My wife and I decided to go out to breakfast this morning and found ourselves at the International House of Pancakes.
While waiting for our food to be delivered, three men came in and were seated next to us. As they took their seats I overheard part of their conversation. I was intrigued by the comment made that it was necessary to forget about orthodoxy and focus on what Jesus taught.
The way this was phrased bounced around inside my head while I enjoyed my Cinna-Stack pancakes with a side of bacon. The idea that listening and obeying the words of the Lord was not the orthodox way of doing things seemed strange to me.
As we finished our meal, my wife and I discussed whether or not to talk to these men. Going up to strangers and starting a conversation is not an easy thing for either of us. However, we couldn’t let this opportunity go by without making the attempt.
I stood, apologized for interrupting, and told them I couldn’t help but overhear part of their conversation. I told them our congregation has been studying on what the church should look like and so their comment on leaving orthodoxy stood out to me. These three men were very gracious and took the time to speak with us about their concerns.
They were concerned about the trend of people following after a man, not Jesus. While this has been going on for centuries, there seems to be a growing trend of people discontent with how their particular congregation and/or denomination was handling some things.
We spent several minutes discussing the issues surrounding their concerns. Soon their food arrived and we said our goodbyes, leaving them my personal business card and one of the pens our congregation had made with our contact information on it.
This experience seems to be happening more and more. What is prompting more and more people to start questioning how their congregations are doing things? I’m not sure, but I believe it’s a good thing.
Far too many people don’t take the time or make the effort to question how and why things are done. It’s enough for them to just follow along because it’s what has always been done or because someone in an earthly position of authority tells them to do it.
This is wrong.
We are responsible for knowing what God has to say and for following what God has to say. This is an individual responsibility, not one we can pass off to anyone be they parent, religious leader, or organization.
Now we have to ask ourselves the questions about why we do what we do in worship and service to God. Do we have the courage to ask the questions and to look for honest answers?
Following God’s plan as He has laid it out in the Bible is the orthodox way of doing things. Man has created the un-orthodox ways. We need to return and keep to the old paths, the ways God has decreed for His church. This is only found in the Bible.
© 2015 George V. Stewart