Putting on a Sinless Face by Motte Brown on 09/12/2006 at 8:46 PM

"If you are not a member of a church you regularly attend, you may well be going to hell."

This is a quote from Mark Dever, Senior Pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, taken from Joshua Harris' book Stop Dating the Church. It's a provocative statement, Harris writes, that Mark uses when speaking on college campuses about an important function of church membership -- "to verify or falsify our claims to be Christians."

I thought of it as I read in Suzanne's post about "the privatization of faith -- the idea that I can be a Christ follower free from the accountability of a body of believers."

It's tempting isn't it? The idea of Christianity lived apart from others?

Having to commit to a body of believers is difficult if only because it requires so much from you -- time, energy, emotions ... transparency. It's the latter requirement that is the most challenging.

I've found that the more time I spend with other believers, the harder it is to hide my sin from them. Whether it's the tone I use with my wife or a casual slander of a mutual acquaintance or something even more severe, sin always seeps to the surface.

But I guess that's the point isn't it?

Putting on a Sinless Face by Motte Brown on 09/12/2006 at 8:46 PM

"If you are not a member of a church you regularly attend, you may well be going to hell."

This is a quote from Mark Dever, Senior Pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, taken from Joshua Harris' book Stop Dating the Church. It's a provocative statement, Harris writes, that Mark uses when speaking on college campuses about an important function of church membership -- "to verify or falsify our claims to be Christians."

I thought of it as I read in Suzanne's post about "the privatization of faith -- the idea that I can be a Christ follower free from the accountability of a body of believers."

It's tempting isn't it? The idea of Christianity lived apart from others?

Having to commit to a body of believers is difficult if only because it requires so much from you -- time, energy, emotions ... transparency. It's the latter requirement that is the most challenging.

I've found that the more time I spend with other believers, the harder it is to hide my sin from them. Whether it's the tone I use with my wife or a casual slander of a mutual acquaintance or something even more severe, sin always seeps to the surface.

But I guess that's the point isn't it?