Re-Genesis

The biggest reason why I left Genesis, my former church, was that I believe that putting one’s faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to God, but I was told that this was narrow-minded, judgmental, and arrogant to believe and teach this.

Of course, I had been teaching this to the youth, and was dismayed to learn that the church felt this was unnecessary and not beneficial to do so.

Through this experience, my eyes have been opened to realize that churches like this really do exist out there. Sure, I’ve always known that, but I never thought it was so prevalent that I would actually be part of one.

In addition, I discovered that the arguments given to me for why I was wrong for my beliefs would be rather persuasive to anyone who doesn’t read their Bible, which is very scary to me. Because statistics show (and people’s understanding of the Bible show) that most people who go to church don’t read their Bibles regularly.

In the weeks that have followed my resignation, I’ve been looking hard at Scripture–and what I’ve found has amazed me. Of course, I knew that Scripture preaches that Jesus is the only way, etc. so that didn’t surprise me. But what has surprised and encouraged me is how powerful, alive, and transforming the gospel is.

It’s like I’m experiencing it anew all over again. A re-genesis of sorts.

But I lose sleep almost every night thinking about the people who remain at Genesis. Some of them have come to the conclusion that this issue is unimportant, and amounts to nothing more than simply parsing doctrinal hairs. They would say, “We can get along with you and your beliefs–why can’t you get along with us?” Then there are others who have no clue that the church feels this way about the gospel, because the gospel is never presented. Like me, they probably have wondered why we don’t talk about it, but assume that it’s because our sermons are more seeker-friendly. Yet they don’t realize the danger of not hearing the gospel on a regular basis. Pretty soon, if you’re not careful, you devalue the gospel in your own life, because it is no longer central in the life of your church (especially if you’re also not reading Scripture regularly). And when someone starts to feel strongly about the gospel, you start to wonder as well if they are being narrow-minded and judgmental. I hope many more begin to wake up to the awesome truth of the gospel of Jesus!

My prayer for the church is that it would experience a re-genesis as well. Square one is the most important, and can’t be skipped over. It’s the foundation for everything else we try to build upon. When I first joined Genesis, I believed that God told me that it would not only “survive” as a new-church plant, but that it would indeed become the church that God desired it to be in the face of many mistakes and seeming impossibilities. I still believe that for Genesis, and at this point am learning to have hope against all hope. Praying for a Re-Genesis!

In upcoming blogs, I’m going to clearly show how sharply convincing, yet dangerous, it is to no longer believe that Jesus is the ONLY way to God. Not only is it appealing to people in today’s culture, it’s appealing to people in today’s church. I think you’ll quickly realize that the root for this belief begins with a devaluing of the authority of Scripture. Some might think that this isn’t a huge deal–but in the end, once you’ve cast doubt on Scripture as being divine revelation from God, a whole bunch of craziness begins–like doubting faith in Jesus as the only way to God and much more. We start to trust our own fallen reason, or the attractive philosophies of people around us, over what God has revealed himself.