In case you were confused by the last post (as some were), I wanted to clarify the purpose of that exercise. I don't think anyone in our class marked more than 20 "essentials." And some people thought "essential" meant "what is true for all people." Not necessarily that they would force that on people, but that it would be true whether the people believed it or not. The exercise was just to get us thinking about what things are cultural and what things are beyond culture. I even think some of the things on the list (You must greet one another with a holy kiss?) were meant so that no one would check them as "essential" but they would get you thinking about how you determine essentials. If "greet one another with a holy kiss" is instructed in the Bible but no one says that is essential, why would someone say "confess your sins to one another" is essential because it's instructed in the Bible? Anyway, I think it was meant to raise questions. And I think Tim and I won the award for least essentials.

Another interesting thought that came out of discussing this with a friend (not at CIT): I think I would be much more excited about planting a church with cannibals who believed in salvation through Christ alone than I would be about planting a church with some of the American churches that don't believe in salvation through Christ alone. Not as an insult to those churches, but just based on shared values. I think I am more concerned about salvation through Christ alone than I am about cannibalism. As long as I don't get eaten.

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