Thank you for sharing your perspective. I'm thinking the use of the word "canard" is a bit of a tell. I'm curious about your expertise and experience that formed your opinions about church order and the events of Synod that would cause you to make these characterizations. I am grateful for the ways in which we can dialog about different perspectives within the body of believers. I think it's important to separate out the differences between sharing perspectives and sharing truth.
I'm still curious about how you acquired your expertise in church order. I have no desire to debate church order, but I do believe it was never intended to be used as a baseball bat. I was at Synod this year. Unless you were in the gallery, I don't think you were there. (I enjoyed meeting the men from your Classis. We shared chocolate.) You know that phrase, "you had to be there!" Church order was not used to frame structure for ministry or to encourage loving the Lord God with heart,mind, soul, and strength - or loving our neighbors as ourselves. It was used as a "gotcha!" Two memorable things said on the floor of Synod, "those living in unrepentant sin will go to hell” and “I love discrimination!” Sounds a bit heavy-handed to me. 100 years from now our future selves will see how this has all panned out. I think we'll all be a bit surprised.
Posted in: Did Synod 2024 Ignore or Violate Church Order?
Thank you for sharing your perspective. I'm thinking the use of the word "canard" is a bit of a tell. I'm curious about your expertise and experience that formed your opinions about church order and the events of Synod that would cause you to make these characterizations. I am grateful for the ways in which we can dialog about different perspectives within the body of believers. I think it's important to separate out the differences between sharing perspectives and sharing truth.
Posted in: Did Synod 2024 Ignore or Violate Church Order?
I'm still curious about how you acquired your expertise in church order. I have no desire to debate church order, but I do believe it was never intended to be used as a baseball bat. I was at Synod this year. Unless you were in the gallery, I don't think you were there. (I enjoyed meeting the men from your Classis. We shared chocolate.) You know that phrase, "you had to be there!" Church order was not used to frame structure for ministry or to encourage loving the Lord God with heart,mind, soul, and strength - or loving our neighbors as ourselves. It was used as a "gotcha!" Two memorable things said on the floor of Synod, "those living in unrepentant sin will go to hell” and “I love discrimination!” Sounds a bit heavy-handed to me. 100 years from now our future selves will see how this has all panned out. I think we'll all be a bit surprised.