This past week, there was an awkward moment during class discussion in a Bible class I teach for a local Christian college. We were discussing Hebrews 10:25 which says “Let us not give up meeting together.” That verse teaches Christians to be committed to gathering together regularly and consistently.
I asked the students if the Christian college was a church, and so therefore, they didn’t need to participate in local churches nearby. They pretty much agreed that while the college is Christian, and it has numerous aspects of church family life, the college is not a church. It is a temporary educational institution with the vast majority of its constituents mostly 18-22 years old. Churches, however, are multi-generational, hopefully lasting more than four years, and with the purpose of the mission of Jesus in the world.
So I asked them, because the local church is so different from the college, and so important, shouldn’t the college, as a Christian institution, require them to attend local churches each week? The college does require them to attend chapel services on campus, about once per week throughout the semester. But the students all agreed that it would be legalistic for the college to require them to go to church. Far better that students exercise their free will and participate in church because they want to.
So far, so good. Here’s where it got awkward.
We then talked about the fact that the college requires students to go to chapel. One student spoke up saying that they felt that chapel this semester had been boring, uninspiring, and they even named one of the speakers they didn’t like.
I want my classes to be places where open discussion and opinions can be shared, and where people can disagree with one another. That student’s opinion is valid. But I shut down that discussion, as I felt that the naming of names was not in keeping with the Fruit of the Spirit. I later emailed the student asking if they had ever shared their opinion directly with the speaker. Jesus taught us to go to the person we have a concern with. But so often that kind of reconciling, healing, restorative conversation doesn’t happen. Instead we get upset, we talk to other people, we leave.
We justify it to ourselves by saying that we don’t want to make waves with the person. But we are okay making waves behind their back to others. Or we keep quiet about our concern because we are afraid to actually talk with the person. And yet, what does Scripture have to say about this?
In the next section of 1 Thessalonians 5 we’re studying this week, the apostle Paul has some really important teaching for us that relates to how Christians can disagree with one another in a healthy way.
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 