Grace Culture Spectrum
Since my last blog was about a spectrum, here’s another spectrum I’ve been thinking about.
Every church has a culture. Some churches really emphasize grace. This means showing grace to one another when we fail or disappoint each other. The desire is to reflect the grace of God to us.
So, on one side of the spectrum I have put the concept of Grace. Some churches are really good at this. These churches are characterized by people being very kind and accepting of each other.
Other churches, on the other hand, emphasize the discipline aspect. I am speaking of discipline in the positive sense. The people in these types of churches read their Bible every day and practice spiritual disciplines and look like fortified Christians. They are quite admirable for their spiritual strength.
What is interesting is that when a church is all grace and no discipline, it ends up being permissive. People can do whatever they want and no one says anything because “we are showing grace to them.”
But if a church takes the discipline value to an extreme, it becomes legalistic. Now everything is about doing what you’re supposed to and it becomes out of guilt. Grace is not shown to those who mess up because they are supposed to be disciplined.
Churches seem to lean towards one side or the other. It’s very hard to find a balance of the two. What is even more confusing is that two people might go to the same church and put the church in a different place on the spectrum because of the person’s own belief system, environment, or culture.
Our goal is to have a balance of both grace and discipline. They are both important, both biblical, and both modeled by Christ. At times we might shift one direction or the other, which could be a healthy thing. But we definitely want to stay out of the extremes of “Permissiveness” and “Legalism,” both unhealthy and unbiblical.
Where does your church lie on the spectrum? And how do you balance the two?
I have found it incredibly fascinating that virtually every church I have visited or been a part of with “Grace” in their name has had a VERY strong bent toward legalism. What’s up with that?????
I am a big fan of kidsinmind.com … they rate all movies based on three elements: sex & nudity, violence & gore, and profanity. You can select any movie in their database and they will have a numeric value (the higher the score, the more intense the attribute) for each of those elements with a complete write up.
Wouldn’t it be cool if that were done for churches? Though I would change the elements to positive attributes: grace & love, faith & passion, praying community, commitment to scripture, joyfulness & fun, inviting & outreach-oriented, friendly & welcoming, relevant to the culture.
Great post. LOVE the thought-fullness & the graphics!
Wow! Great thoughts, Glen!!! Hmm… lots to think about!