An Interesting Conversation

Today I was reminded again that some of the things that I tend to take as "common knowlege" are not always so commonly known.

Due to a series of unexpected events, I ended up in Olney, Virginia this morning having a conversation with an older "retired" Methodist preacher. He was a relative of a Fundamentalist Pastor who went to BJU and we had a pleasant conversation regarding ministry and preaching vs. teaching and even about the ministries that this Fundamenatlist Pastor has had (being a single-man, he has often had difficulty finding anything more than "barely surviving" churches in IFB churches).

At one point, this relative made a comment about the Fundamentalist Pastor needing to branch out and be willing to go to churches that are from "his school." Knowing enough about this Fundamentalist Pastor to know that he is not a "BJU is the only Fundamental school" type of guy, and having just heard the elderly gentleman speak of preaching in Lutheran, Methodist, and other churches without apparently seeing much difference, I decided to venture a comment on this Fundamentalist Pastor's behalf.

"I can't speak for ..., but I would imagine that his concern is more about the positions of the churches than it is about BJU." When he asked me to elaborate, I commented that when a Pastor goes to a church to preach, he is in some ways at least endorsing that church.

This older gentleman, with years of ministry experience, said, "I have never thought of that before." Part of me was floored. In my thinking, I tend to jump to the conclusion that everyone who does not practice Biblical separation has made a choice to reject Biblical truth. This man reminded me (though his response) that there are many men out there - even men who have been preachers for years - whose disobedience in this area is as much out of ignorance as out of rebellion.

We had an intersting conversation as he explored some questions on this topic and I shared passages and principles that I could remember off the top of my head. It was also interesting for me to see this man catch some of the principles himself. At one point he asked me about "going to a resturant or a store", but before I could complete my answer, (I had started by saying, "when I go to McDonald's, I go there as a customer" ...) and he finished it with, "you are not going there to worship."

(BTW, in case you are wondering about why this gentleman had not heard this from his Fundamentalist Pastor relative, he did indicate that they had agreed years ago to not discuss theology.)

Anyway, I thought this was an interesting discussion.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

File under Fundamentalism_, Christianity_, Personal_