Leadership
“Christian leaders cannot simply be persons who have well-informed opinions about the burning issues of our time. Their leadership must be rooted in the permanent, intimate relationship with the incarnate Word, Jesus, and they need to find there the source for their words, advice, and guidance….Dealing with burning issues easily leads to divisiveness because, before we know it, our sense of self is caught up in our opinion about a given subject. But when we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible but not relativistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle, and forgiving without being soft, and true witnesses without being manipulative.” Henri Nouwen - In The Name of Jesus
I haven’t read the book (it was quoted by Brennan Manning in another book), but I want to, soon. The last part of the quote was what really caught me. “Right wing conservative christendom” has always left a bad taste in my mouth (as has left wing liberalism). The “hard line” extremes just seem to be off to me.
If what Nouwen is saying is really true, then give me more! And the implication is that the “bad” kind of fundamentalism (I’ll call it legalism, or phariseeism) comes from doing thing in your own strength and wisdom, and dealing with the symptom (the hot-button issues: gay “marriage”, abortion, even dating) rather than the root (the heart issues: following God’s design for sex/marriage, valuing others over self, and purity).
Quite an encouraging and challenging thought by Nouwen.
right on, dewd
I heard Josh McDowell the other day address this by saying that fundamentalist churches historically abandoned relationship for truth and that liberal churches abandoned truth for relationship. The challenge for us today is recombine the two.
firstly…
Dan… Please do not say “liberal churches” when you MEAN “non-fundamentalist churches”… when you group them that way… well… some of those “liberal” churches are pretty damnd conservative.
Secondly…
Matt… You never cease to amaze and impress me. I tell you now somthing that is more true than anything you have ever hear me say (other than my wedding vows)…
I wish that some of the more public national Church leaders were a bit more like you (and the sentiment in this post), if they were this country would probably be a better place.
I’d go into detail… but that would just mean saying… exactly what I think of some current public leaders… and this is not the place for that…
At the risk of un-impressing you, I think Dan was right calling a non-fundamentalist church liberal. The bible was not meant to be taken any other way but as the FUNDAMENTAL basis for our faith.
Now I think also that we’ve skewed that words liberal, conservative, and fundamental, such that they need careful defintion.
Also, by liberal he meant doctrinally, and theologically, not politically or socially.