Can Folks Afford to Join Your Church?

[Josh]

Submission to a brotherhood.

[Wade]

The common church rulings on color of a car has nothing to do with submission. Its a hold over from the model T Ford. Its a tradition through and through.

Submission is often about arbitrary things. At some point, most traditions are arbitrary in a sense.

The question is why so many of us feel a strong need to buck all tradition.

Submission to whom? Christ or the church?

Christ is not separate from His body - the church or as Josh said the brotherhood.
The brotherhood is in submission to the head - Christ.
If we are joined to Christ we will also be joined to His body. No matter which way I look at it; submission is required.

[Wade]

Submission is often about arbitrary things. At some point, most traditions are arbitrary in a sense.

The question is why so many of us feel a strong need to buck all tradition.

Submission to whom? Christ or the church?

Christ is not separate from His body - the church or as Josh said the brotherhood.
The brotherhood is in submission to the head - Christ.
If we are joined to Christ we will also be joined to His body. No matter which way I look at it; submission is required.

I would like to balance this out as submission isn't only required from the individual. There is also a submission from the church - making it mutual. And who better to lead out in a proper example of submission than those already in the body?

[gcdonner]

Submission to a brotherhood.

And what if what the brotherhood is asking us to submit to is contrary to Christ?

[ken_sylvania]

Submission to a brotherhood.

And what if what the brotherhood is asking us to submit to is contrary to Christ?

Who defines what is contrary to Christ?

[Josh]

Submission to a brotherhood.

And what if what the brotherhood is asking us to submit to is contrary to Christ?

Time to find a new brotherhood. Asking me to drive a black car isn't contrary to Christ, so (whilst it would be difficult) I could theoretically be part of a black car church.

Asking me to proclaim no one is saved who is not baptised in a specific name and speaks in tongues would be contrary to Christ, or teaching that the Sermon on the Mount only applied to the disiciples, which is why I am not a member of the UPCI.

[gcdonner]

Submission to a brotherhood.

And what if what the brotherhood is asking us to submit to is contrary to Christ?

Who defines what is contrary to Christ?

Evidently, Josh does...

[Josh]

There is a place for individual discernment to read the Bible and understand what is contrary to Christ and also to reach out to ministers and brethren in other churches and ask for their input.

[gcdonner]

There is a place for individual discernment to read the Bible and understand what is contrary to Christ and also to reach out to ministers and brethren in other churches and ask for their input.

I agree.

[ken_sylvania]

There is a place for individual discernment to read the Bible and understand what is contrary to Christ and also to reach out to ministers and brethren in other churches and ask for their input.

I agree with you. I just wish the Mennonite constituency as a whole, myself included, could better understand what that really means and how to put it to practice. One gets a bit jaded after a while watching the confusion that is constantly playing out as Christians attempt to understand and practice a proper balance between discerning truth individually and submitting to truth as discerned by the brotherhood. The more I see the more convinced I am that most of us hold our own ideas about truth too highly, but I am aware that relying solely on the discernment of the brotherhood is not the answer either.