A little background info before the meat of this post...
In 1906, the churches of the Restoration Movement that followed Campbell and Stone had a split over the use of instrumental music in worship. The Churches of Christ thought it was inappropriate to use instruments, while the Christian Churches embraced it. Today, such a dispute seems so silly to me and many others in both of those Restoration Movement tribes.
Since we are at the 100 year anniversary of the split, many leaders of both tribes have had discussions and led efforts to heal that split. I don't think any of the leaders suppose that we will remerge into one group, but we are trying to fellowship one another, ask forgiveness for many of our attitudes toward each other over the last 100 years, and focus on what we have in common: Christ.
At the recent annual National Association of Christian Churches convention, Jeff Walling, a prominent speaker within the Churches of Christ exchanged bibles with Dave Stone, a CC leader, as a sign of refellowship. In his message, Walling challenged, "Are you willing to go home and shape the future of our brotherhood for our children by reaching out because of grace to say, ‘I love you in the name of Jesus Christ, brother?’” Walling asked the crowd. “And if somebody says, ‘Well, he’s a brother in error,’ you tell him, ‘Do we have any other kind?’".
These kind of discussions have been ongoing for quite some time and are not really a newsflash. The Christian Chronicle, a CofC magazine, ran an article on this event, which described the discussion without taking a position on the issue. Here's what is shocking to me. Off on the side of the Christian Chronicle webpage is a
survey.
The survey asks, "Do you support fellowship between a cappella Churches of Christ and instrumental Christian Churches?"
Here are the results as they stand right now:
Definitely 29.52% (488)
Somewhat 7.26% (120)
Neutral 2.78% (46)
Not really 7.02% (116)
Absolutely not 53.42% (883)
First of all, this survey has gotten about 10 times the response as most of their past online surveys. Secondly, I know that this is only 1600 people and can't be taken as very accurate data. Thirdly, I admit that the readership of the Christian Chronicle is probably pretty skewed and not a good reflection of the Churches of Christ on the whole.
But still, this survey breaks my heart.
How can 53% of our people think that we shouldn't fellowship other Christians because they use instruments? How can that be? I'm simply ashamed.
Even if you prefer not to use instruments, or even if you think it's somehow wrong... how do you justify not loving and encouraging and fellowshiping and walking with other Christians that disagree with you? That is simply arrogance and pride, which seems to me to be the sin that upset Jesus the most.
Rather than pulling random scriptures out of context to try to justify acapella worship, maybe we need to reread Matthew 23.
It is this group of 53% that turns the Nancy Graces into truth speakers when they say the Churches of Christ claim to be the only ones with the truth.
We are Christians only, not the only Christians.
And here's the challenge that lies before me personally: even though this kind of thing makes me so mad and disappoints me so greatly, God's grace is big enough for this 53%. The people that think we can't fellowship anyone who uses an instrument are trying to seek God. I think they are confused and even sinning in some instances on how they handle this issue, but God loves them. I know I have issues that I am confused about and that I sin in the way I handle them. But God's grace lets him see Jesus instead of me.
That's the paradox. For those that claim Christ, he claims them. It's crazy that we say others' claim to Christ is not valid when ours is just as much not valid. That's the whole point. None of us have a valid claim to Christ, but grace overcomes that.
