It's been raining a bit lately, so I've been inside doing a lot of reading. It's a good thing to read, especially as a student who is assigned hundreds of pages a week of reading. It's easier to do the reading on days like today where it rains, and rains, and rains.
The other day I was reading a note in a church communication that really got under my skin, so much so that I stopped reading at that point and decided if there was anything else worth reading in that particular communication that I would read it another day. Here's the sentence that irked me:
The women's group in any church, should be and generally is the strongest group in the church community.
UGH! I can't believe that a church would allow such falsehood to be printed! Where has it ever been written that a women's group should be the strongest in a church community? Does the leadership of any church really believe this?
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for strong women's groups, and men's groups, and youth groups, but to value one group as being the "strongest" just sets me off. Is this not what Jesus came to abolish? It's no wonder that authors like David Murrow are writing books like "Why Men Hate Going to Church". If there really are supposed to be "stronger" ministries and power plays within a church community and such power plays are encouraged by the leadership of the congregation it's a wonder that anyone wants to be a part of the church any longer ... maybe that's why we are seeing declines in the membership of mainline churches, because we are allowing thinking like this to drive the ministry of our church.
What if we made statements like, "the service to our neighbors should be the strongest ministry in our church" now we're getting somewhere. Last I checked Jesus didn't come to pit one group against another, Jesus came as servant to all. I'm all for following that example.
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