Tim Suffield.com

Gareth continues to address my opening salvo on the CU question. Which is nice. This time he asks whether Christian Unions should make disciples.

For my commentry here I’ll just reproduce the comment I left under his post:

Interesting. And mean for doing it when I was on holiday.

I think you correctly diagnose my ecclesiology. I think the proto-slippery-slope you suggest it leads to is is slightly unfair, as no one I know with a similar ecclesiology has tended towards that particularly. I do however think it’s a valid critique of where theology might lead praxis. It’s worth bearing in mind.

The statement that this might be a critique of other churches reads like it’s intended to be an argument for why I might be wrong. Let’s be fair it is a critique of other churches. Or at least, it is in the sense that every held ecclesiological position must be. Conflict in doctrine, and even critique of brothers, doesn’t undermine the universality of the Church in the convictions of those conflicting, nor does it of necessity invalidate their arguments. But then, you knew that.

It’s interesting that your response to what I next want to say is almost certainly included within this piece of writing. It’s not a response I’d considered, so it’s at least interesting!

Suffice to say for now: I’m unconvinced. BUT I understand your (and therefore by implication at least one of the justifications for the CU) position much better than I did before. I respect it. It’s better argued than any justification I’ve heard before - which frankly don’t even address the issues.

Can I pose a question, even though I won’t get there for a while? How would a church that holds convictions similar to, or even stronger than, mine best unite with and work with a Christian Union in a university if they desired to do so? In terms of their own student ‘work’ more specifically than anything else. I’m assuming that they have excellent relations with the other local churches if it’s relevant.

Thanks for this Gareth. It’s illuminating.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 29th, 2006 at 6:38 pm and is filed under The CU Question. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.