Sharp, Eddie

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LeavenVolume 9Issue 3 First Corinthians Article 51-1-2001Lessons from Loredo: How to "Do Church" in aComplex EnvironmentEddie SharpFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leavenPart of the Biblical Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, and the Religious Thought,Theology and Philosophy of Religion CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Religion at Pepperdine Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Leaven byan authorized administrator of Pepperdine Digital Commons. For more information, please contact Kevin.Miller3@pepperdine.edu.Recommended CitationSharp, Eddie (2001) "Lessons from Loredo: How to "Do Church" in a Complex Environment," Leaven: Vol. 9: Iss. 3, Article 5.Available at: http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol9/iss3/5Lessons from Laredo: How to"Do Church" in a Complex EnvironmentEDDIE SHARPThe University Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas loves missions. Missions form the core of thecongregation's identity. God has blessed the efforts of the congregation in the past, but the lastwork was begun more than twenty years ago. For the past two years, University has sought a newstateside mission site. The criteria for the selection of a site included that it be in a growing area, withindriving distance of Abilene and have good receptivity to the teaching of Jesus. After much study, considera-tion, and an act that was purely by the hand of God, we have selected Laredo, Texas as our new mission site.Laredo, the second fastest growing city in the nation for the decade of the nineties, is now a city of176,576 according to the 2000 census. Laredo is 94.1% Hispanic, 5% White, 0.4% Asian. Laredo sits at thesouthern end of the 1-35 NAFTA corridor. One million semi-trailers cross the border at Laredo annually.Sixty-three maquiladoras in Nuevo Laredo fabricate much of that freight into finished goods. Catholicism isthe dominant faith. Many citizens of Laredo are Catholic by preference but functionally unchurched. Threesmall Churches of Christ with a total attendance of less than one hundred are in the city. Half of these mem-bers are Hispanic and worship in Spanish. Two of the congregations are conservative and isolationist in ori-entation to the general culture. The challenge of planting a new church in Laredo calls for divine wisdomand sound thinking about the issues involved.Paul's word in 1 Corinthians has much to say about how to plant a church in a faithful and culturallyappropriate way in a city like Laredo. In many ways, Corinth and Laredo are similar. Both are cities domi-nated by the movement of commerce. Material goods moved through Corinth on the seven and one-half miletrek from Cenchrea to Lechaeum across the Corinthian isthmus. Both cities have many gods. Corinth con-tained twelve temples. In Laredo the materialism, the sensuality, the de facto paganism of the culturallyCatholic, and the multiple sources of religious authority available to the devoutly Catholic smack ofCorinth's idolatrous spirit. Corinth had its Jewish Christians with their sensitivities to pagan practices andlove of their Jewish heritage. Laredo has its "Church of Christ" members who have lived isolated and criti-cal of the culture for so long that evangelism is comfortable only if it is an invitation for others to come andto conform. The University Church desires to plant a biblically centered, cul-turally sensitive congregation in Laredo in such a way that as few Abilenechurch cultural elements as possible transfer. We hope as much as possible tolet the attraction of the church be Jesus and offence of the church be Jesus.Paul's teaching in 1 Cor 8 helps us face the issues of faith, freedom, andfellowship in local churches of today. Paul loved to walk into cities where wor-ship of the true God was found in a synagogue or a place of prayer. He lovedthe challenge of facing down the false gods and lords of his day in the market-places and circles of discussion. As Paul taught about Jesus, people respondedto the good news. When they came to Jesus, they were incorporated into bodiesof fellowship in which they learned to live life in Christ. These new Christians1Sharp: Lessons from Loredo: How to "Do Church" in a Complex EnvironmentPublished by Pepperdine Digital Commons, 2001130 LEAVEN Third Quarter 2001learned amazing lessons as they distinguished the true God and Father from the gods of the day and as theylearned and practiced a new freedom in the context of nurturing, interdependent Christian relationships.Paul begins his argument in 1 Cor 8 expressing his desire that people be built up rather than puffed up.The two elements of Christian faith that might inflate the believer's ego are Christian knowledge andChristian freedom. The edifying component of lovejoins with knowledge and freedom to create Christianfellowship. Paul asserts that knowledge and freedomare meaningless unless love and consideration operatein the life of the church to create fellowship. A briefreview of 1 Cor 8 will show how these three elementsinteract.Paul begins his section on food sacrificed to idolsin 1 Cor 8. The fact that the Christians are having fel-lowship problems from eating meat sacrificed to idolsreminds us that Paul brought the message of Christ to a culture with many gods