refreshing maturity

Dallas' former church, Ecclesia, his this guy named Chris Seay as their pastor. The first time I met Chris, I was struck by the amount of spiritual authority this guy had. He told me things in love that I really needed to hear, hard things. It was good to sit and just listen to what he was saying. I feel the same way about this article about him.

He says some really good, hard things about treating brothers and sisters in Christ with dignity and respect, even if they don't celebrate Christ the same way as you.

From A Casualty in My Own War:

"I adopted a new posture... my wit sharper, my attitude more jaded, and my mind more skeptical about boomer pastors. My opinions and preferences were cementing into dogma, and without knowing it I was becoming the very thing I hated in others."

whole article

Recently, in a conversation with a friend concerning an elderly man that we both knew, he said something like, "you can't tell me that [our elderly friend] goes to church every Sunday because he loves God, he does it because it's what he's always done. It doesn't mean anything to him anymore." That statement revealed much more about him and his own prejudices than it did about our elderly friend.

I'm hopeful that we can begin to not only love each other in Acadiana, but hold each other in honor without always having to agree.

1 comments:

Sandy Mc said...

I had read that article Chris S wrote when it came out, but needed to read it again, thanks:)

I agree with you about the diversity of how people worship, often noticably between the generations. My mom loves old hymns and traditional 4 part songs, and feels *distracted* when even quiet music is used as an interlude during prayer moments. Yet I am convinced she worships in her way every bit as much as I do in my LOUD one! (I actually like hymns too)