Judge Not That You Be Not Judged

Folio 27r from the Lindisfarne Gospels contains the incipit Liber generationis of the Gospel of Matthew. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

These days, I am reading the English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible.  The title of this post is one of the most quoted verses in the entire Bible.  The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, verses 1-3 of the ESV reads:

 "Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?"

When I first became seriously actively involved at Seabrook Baptist Church, I guess I was somewhat naive in how Christians behaved.  My friend Chuck, who is the one who got me involved in Seabrook Baptist Church through softball, was somebody that I really looked up to.  I went to him often to learn more about how to live a Christian life.

At the time that I became involved with the church, I was a drinker.  I liked to have the occasional beer or glass of wine.  Now Baptists are famous for abstaining from alcohol.  I went to Chuck one day and asked him whether or not I needed to quit drinking.  His response stuck with me to this day.  Rather than coming out with a straight yes, he told me that the matter was between me and the Lord.  Based on his gentle and loving response, I quit drinking, at least while I remained active in the church.

One of the things that I have always tried to practice in my Christian walk is to take the verses above to heart.  When dealing with my fellow Christians, I try not to dwell on the sins of others.  I have to many of my own sinful acts to deal with.  That is not to say that it would be wrong to point out somebody's errors, but it must be done in the proper way, humbly with love and gentleness

As I said,  I think I was a little naive in how other Christians practiced their walk.  I thought that others practiced what they preached as it were.  Unfortunately, I started to find that a lot of Christians were quick to point out the faults of others, and not in a gentle and loving way.  I am reminded of a conversation that I had with one of my teammates, Kevin, prior to one of our softball games.  We were waiting at the field for one game to end so we could start our game.

Kevin was a few years younger than I was, but he had been active in the church a lot longer than I had.  The conversation went something like this:

Kevin: Did you see that?
Me: See what?
Kevin: That guy over there was smoking.
Me: So.
Kevin:  This is a Christian league.  He shouldn't be doing that.
Me: Kevin, maybe he isn't a Christian yet, or maybe he is a new Christian and the Lord has not convicted him that he should stop smoking.  It is a hard habit to break
Kevin: Still, it just isn't right.

For every Chuck that I ever ran across in the church, it seemed like there were a lot more Kevins there.  It was very disheartening.  One of my faults (sins) is that in my past experiences in the church have led to disappointment in how other people behaved and how it has driven me away from more than one church.  It is a weakness that I am working on to this day.

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Balling for Jesus-or Seabrook Baptist Church pt 2

A softball. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So now, back to how I got to this point.

After I stopped riding the bus with my two brothers to go to Sunday School at Seabrook Baptist Church, I didn't attend church on a regular basis until I got into college.  During that interim period, I did attempt to read the Bible on my own, but let's face it, it's a hard book to read.

I got back into attending church in a different way.  One of my old high school friends and I were talking on campus.  He was telling me about his church softball team and wanted to know if I would be interested in playing.  I was always athletic and loved playing ball.  The only stipulation was that I would have to attend church on a fairly regular basis.  I don't think it was every Sunday, but at least most Sundays.  I decided to give it a shot.

When I started attending the church, and the softball practices, I discovered several of my old high school friends were attending the church and playing softball.  It was fairly easy to assimilate myself into the group.  With so many old friends in the group, and a few other people that I somewhat knew, it was no hardship to meet the minimum requirements to play softball.  In fact, I found myself easily attending much more than required.  In addition to Sunday school and Sunday morning worship, I found myself attending Sunday nights and Wednesday prayer meeting.

It didn't take too long for me to decide to rededicate myself to Christ.  Technically, I had always been on the church membership rolls, but now, rather than being an inactive member, I was now very active.  Outside of softball, our college career group did a lot of things together.  We used to get together on Saturday nights for an evening of Bible study and prayer.  One time, a group of us camped out at an event in Pennsylvania called Creation, or as I liked to call it "Woodstock for Christians."  It was two days of performances by various contemporary Christian musical acts.

