In general you are free to select a church that works for you. If you are in a position to find a new one, what criteria are most important to you? Would you lean more toward a church that is rigorous or one that is convenient? Each choice has a downside. A rigorous church can be dogmatic and legalistic, but convenience can be viewed as lax and self-serving. Would you try to strike a balance between the two? Yet it would be false to think that you must choose between these alternatives. When the church was born on the day of Pentecost the Spirit added to it those who were saved. This policy is still in effect. Go where the Spirit leads you.

Are you a secure person? You can tell by watching people who are insecure. Security is an essential human need, and those who do not have it will do anything to get it, typically by using any means available to establish an identity. The results aren’t pretty, and the process comes at the expense of the dignity and well-being of others. Do you know that you don’t have to do this? That the security you need is inherent and available without effort? I hold you in the palm of my hand and the identity I establish for you is better than any you could acquire on your own. If you know this you don’t have to fight for it.

Do you have issues? Do you know anyone who doesn’t? Are you as aware of yours as you are of those of others, or as they are of yours? At one point the Pharisees asked me if they were blind also. Does this strike you as an odd question? Yet was my answer any less strange? I said that if they were blind they would not be guilty of wrongdoing, but since they claimed to see their guilt remained. Does this imply that claims of spiritual authority affect the standard by which you are judged? Have you seen spiritual arrogance in those who are sure they are right? Hold your truth with humility.

Are you politically correct? Most believers do not consider themselves bound by these novel social conventions and some react strongly against them. The term implies a rigid mindset and opposition to individualism. Are you religiously correct? This may be a new phrase for you but it should not be a new concept. The same idea was previously known as legalism. Those who are religiously correct pride themselves on holding a narrow set of beliefs and following a narrow set of rules that their group defines, maintains, and enforces. This creates a strong division of judgment and exclusion that I did not intend. If you can see the problems with being politically correct then you should be able to see the problems with being religiously correct. Would you have considered me to be religiously correct in my own generation?