Discover Factors of Connectiton
It could be actually good if we lived in a world the place Christians didn’t disagree with one another. However we do dwell in a world the place Christians disagree. I believe if we’ve had any expertise in any respect of being within the church or figuring out church historical past, we understand this. It’s a actuality. Christians don’t at all times assume the identical approach, and it’s actually exhausting to know what to do with that.
A technique of coping with it’s to try to extract ourselves from a heated state of affairs we’re in and take into consideration one other story that we don’t have a stake in, that we will have a look at and study and draw some classes from in an goal approach that doesn’t contain us. After which we will come again into our present context and assume, What did I study from that? What did I study from that story that I may use as I negotiate or observe battle round me?
This story of John Owen and Richard Baxter is a extremely attention-grabbing one. It’s a extremely sobering one. It’s a narrative that doesn’t go nicely. They don’t agree, and so they don’t do a extremely good job of not agreeing. They don’t ever come to settlement. The connection simply kind of will get worse and worse, and the gap will get an increasing number of.
When Christians Disagree explores the lives of two opposing figures in church historical past, John Owen and Richard Baxter, to focus on the challenges Christians face in overcoming polarization and fostering unity and love for each other.
In order I’ve thought of that story (and I’ve thought of it quite a bit), I’ve questioned what we may study from that story that might assist us in our present day, after we may be so polarized and it’s so exhausting to see and perceive the opposite individual. And I believe one of many key classes that I’ve realized from that story is that we’re very fast to miss the widespread floor.
Once I take into consideration John Owen and Richard Baxter, they’d a lot in widespread. It was unimaginable! If any two males ought to have been capable of get alongside nicely and share widespread names, it was these two. However someway they struggled to concentrate on what held them collectively. As an alternative, they targeted on what drew them aside.
And people variations had been actually, within the scheme of issues, essential however comparatively slim in comparison with the whole lot else that they held in widespread—not least a standard love of God, a dedication to his church, and a dedication to the gospel. There was tons that they might have fashioned an affinity over, however they simply couldn’t do it.
What do we’ve in widespread? What will we agree on? The place can we discover factors of affinity?
For me, that’s a very powerful lesson from their story is that if we discover ourselves in a context the place we’re not agreeing with another person, as a substitute of minutely analyzing that and excavating it and making a lot of it, if we may simply shift our body of focus and assume, What do we’ve in widespread? What will we agree on? The place can we discover factors of affinity?
And we could not resolve these slim factors of disagreement, however at the very least after we disagree, we achieve this in a approach that’s amicable and that does justice to the burden on us to reveal love, kindness, humility, and generosity. And it’s exhausting to do this within the context of disagreement, however that’s when it counts. That’s most likely the principle lesson I’d take from their story.
Tim Cooper is the creator of When Christians Disagree: Lessons from the Fractured Relationship of John Owen and Richard Baxter.
