Church Voices

Anne Jackson over at flowerdust.net wrote a post about one of the most current publicized Christian leaders to fail. However, in it she points out a tremendous failure of the church that has been swept under the rug.  Apparently Ted Haggard attempted to cooperate with God in changing his heart by seeking help from other church leaders, but those he turned to did not “carry each other’s burdens” but in fact made things worse by their actions and advice (read her post to get more details).

I’m not saying that Haggard didn’t sin or that he isn’t at fault, but he did what few Christians actually do today by sharing his struggles with other Christians and the church failed him. 

Lord, provide your people with mature believers to come alongside each other and carry each other’s burdens when the Shepherds of the church fail to feed, protect, and care for the wounded.

To the ancient Greek mind you fell into one of two categories: Greek or barbarian. If you were Greek then you were cultured, sophisticated, concerned with philosophy, poetry, architecture and politics. On the other hand if you were a barbarian you likely spent most of your time hitting things with a club.

In 476AD some of those barbarians hit Rome with a club. Specifically, a Germanic tribe commanded by Odoacer did the hitting, and they just kind of took over. They maintained much of what was already in place, and occasionally went to war against various other groups. Eventually Odoacer went up against an army he couldn’t beat, it was commanded by a man named Theodoric. They signed a treaty to share power, and at the celebration feast Theodoric killed Odoacer with his bare hands.

Here’s the thing though, likely you’ve heard of the Roman empire and the Greek foundation it was built upon. In fact, it had such a profound impact on the history of the world that the founding fathers of the United States were, to a certain extent, obsessed with the Roman empire.

So why are the Greeks and Romans such a powerful influence in the way we think, and in the development of the western world while the architect of the fall of Rome is far more obscure, and has nothing in the way of modern influence?

Barak Obama touched on the difference between Greco-Roman influence and barbarian influence when he said,”know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy”. The Greco-Roman world is marked by creation. The creation of an empire, the creation of a republic, the creation of architecture, poetry, philosophy, roads, and ultimately the creation of an entire way of looking at the world. The barbarians, on the other hand, didn’t create much of anything. They destroyed, and they saw glory in their day, but ultimately they are mostly forgotten.

As tremendously powerful as the Greco-Roman world was it is, at best, a shadow of the ultimate creator, God. God created everything from nothing. Even salvation is offered in terms of creation: the creation of the church, through the work of Christ is ultimately about creation (oddly enough through the destruction of Christ’s life). Even when Jesus talks about defeating hell itself it is in the context of creation. In Matthew 16 he says, “upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” The creation of the church is held out by Christ as defeating hell, rather than a direct assault on hell itself.

Unfortunately, many Christians act more like barbarian destroyers than they do like Greek creators. Their time and energy is spent trying to destroy political parties, theological positions, and individuals they disagree with. Most of these people will fail in their ultimate goal, but even for the few who are successful their accomplishments likely won’t have the effect they expect it will. Instead of leading to a glorious renewal of their values and churches, it will instead end up fizzling out and being forgotten like a wet firework the day after the fourth of July.

On the other hand, Christians who actually devote their efforts to building disciples, churches, schools of thought, and other ecclesiastical outworkings have the opportunity to create, in conjunction with God, things that will outlast their lives, and perhaps will shape the thinking of generations to come.