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John Onwuchekwa @JawnO
, 11 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
If you want to see the full fury of a man, demean his wife. Go ahead, try it. Be provocative in your critiques about her. Be careless with your complaints. Use overgeneralizations when describing her flaws. Overlook her kindness...place a magnifying glass on her flaws.
A seemingly quiet & docile man will explode with rage when his bride is repeatedly demeaned, disparaged & disrespected.

Sit with this. Out of ALL the metaphors that could have been used to describe the church—God labels it His bride!
Christian, be careful with your “critiques” or “challenges” (or whatever semantics you might argue) when discussing “the church”.

What I’m NOT saying, is “don’t ever critique the church”—the church needs to cared for and part of caring is critiquing.
What I am saying is “be careful”. Be thoughtful. Think! Save your perfect tweet with the right balance of provocative rhetoric & profound insight into your drafts folder first...and THINK! Just a little thinking will go a long way.
The people who critique the church the best, have been those whose commitment to it has been most unwavering.

They are those whose critique has never been confused with contempt or hatred. They are CLEAR...extremely and abundantly CLEAR.
Beginning a critique with “THE CHURCH needs to...(insert provocative, pithy, alliterates gripe here)” may be more helpful to THE CHURCH as a whole if there was a little more clarity surrounding what’s meant.
1. Local churches are largely in mind when Scripture uses that term. Is your challenge for a particular church? A set of churches? A denomination? EVERY CHURCH EVERYWHERE?

Clarity helps. A clear challenge is easier to apply. An ambiguous one is tougher to apply—less helpful
(e.g. Frederick Douglass critiquing, not just THE CHURCH, but the church of this land, the slaveholding church, a church where racists and white supremacists aren’t corrected on their sin....his critique is clear, challenging, and helpful. So are other critiques in this vein.
I’m saying all of this because I think “churches” need to be challenged. In order for that to happen, we must be CLEAR who we’re talking about, or else we run the risk of

1. Burdening those who are genuinely trying. (We don’t want to condemn the faithful).

Or
2. Giving those who need to be challenged a way out of applying our statements. Because a challenge to EVERYONE often is a challenge that’s applied by NO ONE in particular.

Challenge the church...but be clear who you’re talking about so the message doesn’t fall on deaf ears.
Signed,

A concerned pastor who has been made better by specific challenges from compassionate people (and some not so compassionate ones).
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