What/Who Is the Tuning Fork?
by Edward Reifsnyder | 8 November 2019 |
I’ve become friends with Michael the Long-haired Pastor of the Lutheran church where I take an exercise class. Nice guy. We enjoy swapping perspectives.
One day in class in the church social hall, I noticed a poster on the wall.
Whoa! What? Can you do that? Can you even put all those words on the same piece of paper?
Of course, I immediately sent the photo to some Adventist pastor friends, suggesting this was a new ministry for them to start. They saw the humor, but no takers yet.
The very words beer, pub, theology and God together on a poster created an image that was so counterculture and jarring to me that, of course, I just had to go see. I met some very fine Christians, and I was blessed in their company. That was several years ago. I went again last night. The subject for theological discussion was how to identify holiness.
Michael the Long-haired Pastor had put some quotes and questions on paper to stimulate discussion. One of the quotes snagged me.
“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same [tuning] fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other then they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”
A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine.
Funny. Not one word about policy. Not one word about compliance. Not one word about warning or reprimand.
In our current conversations, a proposal constantly put forward is that if we would just all obey policies and voted actions, then we will be in unity. Isn’t that an odd basis for Christian unity? That is not even about religion or spirituality. I didn’t know policy is the spiritual tuning fork.
Based on the Tozer quote above, it sounds like we need more of AT1 and The One Project rather than disciplinary processes with their droning background of “unity.”
Edward Reifsnyder is a healthcare consultant. He and his wife, Janelle, live in Fort Collins, Colorado.
