Dear Friends,
Back in July we told you of some difficulties we were experiencing and asked you to pray for us. Even though we’re “not out of the woods” yet, we are greatly encouraged and profoundly thankful for your prayers and words of encouragement.
Whenever you go through difficulties it’s a good time for you to take a big step back and ask some deep “quality of life” questions: who am I, where am I going, what am I doing, and WHY am I doing it?
Every so often we go through a period of “adjustment” and we ask ourselves these questions in the context of The School of Christ. We’d like to share some of the insights we’ve received with you as they relate to this work and our relationship with one another.
In our interactions with many Christians around the world we have seen that everything depends on a strong, vibrant, rich, deep, and effective spiritual life. Where a strong spiritual life in Christ is present, questions are answered; problems are solved; maturity and growth are assured. Where this is absent, all the teaching in the world fails to produce lasting fruit.
And so, while spiritual growth and maturity has always been our goal, from now on we intend to focus even more on the SPIRITUAL LIFE of the believer. Teaching for teaching’s sake isn’t good enough for us anymore. We want to make it real, make it practical, make it simple, make it actionable.
Passive spirituality (the kind that one hopes to achieve by hiding on a mountain top and perpetually meditating in a state of ecstasy) will not suffice in our day and time. Spiritual theories have a place but you must eventually deal with spiritual realities if you want to go on deeper with the Lord.
By choosing to make spiritual life and practical discipleship a priority, we have also chosen to move away from certain things that we have focused on in the past. For more than a decade now I have taken every occasion to speak out against Organized Religion as the single greatest hindrance to spiritual growth and maturity that I know of. I still believe it and I know it is true (generally speaking). I think I have expressed it about as clearly as a human being can express it. We will continue to make those particular writings and teachings available to those who want and need them. It’s just not going to be something we spend a lot of time and energy focusing on anymore.
Here’s why: it’s the spirit of religion that hinders spiritual growth, not the organization of religion. Our experiences with the spirit of religion in the house church movement (what I call “Disorganized Religion”) confirm this. Regardless of the form it takes, “Church” as an institution is easy to see, and therefore, easy to criticize. It has earned that criticism.
But the more important issue is the spirit of religion that still rises up from time to time in me, in you, and in many of us who no longer “do the Sunday morning church thing.” If we fail to address it on that personal level then what have we really accomplished?
We now know that we can best help people defeat the spirit of religion, not by a constant verbal assault on the outward forms of Churchianity, but by leading people into a deeper spiritual life where Christ can have preeminence – the first place in all things (Col. 1:18). A strong Christ-centered spiritual life will overcome any religious spirit – from the inside out. With a strong, mature spiritual life, the Spirit is able to instruct, and lead, and guide. We won’t have to call people out of anything or inject our own opinions into what they should or should not be doing. God is well able to see to that without our help. Once a person does come out, however, The School of Christ is ready, willing, and able to assist them in any way we can.
Beyond that, we will continue to make a conscious effort to avoid those teachings, doctrinal disputes, and theological debates that can be so controversial, time-consuming and disruptive. The main reason is because these add nothing to the quality of a person’s spiritual life, and are actually a detriment. This has been our position for years, so nothing has changed there. The School of Christ is not a church, or a seminary, or a theological training center. What we are becoming is a place where people can experience practical spirituality, practical discipleship, and real spiritual growth and maturity in Christ – things that actually make a measurable difference in you and in the world where you live.
In conclusion, none of our core beliefs have changed. We’re simply aligning ourselves more closely with what we believe. We’re getting more focused, fine-tuning our approach, and enlarging our capacity for helping more people.
Although we don’t say it often enough, your prayers and support are a tremendous encouragement to us and is deeply appreciated.
In Christ,
Chip and Karla Brogden
http://www.TheSchoolOfChrist.Org
P.S. We value and respect your feedback and wisdom. If you feel led to share any of it with us, just click “reply”. We’d love to hear from you!
