Yes - I have been away - but I am back now. Still undecided re Church. How can I stay in a reformed Charismatic church when I am neither reformed nor charismatic?
Here is my big problem - should we, as a family, be a member of one congragation? Canw ebe nominally a member of one congragation (one that some find acceptabel) but then also be members of another?
Howdy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment on my blog, BTW.
I think the question of membership will depend on how seriously you take the role of elders in the church and therefore your relationship to them. As pastors and shepherds they are charged with caring for your soul. You and I in turn are charged with submission and respect for them in their God-given function. (e.g. 1 Thess 5:13) In my view, to float around claiming to be a member of Christ's body and so not needing to be a member of a specific congregation, as some do, is not to take account of the full picture of membership that scripture presents to us.
Hope this helps rather than hinders!
I agree. Really what I was wondering is that if, as a family, we declared memebership of a particular church, but that membership came with the explicit permission to also fellowship elsewhere withthe same consent of the elders there.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that it is driving me nuts having to throw my lot in with this Church, but my kids (especially my seven year old) gets freaked out at the thought of leaving. I feel that I will suffer spiritually (anger, bitterness, lack of commitment etc) if we stay, but it is a difficult thing for the family to leave.