“tension between a “beloved” church community and the church as a source of strife” The church will always cause the world strife for the world ,by and large , does not like what the church has to say “If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world,..” We are not so much called to “reform” but to “conform” not to the mores or standards of this world but the standards of God. We are to conform to the standards of the god we follow, either the God of the bible or the god of this world. There can be no unity At the rate we are going we have the prospect of reforming God out of the church and we end up with the condition that was found in the church of Laodicea ,where Christ was on the outside knocking to get in.

Fred often refers to our “beloved church” –a phrase with a kind of Johannine ring. Love for one’s community of faith is appropriate; but it is also important to see the tension between a “beloved” church community and the church as a source of strife. One discerns that tension even in the Johannine literature.

What we are learning in Canada is that true peace within the household of God requires truth telling. The church is experienced as beloved at some levels; but it has been/is experienced, both without and within, as antisemitic, misogynist, racist, homophobic, and class conscious. The ongoing task of reformation of the church requires that we face its past and present injustices candidly, that we not accept unjust practices and oppressive rhetoric as simply two differing opinions on equal footing.