Good reflections on church

I have been blessed of late reading the site The Assembling of the Church. Alan raises many good issues about what it means to be church. He is a prolific blogger; I usually only have time to catch up on the weekends. Last week he was talking about leadership—very good stuff. Here is a snippet from Imitate God, a post on 3 John:

In 3 John 1:12 and following, John encourages his readers to follow Demetrius instead. How do the readers know that they should follow Demetrius? Because Demetrius "has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself". John adds his own recommendation as well.

Notice what John is saying here. There is one man who loves to be first - he loves being a leader. But, John says that his conduct is contrary to the ways of God. So, John does not want his readers to follow him. Instead, he points them to a man who is obediently following God. Everyone who knows him recognizes this. This is the "good" that John expects his readers to follow.

Do you want to know who [sic] to follow as a disciple? Then ask yourself these questions: Who has a good testimony? Who's [sic] conduct matches their theology? Who lives what they teach and speak? Follow those people.

But, think about these questions: Who loves to be first, noticed, recognized, important? Who is more concerned with their position than with their conduct? Who is more concerned with whether or not other people are obeying him than whether or not he is obeying God? Do not follow those people.

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One of these days I need to update my blogroll and add him to it; it is hopelessly out of date. Meantime, do yourself a favor and check out his postings.
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