and lords. Christ appearedto Paul in Corinth and told him not to be afraid to speak to the people of the diverse, perverse city but tostay" because I have many people in this city" (Acts 18:10). Paul brought the knowledge of the true Godand his son Jesus Christ to a city filled with idols and philosophies, rituals and rites. Paul expresses hisknowledge about the place of the Father and the Son powerfully:Wehope as much aspossible to let theattraction of the church beJesus and offence of thechurch be Jesus.For even ifthere are so called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many"gods" and many "lords"), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all thingscame and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom allthings came and through whom we live. (I Cor 8:5, 6)Paul acknowledges that other masters have operated in the lives of the Corinthians. Whether such godsand lords exist in fact as forces of darkness or as merely enthroned illusions in the hearts of women and menmatters not at all to Paul. Even these gods and lords did exist, they are puny and second-rate compared tothe Father and the Son.The presence and power of the Father and the Son in the life of the Christian sets the new Christian free.Those who are in Christ are released from the basic principles of the universe (Col 2:8, 20). The gift of sal-vation by grace through faith replaces the principle of salvation by law keeping. The word from heaven wasthat nothing God had made was unclean in the new economy of things (Acts 10:9-16). In 1 Corinthians,Paul writes about such freedom in Christ: "Everything is permissible" (1 Cor lO:23). This kind of freedom isheady stuff.With such freedom, practices that had been at the core of one's faith can be discontinued. Circumcisionand Sabbath keeping can go out the window. The food from the idol's temple can be seen as mere foodrather than as a participation with the idol. Paul used his freedom in Christ to acclimate himself to the differ-ent settings of ministry, becoming like a Jew to the Jews and like a Gentile to the Gentiles (1 Cor 9: 19-23).Unfortunately, great freedom brings temptation to become selfish. In the same way that knowledge aboutGod can create arrogance, Christian freedom, pure and simple, is the stuff of anarchy in the hands of thespiritually immature.Knowledge and freedom come to the Corinthians as great gifts. But knowledge and freedom must comeunder the discipline of loving consideration for others in order to create fellowship appropriate for the bodyof Christ: "The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the manwho loves God is known by God" (1 Cor 8:2, 3). Paul urges the Corinthians to learn consideration for oneanother in matters related to the practice of freedom.2Leaven, Vol. 9 [2001], Iss. 3, Art. 5http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol9/iss3/5FIRST CORINTHIANS LEAVEN 131Knowledge of Christ and the freedom that he brings does not automatically change involuntary respons-es to various kinds of actions or practices. A person might know in his or her thoughts that an idol is nothingat all, but years of serving at an idol temple may leave one very sensitive to things taken from there. AJewish Christian might have a caution in his or her heart about the Sabbath or a ham salad; even though, heor she might know that there is nothing to such rules this side of the cross. Paul teaches that these mattersare not settled by deciding who is factually correct. Such questions are not academic, but relational. Paulwarns against destroying the weak one, for whom Christ died, by the improper use of knowledge and free-dom: "When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin againstChrist" (1 Cor 8: 12).Implied in the use of the term "weak brother" is the notion that those stronger in faith have the privilegeof giving in or giving up first. Some have argued that "weak" might indicate one who is in a numericallyweaker position in the church, like the Jews being fewer than the Gentiles in all probability. Still, it seemsthat the force of the argument is that those who are more mature are called to be considerate of the con-sciences of those weaker in faith. The paradox is that the surer people are of their faith and freedom, themore ready they should be to curtail their freedom out of respect for the object of their faith and love for hispeople. Christian fellowship issues from such consideration of one another.With Paul's lesson about knowledge, freedom, and fellowship in hand, I would like to allow him tomentor us at the University Church as we think about establishing a new congregation in Laredo, Texas.The great divide in the Laredo project lies in a possible friction between the need to reach out to the lostin the most relevant way possible and the need to be considerate of the feelings and sensitivities of thosewithin the church. We want to plan like bold missionaries. In planning our world missions in Buenos Aires,Argentina, and Rostov-on-Don, Russia, we ask ourselves how to create the most culturally appropriateChristian presence possible. We try in every way pos-sible to resist the urge to transplant an American,white, middle-class, university educated church intothese contexts. The Argentine church needed to smelllike beef and mate. The Russian church needed tosmell like borscht and chai. Of course, there is