Engagement guidelines
“Being sensitive to those who are
different.”
The apostle Paul repeatedly
emphasized that love is to flavor all we say and do when
we’re together in Jesus’ name. But some of our natural ways
of relating to each other can be easily misunderstood or
create difficulties and tensions in those times (e.g.
dominating, rambling, knowing-it-all, inflexibility, sharp
disagreements, superficiality, interrupting, side-talking,
sarcasm, etc.).
It can
therefore be very liberating to discuss and agree in
advance on some practical guidelines (“rules of
engagement”) to help us interact as a group in orderly,
respectful and spiritually-productive ways.
That's why Paul sometimes sent specific,
culturally-sensitive instructions to one church that he
didn't duplicate for them all. Certain violations of
"etiquette" were more serious in some locales than others
(like men having long hair or women in the assembly not
covering their heads), and a "hot topic" in one church
might be a complete non-issue in another (like having too
many prophets wanting to speak at the same time).
For our day, many "engagement guidelines" can be lifted
right out of scripture, but others may also need to be
composed for the protection and welfare of a particular
group.
TEACHING
IDEAS - To
help you present this "essential" to your group(s) so they
will adopt and apply it, click on these two links:
Engagement Guidelines
and
Follow-up
Survey.