I also became very active in the music ministry of the church.  I became a member of the church choir.  The church had a ministry with a nearby nursing home.  On occasion, a few of us would go to the nursing home with our guitars and provide music for the service.  Another time, we took our guitars down to DC on the 4th of July and played songs while a minister preached on the street.  At that time in my life, I also wrote songs.  I wrote a couple of songs that I performed in front of the congregation.

For the next few years, I was very happy at Seabrook Baptist Church.  Not only did I find myself wanting to be at church and involved in all of the activities.  My friends at the church were no longer just my friends, but part of a larger family.  We truly loved each other.  Still, as they say, all good things come to an end and sadly, so did my time at Seabrook Baptist.  In my next post, I will talk about how it all ended.

A New Experience

KJV Bible (Photo credit: knowhimonline)

It has been about 22 years since I attended a church on a regular basis.  In the past year, I have been spending a lot of time on my own, reading the Bible and books with Christian subject matter, listening to the various teaching ministries on Family Talk Radio on Sirius. I have attended a few churches, but not on a consistent basis, as a search for a new church home.

There have been two churches that I have attended on a regular basis and been a member.  Both have been Baptist churches.  The first one was Seabrook Baptist Church which I mentioned in previous posts.  The other was Grace Baptist Church here in Bowie, Maryland.  In future posts, I will talk a little bit about my experiences at both of those churches.

In my search for a new church, I have visited a few different denominations.  One of the things that I have been looking for is a church that has an early worship service on Sunday mornings.  An earlier service works better for me because I tend to wake up fairly early, even on the weekends.  This morning, I was out of bed around 6 am.

So far in my search, I have not found a place that I could say definitively that I wanted to make my new church home.  Similarly, there has not been any place that I have outright decided to eliminate, though I am pretty close to eliminating one church.  It is tough because that church lines up more closely with my theological beliefs, however the worship service doesn't quite give me what I am looking for.

Up to now, I have stayed away from Baptist churches even though that is what my primary church background has been.  The reason I have stayed away from Baptist churches is because of some of my past experiences with them which I will relate in some later posts.  Today, however, I decided to try the Baptist church that is closest to my home because they have an 8:30 am worship churches.

It was at this church that I experienced something that I had never experienced in my previous associations with Baptist churches.  The associate pastor of the church came over to introduce themselves to me.  Nothing unusual about that, but was unusual is that this associate pastor was a woman.  The Baptist churches that I have been a part of in the past held steadfastly to the belief that a woman could not hold that position within the church.

Another thing that I noticed was in the church bulletin for the day's worship activities.  The bulletin listed the names of all the deacons of the church.  Once again, I noticed that several of the deacons (actually, I should say the vast majority) were women.  Again, the two previous churches that I belonged to only had men in the role of deacons.

I will say that one of the things that I did like about the church was that it was very racially diverse.  I have heard it said that Sunday morning worship hour is often still the most segregated hour in the country.  The attendees of this particular service were split almost equally between white and black worshipers.  In fact, the female associate pastor is African American, while the lead pastor is a white man.

I was very impressed by the lead pastor.  Instead of standing behind the pulpit, he stood on the floor and delivered his message.  What was most impressive, is that he delivered his sermon without the use of any notes.  His delivery was smooth and very structured.  The associate pastor told me after the service that during the early service, he usually does not speak from behind the pulpit as it is a more relaxed service, but he does preach the 11 am service from behind the pulpit as it is a more formal service.

Another thing about the church that was different, at least to me, is that it seemed that they were a bunch of huggers.  After the service, the associate pastor gave me a hug and we chatted for a while.  She seems very nice.  Then after we finished our conversation, as I went to leave the church, another woman came up to me and gave me a big hug and thanked me for attending the service.

I have not decided whether or not I will go back to the church I went to today.  Part of me wants to, but another part of me isn't sure.  The church is conveniently located, and I like that they have an early service.  Still, another part of me wonders about them having so many women in positions of leadership within the church.  There is no doubt that the Bible teaches that women play an important role in the gospel. Still there are those verses that say that women should not be a teacher or in authority over men in the church, not to mention that is what I have experienced in my previous church lives.  What are your thoughts on women in a leadership position within the church today versus what is taught in the Bible?