Ingrid Gets It Right… (well, kind of…)

Orginally published on Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 10:09 AM
by Todd Rhoades

Ingrid Schlueter is a Christian Radio talk show host, and the main voice behind the blog Slice of Laodicea. To be honest, I disagree with nearly everything I read over at Slice, but yesterday Ingrid wrote a post that I think gets it right... well, pretty much right (with a couple of exceptions, of course!). I won't reprint her entire post (you can read it here at Slice), but Ingrid gave some of her testimony; and I really think it gives a glimpse of why she's proactive with what she does with Slice. Ingrid's premise is that the church today gets it all wrong. I disagree with that statement, but I do feel like I understand a bit of where she is coming from, as I had much of the same type of upbringing and church background that Ingrid did...

Ingrid shares much of her childhood, growing up in churches that were constantly in conflict.  Church splits, fights, and contention seemed to be all she witnessed as she grew up.  It was so bad that when she left for college, she rebelled; and soon found herself a single mother far from God.  Ingrid found her way back; but her past experiences (just as mine do) give her a unique perspective.  Here’s what Ingrid writes…

“The rebellion of Christians in the church today is hurting others. It isn’t just the false doctrine that is walking in that is causing damage. What a difference it would have made in my life if I could have met more real Christians somewhere along the way in my young life. I think often of what an impact it would have made to see what real reconciliation looked like between believers as I was growing up. What if we had been in a church where there wasn’t a row going on or if someone had befriended me in high school who was genuine and faithful and who walked with God? When we refuse to do right in how we treat others, it can have generational consequences in the lives of others. That’s why all of the conferences in the world, all the media efforts, all of the planning, all of the programs, and yes, all of the blogging against error in the church will be a waste of time, unless Christians begin to obey the Word of God in their own lives. I have seen first hand how sin destroys. Unless we can love each other, really care about the well-being of our brothers and sisters in Christ, we have nothing to offer the world. If Jesus Christ is not powerful enough in our lives to heal broken relationships with other Christians than we need to shut up about His power to save souls. One of the reasons I pulled the comment section on this site is just that. While many had good things to say, the near constant bickering, the condemning, the ructions over minor issues unrelated to salvation was like a never ending nightmare. At one point, a zealous reader was actively fomenting opposition to those who post here at Slice and making personal attacks about our integrity. It was a frank testimony that while we claim to have answers for a dying world, we can’t even get along with fellow believers. In short, we make Christianity a hoax. The world doesn’t need more bogus religion. It doesn’t need more dogma, more sectarianism and more slogans. It needs real Christians, humble, obedient, kind and tender hearted believers who love each other first before they try to share the message of the Gospel to the unsaved. If the Gospel does not change our relationships, it is worthless. We become clanging cymbals, loud gongs, garbage can lids crashed together. If we can’t love our brothers and sisters, even those who sometimes disagree with us, how can we love God? We can’t.”

I definitely agree with much of what she says in this paragraph.  But I disagree with what got her to this point.  She starts her post with a rail against “yet another leadership conference sponsored by Willow Creek.” She says, “Thousands upon thousands of leaders will get together and hear hip, new ideas to “reach the world” for Christ. Everyone is networking, and sharing ideas and strategies and marketing savvy in their quest to evangelize everyone. Frankly, I believe that they can pull the plug on the electronic media, re-box all the how-to books, send everyone home, turn out the lights and lock the door. They will be doing the Kingdom of Christ a favor.”

I, for one, am glad there are people out there that are encouraging, networking, and training leaders.  It seems there wasn’t much of that in my childhood years for church leaders.  And to suggest that someone ‘pull the plug’ and that they would do the Kingdom a favor is a little over the top.

While I agree with Ingrid’s first paragraph, it seems that she takes a giant leap in how and why she got there.  Truth be told, it wasn’t the innovative, seeker-sensitve, hula-worship loving church had had it all wrong in her childhood (it was actually the legalistic, Bob Jonesish type church of her and my upbringing that showed the lack of love and initiated much of the conflict).  It is true that the churches that Ingrid and I grew up in didn’t grow alot of ‘real Christians’; but we sure did have a lot of Ingrids and Todds who are lucky to have survived that environment.  Ingrid made it back into the fold; many of my friends did not; and I would agree that the church of my upbringing did have it all wrong in many ways.

And that’s probably where Ingrid and I separate paths.  Even though our background is very much the same; we ended up in different places today; but both profoundly shaped by our past.  Both abhoring conflict.  Both extremely dedicated to Christ and empowering leaders in His church.  But somehow, I think the church of my childhood got a lot of things wrong and am excited about many things happening in today’s churches; meanwhile Ingrid is working within the culture of that church we grew up in saying that today’s churches are the ones getting it wrong, all the while upset when the comments on her own site are too full of conflict (probably from all us innovative folks) Our philosophies and ways of doing it couldn’t be different.

Many have criticized Slice for taking the comments section off their site.  According to Ingrid, “While many had good things to say, the near constant bickering, the condemning, the ructions over minor issues unrelated to salvation was like a never ending nightmare.” It sounds like Slice was starting to take on something that she was fighting to get away from in her past… conflict, condemning and ructions over minor issues unrelated to salvation.  That’s why I disagree with so much on Slice in the first place… most of what they write about is what they see as the problem, rather than the solution.

And that’s why I’m excited to see and report on so many ways that today’s churches are connecting with the lost and dying with the message of Christ!

Could it be that Slice is taking on much more of the role of Ingrid’s childhood churches; full of conflict and condemnation; and in the heat of the moment; becoming that clanging symbol?  Please don’t take that as a put down or criticism… It’s a risk for all of us; here at MMI as well for sure.

Does the church of today get it all wrong, as Ingrid suggests?  No, I don’t think so… I think there are many dedicated servants out there doing their best to reach souls for the Kingdom (just like in the days when Ingrid and I were growing up). And they will make mistakes, just like those leaders from our generations did.  Some today don’t fit the narrow settings that we grew up with; but I think that’s ok.  Ingrid and I could debate all day on why or why not that’s a good thing, then we’re back to the clanging cymbal thing.  I do agree when she writes that the world “Needs real Christians, humble, obedient, kind and tender hearted believers who love each other first before they try to share the message of the Gospel to the unsaved. If the Gospel does not change our relationships, it is worthless. We become clanging cymbals, loud gongs, garbage can lids crashed together. If we can’t love our brothers and sisters, even those who sometimes disagree with us, how can we love God? We can’t.”

To that, I say… “Amen!”

Todd

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Hi... I'm Todd Rhoades. I'm a Christ-follower, husband, father and I love to connect leaders with other leaders. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step on Twitter.

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