case above, it is all to attract a crowd. The drive to be "hip" and to be "relevant? has left them subject to be "weak-kneed" in matters of true doctrine and pure faith.
I know in my own case I write what I do here in order to combat a similar but opposite problem in the evangelical church. Churches like what I grew up in may not be marching in lockstep toward apostasy as others seemingly are, but neither is there the passion for doing the things of God, doing them God's way, and doing them for God's glory.
The push seems to be to become a political "force for good". But, somehow, The Message has gotten lost in "the message". True conservative Christianity and true conservative politics may have a lot in common, but not always. In a rush to be a player on the political scene, God's truth is sometimes a casualty. The immigration debate is a prime example. The environment is another. Welfare, AIDS, and racial reconciliation are others. And sin and religious compromise are too. The Bible is an outline of God's way of dealing with these things. And it isn't always the "way that seemeth right to a man".
Which is why I call Destination God the "practice of vintage faith".
Vintage Faith, as it is defined here, is the faith that believes the Bible is what it claims to be. God did what it says He did. And Jesus is who the Bible presents Him to be.
Vintage Faith, as it is defined here, is the faith that believes God has told us what to do. And in order to live the life He intended us to live, we must live it as He said to live it.
Vintage Faith, as it is defined here, is the faith that believes God's Word, presented God's Way, will make an impact on the world around us.
Vintage Faith, as it is defined here, is the faith that does not compromise its message, either to the "left" or the "right", in order to draw a crowd or leverage power.
And Vintage Faith, as it is defined here, is the faith that does not sacrifice compassion for dogma.
I don't know, but it seems the older I get the more like a rebel I become. Maybe I picked it up from "the old man". And I can't help but give in to the urge to yell, "Keep up the good fight, man!"
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