ken wilson online

I’d like to say more about bounded sets before moving on to other approaches to church.  Picture a bounded set approach to church as a circle in the form of a ring. Members of the group fulfill certain criteria and become members of the group thereby.  It’s pretty clear who is a member of the group and who isn’t.  People are either “all in” or “all out.”  The boundary is comprised of whatever beliefs and behaviors are viewed by the church in question as essential for membership in the group.  Keep in mind that boundaries like this include both formal statements (like creeds and defined positions on various moral-behavioral issues), cultural factors (as is the case with ethnic churches of many kinds) and other informally enforced boundaries (things which are accepted or rejected by group members through various forms of social sanction or pressure).
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How did we, the friends of the friend of sinners get to this place?  Jesus was known as the friend of sinners.  He took a lot of guff for being the friend of sinners.  These “sinners” were a social class, not simply a theological category.  They were people on the outside of Israel’s accepted circle for a host of reasons. They were not mobsters or murderers or notorious offenders.  (You notice that “tax collectors” and “prostitutes” were often given a distinct designation alongside “sinners” in the gospels.)   Jesus so identified with “sinners” as to bring upon himself the judgment of the religiously self-righteous.  He expects us to be the friend of sinners, which means our righteousness has to exceed that of the Pharisees; it has to be a righteousness of pure sermon-on-the-mount love, not a righteousness that depends on harsh condemnations and judgment of others–the “business as usual” approach to sinners.  We need to get our gentle back.
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So you’re a young pastor.  Have you noticed that people sin?  Yes, they do bad things.  Some they do to you–complain about you to others for example because they are afraid to speak with you directly.  Oh that’s galling.  So you will be tempted to focus on those sins because they make an impression on you.  But that’s not what the poor sinners need so much.  They need someone to talk to about the struggles in their lives which often involves sins–the sins of others or their own or the communal sins that affect them.  As you are sitting there listening to a poor sinner, you will be tempted to assume the posture of the expert.
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