Dan Mosteller
5 months ago
I really admire your courage to openly criticize the faults of organized religion. To me, organized religion was a distraction from the number one priority of the preeminence of Christ. I also found out later on that leaving organized religion became a distraction to me as well. I remember writing you about this. Our friends also agreed with you, but couldn’t bring theirselves to leave the membership of the church. My Wife and I bring the word, and other needed services at this near by nursing home thru out the week. What we noticed was that we had to cling on to older traditional organized religious stuff in the presence of the dying, because to talk of anything else was a distraction to them. So as Paul said “all things to all people” (very roughly paraphrased) Like you, we focus our discussions on the Preeminence and don’t focus on the faults of organized religion.
In general people are afraid to walk away from traditional forms of serving Christ. I would have never thought of leaving my church had it not been for your teaching and I am very greatful. You have the confidence in your own convictions and have helped people like me who needed a little nudge. It seems to me that the changes in priorities you mentioned in your letter was a natural evolution and I thank you that your teachings are flexible enough to reflect that.
God Bless
Dan
Seble
3 months ago
God bless you! You adressed my concern. I am glad to just learn that you have decided to move away from ‘assualting organized religion’ You are not immune from making mistakes yourselves, and the devil could have easily used your criticism (which is usually based on fact) to distruct you from doing what is most important. I agree, Jesus, as the head of the Church, reserves the right to weigh our hearts and pass judgement.
Remain blessed!
Truly you sister,
Ken Parks
2 months ago
I find this amazing that the Holy Spirit has also moved me with the idea that, “I am always with you, even unto the end.”
This is a constant reminder that Jesus is always there, always watching, my comfort, and my guidance through the Holy Spirit.
Yes, I am in the situation of having to contend with organized religion as the wife and her family members are adamantly involved in religious “businesses” and worst, a Rock-n-Roll church. The reason I say this about a “business”… because one institute, I used to attend, made a remark while trying to collect during Sunday school class, “Come on people! This is a business!” The same religious organization proudly adheres to “traditions of men” and the erroneous “tithe” doctrine.
This is my year that I have resolved to castigate the same “traditions of men” and allow His guidance through all aspects of my being, and this includes my spiritual growth (have been degraded these past 4 years), my ministries, my business ventures, and overcome my vices.
Chip, I greatly appreciate your web site and the teachings herein, it is refreshing and only successful through the power of the Holy Spirit. Maintain the same in consistency to the Word and this will be beneficial to others that visit your site. There is a considerable amount of deception, and it is wise for us as Christians to test all things.
Chip Brogden
3 months ago
Hi Seble,
I think you (along with some others who have emailed me in response to this) have misunderstood something, so I’ll use your comments to try and clarify. It is as though some people think I have “seen the light” and have recanted for speaking out against religion. Nothing could be further from the truth. I still believe God calls all His people to come out of Babylon and throw off the shackles of Organized Religion. To criticize a system that keeps God’s people in bondage is not only the right thing to do, it is the obligation of anyone who sees the truth. The point of my letter is to say we will focus our efforts on people who already know this and have been obedient to God to “come out of her”. We will not waste our efforts attempting to persuade people who are intent on defending something God never established to begin with. I have not taken back, deleted, or removed a single thing I have taught in this regard. And while I agree that ultimately God will judge (and I look forward to His judgment), it is the responsibility of all God’s people to use discernment; and if they would, perhaps the difficult words that people like me have to speak would not be as necessary. If that system, and the people who lead it, and support it, would judge themselves then they would not have to be judged. But they won’t, and so they will be. It is because I believe that system is already judged that we will not longer spend any time trying to fix it or convince the people still in it; instead, we will work towards helping the many who are outside of it already. The point being if you don’t “get it” by now, after everything we’ve said and taught over the last ten years, then there’s nothing else I can do to persuade you, so we’re moving on.