The Gospel is Not Partisan
Pastor Jason Listen to this: During the 2016 election year, over 40% of people who voted for one candidate did not have a close relationship with someone who voted for the other candidate. And this number is up from previous years.
That says a lot about our society right now. It suggests distance, separation, and fragmentation. It suggests that we do not know one another, that we do not reach out to one another. It suggests that we do not want to be challenged, that we do not value truth-seeking debate. And it suggests that partisan politics is the reason.
According to many writers and bloggers, individual churches are becoming increasingly partisan. That is, the local church is increasingly leaning to the conservative right or the liberal left. What’s more is that denominations which do still maintain a healthy balance of political conservatives and liberals are dealing with divisions and fractures within their denominations which coincide with partisan issues. Just look at the recent news of a denominational split from the United Methodist Church.
What do we make of the fracturing and segmentation of our lives over politically partisan lines?
Charles Guteson and Mike Slaughter have an answer to this question in their book Hijacked: Responding to the Partisan Church Divide. They say this:
We live in an age in which political partisanship is increasingly damaging to the work of the gospel.
Why? Well, just look at the partisan segregation of our country represented by that 40% statistic above. We are allowing partisanship to keep us from knowing one another, to steer us away from one another. We are allowing political parties s to chart the course of our lives. We are allowing partisan politics to infiltrate and destroy relationships between family, between friends, between churches, between brothers and sisters of Christ. We are allowing political parties to define our lives and relationships more than Jesus Christ who redeems us all and calls us to live together as one body with many members. In short, partisanship today is damaging the gospel.
I am thankful that Hood Memorial Christian Church is not a partisan church. We have folks who lean to the left. We have folks who lean to the right. We have folks who are frustrated by both! And yet we live and worship and pray and give and serve together as the Body of Christ. And this is as it should be. Christ bridges the party divide.
Being a part of our church family, you will not be in that 40% of folks across our country who do not know one another. Instead, you will have relationships with different folks who love one another because Christ first loved us. I pray that grounded in our relationships we will live the gospel as we journey further into this new year.
From Sunday Morning Small Group
Sunday Morning at 10 am we held a great discussion on God’s call in our lives. We reflected specifically on what it feels like to be known and called by name. We thought about how we don’t always feel up the the challenge of God’s call in our lives. And we talked about how sharing those feelings in vulnerable ways can be an empowering experience that helps fulfill God’s call in our lives. If you missed it, here are some resources for you to reflect further this week! And we hope you will join us this Sunday at 10 for coffee and more great spiritual reflection.
This Week at Hood…
Wednesday, January 22 – 1:30pm – Prayer & Inspiration
Wednesday, January 22 – 6:30pm – Choir Practice
Thursday, January 23 – 3:00pm – Ladles of Love Meal Preparation & Delivery
Sunday, January 26 – 10:00 am – Sunday Morning Small Group
Sunday, January 26 – 11:00 am – Worship
Sunday, January 26 – 12 noon – Church Board Meeting and Deacon/Elder Orientation
Coming Events…
Tuesday, January 28 – 9:00 am – 2:00 pm – Hood Memorial serving at the DUMA Food Pantry on Broad Street, please make plans to share an hour or more with us supporting the neighbors in our community
Saturday, February 1 – 9:00 am – 1:00 pm – Leadership Launch 2020, at the Regional Office (Fellowship Hall) in Wilson, NC (see above for more details)
Tuesday, February 4 – 6:30 pm – DWM (Disciples Women) meeting in the Fellowship Hall
Friday, February 7 – 6:00 pm – Valentine’s Pizza Party @ Pizza Inn (VBS style)–invite a neighbor and join us for pizza, singing, dancing, and learning about God’s love