Emphasis

I've become convinced that 95% of disagreements among Christians who believe that the Bible is the infallible and complete word of God arise over emphasis. I've been in many, many churches where the statement of faith checks out just fine, they give Biblical answers to hard questions if pushed, but somehow the church seems horribly off. Generally, that's because of an unhealthy emphasis or de-emphasis on one or more of the many facets of Biblical theology or church life. Some churches marginalize themselves by focusing too much on tongues - Assemblies of God holds the Biblically untenable position that all who are baptized in the Holy Spirit speak in tongues (I Cor 12:30) - or by saying that tongues should never exist outside the New Testament (it's the same Spirit, isn't it?). That's a pretty obvious example, but the same thing can happen over any number of relatively innoccuous issues. For instance, someone in our church asked for volunteers today to join in founding a "good neighbor committee" to more effectively welcome guests and build community. Terrific idea, yet it's easy to see how too much or too little emphasis on community could hurt a church.

At risk of being awarded an M.A. in the Obvious, I'd say church life is about balance. It's about evangelism, community, spiritual warfare, worship, theology, service, discipleship, ritual, accountability, friendships, family, gifts, cultural relevance, political awareness, internationalism, global missions, ecumenity, creativity, reverence, leadership, character development, reconciliation, and I could take this list through the dictionary of churchisms and virtues.

Theoretically, you could say "it's never a bad thing to have more evangelism, so how can you say that balance is the goal?" I'm not speaking of balance within the discipline (though that's often appropriate), but among disciplines. Unfortunately, church emphasis, like economics, is about scarce resources. If members are being mobilized to hand out the Jesus video to their neighbors, half of them aren't going to have the time to cook a meal for a new mother as they had otherwise intended to do. It's not zero-sum - most churches have some idle or undeveloped resources. But it's not all about parishioner activity - it's often about Sunday services, which are zero-sum if length is constant. Fifteen minutes spent praying for the filling of the Holy Spirit is fifteen minutes that can't be devoted to expounding scripture, singing hymns, praying for missionaries, or taking communion.

Is there any application here? Certainly to identify areas of focus - in your own life as well as in ministries and church. I could list areas I believe lack focus in the church, but that would be basically representative of the few Bostonian and Maryland churches that I'm familiar with. The real application is the Holy Spirit, Who works in us to conform us to the image of Christ. Without His divine intervention, we'd be lost in a game of constant readjustment, and never making progress. Instead, let us rely on and submit to the Spirit our plans and visions, and let Him adjust us as He deems necessary.

However, be sure not to overemphasize this application!