over-simplification here, but basically we were blessed inour efforts to the extent that we were able to remainculturally sensitive and to know what of the culture toembrace and what to reject.The difficulty in Laredo is that, on the one hand,we see the need to do foreign missions domestically.On the other hand, we already know some of theestablished churches in Laredo are suspicious of oureffort. We know some are influenced by the most right wing people and papers. So a delicious questionhangs over us-<io we build a church for the lost or the found?We need to plant a church that can acclimate itself as much as possible to Catholic culture while holdingon to biblical teaching. We expect to dedicate babies when they are born. We think people should be able tokneel to pray. A candle may not be of the Devil. We think that someone who has made the sign of the crosswhen she prays all her life should not have to change that practice. We can imagine other culturally openand accepting behaviors that would lie completely within the bounds of Christian freedom. Christ has set usfree to think of such adaptations.On the other hand, we will be sharing fellowship in a city with conservative churches that will look witha jaundiced eye at anything hinting of Catholic influence. No doubt some people will place membershipWemust be strong in theproclamation of salvationby grace through faith,certain of our freedom inChrist, and generous in ourconsideration of oneanother as long as suchconsideration does notchange the message.I··I!3Sharp: Lessons from Loredo: How to "Do Church" in a Complex EnvironmentPublished by Pepperdine Digital Commons, 2001132 LEAVEN Third Quarter 2001with the new church and bring their "this is the way we did it back in Dallas in 1958" views. Immediately,our sweet, innocent church plant will be in the throes of conflict.Does Paul have anything to relate to us from 1 Cor 8? I believe Paul calls for us to have a paradoxicalstance. We must be strong in the proclamation of salvation by grace through faith, certain of our freedom inChrist, and generous in our consideration of one another as long as such consideration does not change themessage of the gospel.Paul does call us to share the great news of what God has done in Christ. We get to share the knowledgeof biblical faith with the unchurched and with the barely churched. The opportunity to inform such hearts isa high privilege. In Laredo, the biblical witness confronts tradition, superstition, materialism, cultural reli-gion, and a certain border hedonism. Announcing the mighty acts of God in Laredo will be good.We will also be proclaiming freedom in Christ. Christ frees people from sin. Christ frees people fromoppressive, legalistic religion. Christ frees people to good works in the name of Jesus. Christ frees us toenter the world carrying the message of the good news of Jesus. Everyone who comes to Jesus experiencesfreedom in Christ in a different way. We are all boundin different ways; so, we are all freed in differentways.Paul then reminds us that the knowledge and free-dom that people might find in Laredo in the year 2001is just as likely to puff people up with pride now as itwas in 55 A.D. When the church that God raises up isgathered, the people will have to learn to love oneanother in radical, personal, and sometimes self-limit-ing ways.Those who come into the new church with a background in the faith and with a knowledge of Churchesof Christ will be given the opportunity to catch the dream of building a culturally appropriate congregationin a predominately Hispanic and Catholic city. Those who can catch the dream will be welcomed. Thosewho have trouble understanding the dream will be welcomed too. Those who seem committed to willfulorneriness will be pushed in the Rio Grande.Those who come to faith in Christ and are new to the church and to Churches of Christ will be wel-comed. Surely, by the time such a commitment is made, they will already know that the church embracesHispanic culture and values those who come to faith out of a culturally Catholic background. These newbrothers and sisters will be given the opportunity to understand the brothers and sisters who have come tofaith from more Anglo or more "Church of Christ" points on the compass.The greatest fact of the church must be that love builds up. For a congregation to be built, it must findthe way of love. The fellowship must be focused not on who gets their way but on who goes out of theirway to be considerate in all things. To be sure, the culture that insures health and growth in the church isneither Hispanic, nor Anglo, but a culture of love. The church when it is right has culture of love. This is thelesson from Paul in 1 Cor 8. Paul is a great mentor for ministry. We have a new church that will be markedby his teaching.The fellowship must befocused not on who getstheir way but on who goesout of their way to beconsiderate in all things.EDDIE SHARPDr. Sharp serves as pulpit minister of the University Church of Christ, Abilene, Texas.4Leaven, Vol. 9 [2001], Iss. 3, Art. 5http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol9/iss3/5

Lessons from Loredo: How to  Do Church  in a Complex Environment

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Lessons from Loredo: How to Do Church in a Complex Environment

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