holy huddle
Qn: What exactly do I mean by a holy huddle?
Ans: The holy huddle is an observed social phenomena whereby Christians are seen acting in a certain manner that, whilst appearing to be the correct thing to do, actually has the effect of either pushing other non christians away from themselves, or not having enough time and energy to evangelise, thus failing to fufill The Great Commission. Based on my personal experience, I have identified 3 main areas whereby the holy huddle may be getting in the way of our Holy God.
Problem No 1 : Legalism
"The Law of Faith is belief that God is righteous and merciful and that He will provide His own way of salvation for mankind. This plan of salvation occurred when God the Son (Jesus) paid the requirements of the law for all of us on the cross. These who by faith believe God and accept the sacrifice He would and did provide for our sins will be saved. God is interested in saving people who truly trust in Him. He is not interested in having people in His presence who think they achieved salvation by following the letter of the laws they were incapable of keeping. Nor does He want those who think they will make heaven only because by their own efforts they followed rituals of their denomination." (Don Koenig :Christian Legalism - The Dark Side of Christianity)
Thankfully such people are quite rare nowadays. but they were rather common in the bible werent they?(Think Martha and Mary, or the Pharasees)
These are christians who seem like such a sticker for rules and regulations, who chatise us if we havent been titheing properly, who preach hellfire and damnation upon those recalcitrant people who refuse to embrace christianity, or the many various other minor transgressions that we commit on a daily basis, that brings harsh words and harsher feelings down upon our heads. Whilst they may have good intentions, the problem with legalism is the arising of a 'holier than thou' attitude, that would invariably create a rather tense atmosphere amongst fellow Christians. Worse still, should non-christians see such nit-picking behavior displayed, we may be alienating the very people we are trying to save! personally i believe that practising legalism is also bringing down undue and unauthorized judgement upon others, when the bible clearly states that judging our fellow men is the exclusive perogative of God!
Problem No 2: Mixing only with Christians
This is a far more relevant topic to discuss. This problem arises when we count too many of our friends as believers, and we are spending almost all our time with such like minded people. Personally I am somewhat guilty of this too so I speak from experience. I believe it is quite a prevalent one too. As christians, generally speaking, we all come from a similar socio-economic background, (chinese, english educated, both parents working, etc) go to the same schools, know the same people etc (esp in tiny singapore!) so many of us end up being around other people who are like us.....Christians. This is bad only when it get to the point whereby we are unable to evangelise to non-believers because we cannot relate to their needs, or worse, because we dont even get to meet them. In addition, this issue can lead to the Perception of Elitism, hence resulting in non-believers becoming turned off by our inbreeding ways.
Problem No 3: Living an Overly Christian Lifestyle
I can already hear you going "what on earth are you saying? how could that possibly be wrong!"
Allow me to explain. We are living an overly christian lifestyle when most of our waking hours, weekends and free time are spent doing churchy stuff. I am talking about the christian who spends his entire weekend from friday night to sunday night in church, attending services, leading cell groups, attending cell groups, registering for seminars, going for bible study, worship practice, choir practice, organizing church camps, participating in church camps....the list goes on. I personally know of someone who goes for 3 seperate services in his church because he feels the message is "different each time"! Surely that would be considered an overkill? The book of Corinthians says that there is a season for everything under heaven, and I believe God wants us to live well balanced lives such that our academic/working lives, social lives and spritual lives are in complete harmony.
I'll end off with a few questions for your personal soul-searching.
What good does it do for us if we participate in all the abovementioned events such that it leaves us with no time for ourselves, our friends or our studies?
How are we supposed to evangelise when we are continually drained of the time and energy to do so?
What impression are we giving our non-believing friends when we repeatedly refuse to go chill with them because of yet another church event?
