31 Days: The Rules People

On the other side of the equation are always a group of staunch Rules People. They hold unweildingly to their written standards and the safety of boundaries and uniformity. Change is the bane of their existence; to change means certain failure in their opinion! They shake their heads sadly at the Heart People and watch expectantly to see all their convictions fall away with the straight cut suit and black Sunday shoes."When the coverings get smaller, the women lose their submission!" "Once a church loses the straight cut suit, you soon see a downward spiral!" "Allow musical instruments and you'll soon see the radio and all the evil influences that come with it!"

The answer to all of these dire predictions, of course, is to cover everything with a rule. This poses several problems. One is, the focus invariably shifts from "being a Christian" to "following the rules". As long as I'm doing everything the church requires, I must be right with the Lord! Another is the obvious fact that it is impossible to cover every single attitude, action, BREATH, with a rule. This ability of people to find the loopholes in any set of rules inevitably forces the Rules People to appeal to "common sense" (the heart) when dealing with some clever rule skirting person or practice. Which makes the Heart People smile and nod knowingly. Rules don't work....... in the end the heart is really all that matters anyway!

Another thing that tends to happen, is that the responsibility of raising godly families shifts from the Fathers to the church. It is no longer about Fathers leading their families into "What does God say?" it is "Well, the church does or doesn't allow it." Too often these children grow up just waiting for the day they can go to a more liberal church. Why? Because that's what they have been taught - follow the church standards and go to heaven! So, they find a church that says what they want to hear. They don't really have any convictions of their own, and often their parents didn't either, it was "Just always done that way".