My friend and church planter, John Van Pay, recently wrote a great post on his blog on the topic of ‘Tension’.  Here’s a portion of his post:

I used to be afraid of tension. I had a tendency to pick a side and become defensive. It was ugly. Maybe deep down inside I still fight that urge. However, I have grown to enjoy healthy tension especially when the goal is the same. If our goal is to make disciples, then why divide over style? Instead of “taking our ball” and going home or pouting, what if stayed long enough to understand a different view point? What if we weren’t always right? I imagine we would be stronger in public if we had healthy discussions on opposing views in prviate. I’m learning it is possible to disagree and still be united if we treat others with love, respect, and dignity. My coach Rod Loy taught me that we should be flexible when it comes to tradition and opinions, but firm with our convictions. Be like a palm tree that was strong and could bend with out breaking. If we were this mature, our marriages, churches, fellowship teams, and ministries would look a lot more like the bride of Christ He destines us to be.

While studying this evening, I came across this quote in a book.

“Church growth, then, must affirm a hermeneutic that captures the tension of being in the world but not of the world. A hermeneutic that attempts to isolate the Biblical text from modern culture will not speak to the world. The Bible simply will not be relevant. However a hermeneutic constantly seeking the favor of culture, even if numerical church growth results, may gain relevancy while losing true disciples. We may “win” this world but make few cross bearing disciples. The cost of discipleship must remain in tension with a culturally-relevant message.” Thom Rainer

You can read the rest of the post here.