Brace Yourselves

Some of you know this and many may not. But my freshman year of college, I joined a Fraternity. I am a Sigma Chi. For those that don’t believe it, yes it is true. Yes one of those kind of Fraternities. Not quite National Lampoon’s Animal House with John Belushi or Fraternity Row, but basically the same thing.

Ever so often I will get to feeling nostalgic and I will pull out my pledge manual and read through some of the material. I will quiz myself to see if I have the Greek Alphabet memorized still and how fast I can say it. I will go over all of those things that I had to memorize as a pledge 13 years ago and look at them. I think about what they meant to me then, what they mean to me now, and what they could mean if people lived up to these things.

I am sharing this shocking truth about myself because the other day when I pulled out my pledge manual, I read these words.

“...Friendship among members, sharing a common belief in an ideal,...

...and possessing different temperaments, talents, and convictions...

...is superior to friendship among members having the same temperaments, talents, and convictions.”
--from The Spirit of Sigma Chi

When these men started the fraternity, they looked at the differences in the people who had joined and said it is better for us to hold true to the most important ideals that we believe in while still maintaining individuality. “Different temperaments, talents, and convictions.” They felt in their differences they could be made stronger and more influential.

Even though this statement is about a secret Greek social organization, I thought of church. The missional church video I posted a while back mentioned this and Jeff has mentioned it in some of his comments. Our church looks the same. Our church acts the same.

What would our church be like and how much stronger could it be if we held true to the central ideal of who Jesus Christ is and what he did for us, while celebrating and encouraging the differences in others? What kind of people might start showing up and serving God? Think of the work that could be done for the Kingdom of God, if we would truly embrace the freedom that comes from Christ and allow people to serve with the gifts and convictions that they have been given.