case study vs. blueprint

I committed to doing a review of "The Church on the Other Side". I am sorry to say that I loaned out the book(as I was busy with exams and didn't have time to read) and now the book is lost. I will have to find another copy and finish that task at some future time. So, I was praying about where God is taking me this year. I believe that I made mention in another blog that I am trying to find where I stand theologically. In that journey, I am doing lots of reading, primarily from the Bible. I want to use this blog to explore my thoughts theologically. I want to get a firm foundation...Christ before I start getting carried away into different streams of thought. I need to go back to the basics.

I was talking tonight about this need to go back to the basics and discovered that I had picked my side on particular issues before I even realized what the issue was. I want to publicly repent for my lack of discernment. I am not saying that I have gotten swept up in false teaching. I am saying I don't know if I have, because I don't have a firm foundation in which to build from. I am sorry for placing secondary teaching first in my life. The gospel needs to be first in my life.

I will say that the one idea from "Church on the Other Side" that is sticking with me is the idea of the NT being a case study. Why is has stuck with me is because of my church history class. We have talked about the NT being a blueprint. Many have seen, and still do see, the NT as the cookie cutter example of what the True Church should look like. My limited understanding of McLaren from only one chapter, and that being at least a month ago, is that he didn't see the NT in that light. He saw it as a story of how one group of Christians, albeit the first generation, tried to live out the commission in their surrounding culture. If I can put words in his mouth from some of the ideas that I have been reading recently, this case study reading of the NT isn't so concerned with form and structure as much as learning from their example. How did the first Christians engage their community for Christ? How did they live out the faith in light of their struggles and hardship?

Ultimately it comes down to looking at the Bible as either a blueprint, in which we are to use it to restore the primitive church, or as a case study of one group living out their faith as best as they could. We either take verbatim the NT church as the model in which we follow.....worship structure, practices, discipline, polity, etc....or we merely glean from their lives what we can viewing their lives not as a strict law in which to follow, but as points of reference in which we can learn from.

I don't know where I personally stand on this issue. I find value in both points of view. If I were to lean one way, I think it would be that of the NT being a case study.