Well, it's happened to plenty of others before, and now it's happened to us. We too know the feel of the left foot of fellowship.
If you don't recognise the terminology, the right hand of fellowship is what the church extends when it welcomes you in. If you're a druggie off the street, a prostitute, or just a regular bloke who needs to hear the Gospel, the church is open to you. They'll extend their hand to you, welcome you in, help you learn how God would have you live your life, accept you even when you stuff up and continue to sin occasionally provided you're improving and moving towards Christ - in essense, do exactly what Christ taught us to do. The church can be a wonderful place.
But when a solid Christian who agrees with virtually everything the church teaches, raises a Godly family, and even works in the church ministry in various ways dares to look into their Bibles and say "hang on, I think you might be wrong about this one controversial detail..." they receive the left foot of fellowship. They are booted back out that door and told they are unwelcome to return unless they change their beliefs.
The church opens the door to people who sin deeply in many areas, but closes it firmly to Godly people who dare to even think differently about marriage, even when they are willing to keep their ideas to themselves.
But in this case I'm not entirely blaming the local church. God has a plan for us to be in a home-based ministry. I don't yet know what this will entail, but this is God using His servants on earth (some members of His body) to force me to move into the plan He has for my life and the life of my family. So I am grateful to them for that, and hold no animosity. I will be continuing to fellowship with many on a more informal basis, and expect the quality of fellowship in this setting to be much greater than in an impersonal worship service. The future will be very interesting. And I was raised in a home church and feel it was the best possible grounding for my faith, so it will be good to be able to lead my own children in this way.
So now we home-birth, home-school and home-church! Me and my wee band of homies...
If you don't recognise the terminology, the right hand of fellowship is what the church extends when it welcomes you in. If you're a druggie off the street, a prostitute, or just a regular bloke who needs to hear the Gospel, the church is open to you. They'll extend their hand to you, welcome you in, help you learn how God would have you live your life, accept you even when you stuff up and continue to sin occasionally provided you're improving and moving towards Christ - in essense, do exactly what Christ taught us to do. The church can be a wonderful place.
But when a solid Christian who agrees with virtually everything the church teaches, raises a Godly family, and even works in the church ministry in various ways dares to look into their Bibles and say "hang on, I think you might be wrong about this one controversial detail..." they receive the left foot of fellowship. They are booted back out that door and told they are unwelcome to return unless they change their beliefs.
The church opens the door to people who sin deeply in many areas, but closes it firmly to Godly people who dare to even think differently about marriage, even when they are willing to keep their ideas to themselves.
But in this case I'm not entirely blaming the local church. God has a plan for us to be in a home-based ministry. I don't yet know what this will entail, but this is God using His servants on earth (some members of His body) to force me to move into the plan He has for my life and the life of my family. So I am grateful to them for that, and hold no animosity. I will be continuing to fellowship with many on a more informal basis, and expect the quality of fellowship in this setting to be much greater than in an impersonal worship service. The future will be very interesting. And I was raised in a home church and feel it was the best possible grounding for my faith, so it will be good to be able to lead my own children in this way.
So now we home-birth, home-school and home-church! Me and my wee band of homies...
Count it all joy, brother—good things ahead!