It’s Three Things Tuesday (well, it’s actually Wednesday and I’m running late but there’s no cute name to go along with Wednesday, so…it’s Three Things Tuesday) again.
Thing #1 The Real @DaliaLama
Believe it or not the Dalia Lama now has an official twitter account.
You can catch his tweets @DalaiLama.
Thing #2 Criticizing Church, Defending Church
Scott McKnight defends the church against her critics with arguments about the church being made up of a bunch of imperfect people therefore no one should expect her to be perfect…blah, blah, blah.
I think that is a poor defense…just because we (the body of Christ) are all imperfect and prone to make mistakes doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be criticized when we do harm to others or that we should expect people to stick around while we do harm to them or those they care about.
But, in case I missed the point or read something out of context read his post at Jesus Creed (and the comments) for yourself and see what you think.
Thing #3 Billy Coffey
Maybe I’m out of the loop and everyone already knows about Billy Coffey, but I was pleasantly surprised to run across him in the blogosphere recently. There is something raw and honest about his style – his writing really draws me in and I come away so glad to have read what he wrote.
For instance, check out a recent post he wrote called “What Happened To My Kindness”
Oh, and he has a book called Snow Day coming out later this year.
Grace Rules Weblog 
As Scot McKnight said, he’s saying nothing new. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said something similar:
“Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken
down because it had sprung from a wish dream… He who loves
his dream of a community more than the Christian community
itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his
personal intentions may be ever so honest and ernest and
sacrificial.
God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and
pretentious. The man who fashions the visionary ideal of a
community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and
by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his
demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and
himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to
all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the
creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men
together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a
failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the
community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of
his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the
despairing accuser of himself. Because God has already laid
the only foundation of our fellowship, because God has bound
us together in one body with other Christians in Jesus Christ,
long before we entered into common life with them, we enter
that common life not as demanders but as thankful recipients.”
Steve, Thanks for stopping by. I agree that Scott is not saying anything new, in fact, it was said in the church I grew up in for most of my life. I have no desire for any person to set up their own law when it comes to the institution of church, but for us to strive to be true followers of Jesus Christ. Of course we will all fall short of perfection and that is to be understood and accepted without too much fuss but when our goal becomes distorted we can get way off course and that calls for vocal criticism. Sometimes that criticism is resisted to the point that we have to part ways. I think that is what has happened in a lot of churches. (IMO) At the same time I think we critics need to check ourselves to make sure that we remain humble, kind and patient. I have failed at this many times but I fall down and I get back up again with the help of the Lord.