The blog world is a bit like a cyber Disneyland. One can be the king of his own little empire, pronouncing judgments on those he dislikes and pontificating on his pet issues. When it comes to the issues related to the church, we can promote our heroes, their provocative books, and their cool churches, and we can blast our enemies to kingdom come. I know; I’ve done it.

Now some people feel like you can’t say anything about anything. You just can not have a strong opinion and you sure can’t say something is wrong because “who are we to judge.” I understand that extreme to be a twisted view on the biblical teaching about judgment.

Yet, love is the thing, according to Jesus and it’s not just for friends; it’s for enemies too. But definitely, it is for family. My family is a colorful collection of characters and I love them all so much! So, why can’t we love someone who does church differently or has a little different theological spin on things… even if he is wrong? After all, they’re family!

Steve Brown got me started on this when I listened to his podcast yesterday. As I listened to the emotion in his resonate, radio voice, it seemed evident that there a new work beginning in his life, some long held perspectives were changing. Here are some excerpts from his post that pretty much mirrors the podcast. I sincerely hope that you will take advantage of both the entire post (here) and the podcast (here).

Okay, now let me tell you what I said at the seminary the other night. You will remember that I was unprepared. I started by saying, “I love the church. No, I mean I really love the church and I don’t have the faintest idea why.” Then I said, “Maybe it’s because she’s His bride. She’s an ugly bride; but she is, after all, His bride. And I can’t help it, but I love her.”

I love Rick McKinley, Gabe Lyons, Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo…but I love Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson too. They “R” us. That’s the church and I love the church. I don’t know why. I just do.

I think that John Piper’s Christian hedonism can become a new kind of legalism if we aren’t careful and John McArthur sometimes drives me nuts, but I love both of them because they “R” us and they are the church.

I love Joel Osteen who I wish would stop smiling and whose teaching sometimes is “Christian lite” and I love Michael Horton, who can come off as being self-righteous at times (and I’m even more self-righteous than he is in saying that!). Horton is the professor from Westminster who was so dismissive of Osteen on 60 Minutes as a fruitcake. They “R” us and they are the church.

And then there is Ted Haggard. (You’ll remember that he was the president of the National Association of Evangelicals when he was accused of…um…an inappropriate relationship with another man and doing pharmaceuticals that weren’t prescribed.) And then there are Jim and Jim (Bakker and Swaggart), David (combining murder with adultery), Abraham (who lied about his wife so the Pharaoh could sleep with her), Esther (who seduced the king) and Peter (who was a hypocrite).

I love a bunch of gays and a bunch of people who are very uncomfortable with gays. I love liberals who don’t like conservatives like me who think the liberals are crazy. I love Ann Lamott who cusses like a sailor and Beth Moore who doesn’t know how to cuss. I love…

Does all I’ve written above and said at that meeting mean that we shouldn’t have convictions? Are you kidding? I have convictions about the color of the church pews and the absolute authority of Scripture…and everything in between. Does it mean that we shouldn’t speak truth to power, correct when it is needed and even have discipline? Of course not.

It just means that this thing is a lot bigger than I thought it was—a whole lot bigger—and as Wesley said, “Everybody who belongs to Jesus belongs to everybody who belongs to Jesus.

Oh, I bet you have something to say right now!

Thanks to Steve Brown: The Old White Guy Blog and his post, Church R Us (Part 1) and (Part 2) from which I took the above excerpts.