Friend of sinners... and their friends

In the last few months I've tapped into a circle of US Baptist Evangelicals via several different channels...

• Through South East Country Wife I discovered Carolyn McCulley at Radical Womanhood who in turn pointed me to the messages provided online for free through Sovereign Grace Ministries (which is affiliated with her church).
  
• Recently I was sent a book to review through Non-First called Do Hard Things by Alex & Brett Harris. They are the brothers of Josh Harris, an even more famous Christian author, who happens to be one of the Sovereign Grace Ministries team.
• While blog surfing several months ago I independently came across what has become a blog I read regularly called Pyromaniacs. The guys who contribute here are part of the same circle as Sovereign Grace, attend their conferences (the latest of which was T4G 08) & link regularly with a similar crowd.

Through these guys I've been introduced to the latest evangelical buzz words and challenges (eg. postmodernism, the emerging church) and it reminds me... when you 'belong', you're actually aligning yourself with a movement and are influenced by this groups doctrine, their approach to faith, their values and priorities.

When I have moved geographical location I have been exposed to different denominations. So I've belonged, to varying degrees, to the Uniting Church of the 1970 & 80's, an independent brethren type group, and two separate pentecostal denominations. Visiting my brother in his intentional community with its social gospel foundation, has exposed me to yet another angle that I have not leant toward myself.

I'm thankful for these experiences because they have enriched me in many ways, but belonging has made me aware, perhaps even wary, of the power of a group and the finite nature of the human social experience in our spiritual growth. It's become second nature to subconsciously identify who the pastor/leader is listening to, which group of people speak at important group events, what slant these people are coming from etc.

I don't just go to a church, but after a year attending I am beginning to belong. You might see then, that this has its implications for me. It's interesting that I am not only belonging to an evangelical church, but am choosing to take part in an evangelical online community (as opposed to belonging, by the way). But how are these evangelical communities different? what is similar? what affect does being half a world away make? Over time I expect my questions will take on a less functional bent and become more personally practical; what am I 'heart' learning from this/these group/s? are these things positive and biblically desirable? Am I missing anything I should be learning?

(Who knows, I might even come to the point where I'm willing to ask myself what I have to offer??? - but that's another story)

For all my reservations is God himself concerned with the limitations of denomination?

from the Pryomaniacs blog

The original reason for writing was simply to refer you to a post by Dan Phillips titled, the accountability thing. I can see why I got off on the tangent I did. My brain must have decided it was just too ironic that this post popped up so soon after good house church friends spent an hour or so the other night talking to me about the advantages of accountability. So far it's looking like an example of just how gracious God is in using our social/spiritual circles of influence.

We, and the groups we form, might be limited - but He's certainly not!!