God Bless
Joshua
Ans: The holy huddle is an observed social phenomena whereby Christians are seen acting in a certain manner that, whilst appearing to be the correct thing to do, actually has the effect of either pushing other non christians away from themselves, or not having enough time and energy to evangelise, thus failing to fufill The Great Commission. Based on my personal experience, I have identified 3 main areas whereby the holy huddle may be getting in the way of our Holy God.
Problem No 1 : Legalism
"The Law of Faith is belief that God is righteous and merciful and that He will provide His own way of salvation for mankind. This plan of salvation occurred when God the Son (Jesus) paid the requirements of the law for all of us on the cross. These who by faith believe God and accept the sacrifice He would and did provide for our sins will be saved. God is interested in saving people who truly trust in Him. He is not interested in having people in His presence who think they achieved salvation by following the letter of the laws they were incapable of keeping. Nor does He want those who think they will make heaven only because by their own efforts they followed rituals of their denomination." (Don Koenig :Christian Legalism - The Dark Side of Christianity)
Thankfully such people are quite rare nowadays. but they were rather common in the bible werent they?(Think Martha and Mary, or the Pharasees)
These are christians who seem like such a sticker for rules and regulations, who chatise us if we havent been titheing properly, who preach hellfire and damnation upon those recalcitrant people who refuse to embrace christianity, or the many various other minor transgressions that we commit on a daily basis, that brings harsh words and harsher feelings down upon our heads. Whilst they may have good intentions, the problem with legalism is the arising of a 'holier than thou' attitude, that would invariably create a rather tense atmosphere amongst fellow Christians. Worse still, should non-christians see such nit-picking behavior displayed, we may be alienating the very people we are trying to save! personally i believe that practising legalism is also bringing down undue and unauthorized judgement upon others, when the bible clearly states that judging our fellow men is the exclusive perogative of God!
Problem No 2: Mixing only with Christians
This is a far more relevant topic to discuss. This problem arises when we count too many of our friends as believers, and we are spending almost all our time with such like minded people. Personally I am somewhat guilty of this too so I speak from experience. I believe it is quite a prevalent one too. As christians, generally speaking, we all come from a similar socio-economic background, (chinese, english educated, both parents working, etc) go to the same schools, know the same people etc (esp in tiny singapore!) so many of us end up being around other people who are like us.....Christians. This is bad only when it get to the point whereby we are unable to evangelise to non-believers because we cannot relate to their needs, or worse, because we dont even get to meet them. In addition, this issue can lead to the Perception of Elitism, hence resulting in non-believers becoming turned off by our inbreeding ways.
Problem No 3: Living an Overly Christian Lifestyle
I can already hear you going "what on earth are you saying? how could that possibly be wrong!"
Allow me to explain. We are living an overly christian lifestyle when most of our waking hours, weekends and free time are spent doing churchy stuff. I am talking about the christian who spends his entire weekend from friday night to sunday night in church, attending services, leading cell groups, attending cell groups, registering for seminars, going for bible study, worship practice, choir practice, organizing church camps, participating in church camps....the list goes on. I personally know of someone who goes for 3 seperate services in his church because he feels the message is "different each time"! Surely that would be considered an overkill? The book of Corinthians says that there is a season for everything under heaven, and I believe God wants us to live well balanced lives such that our academic/working lives, social lives and spritual lives are in complete harmony.
I'll end off with a few questions for your personal soul-searching.
What good does it do for us if we participate in all the abovementioned events such that it leaves us with no time for ourselves, our friends or our studies?
How are we supposed to evangelise when we are continually drained of the time and energy to do so?
What impression are we giving our non-believing friends when we repeatedly refuse to go chill with them because of yet another church event?
God Bless
Joshua
posted by signed on the doctored line at 2:12 AM
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1 Comments:
Thanks for this post. It speaks to my personal experience a lot more than you'd realise now (though perchance if we ever do meet in person, I'll be glad to share with you).
Finding the happy medium between walking in the world, yet not being of it is difficult. May the Spirit guide us to find this balance.
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