Why church history isn’t boring

Posted August 8th @ 3:47 pm by Andy Print This Post

The Coffee Bible Club Blog has a great post talking about why Christians should get excited about church history. Sure, those lists of names and dates can be boring, but once you get past that, you’ll find that delving into the history of the faith can be very spiritually rewarding.

I couldn’t agree more—there’s a strange but undeniable thrill in reading about believers who’ve come before, who faced many of the exact same social and spiritual challenges that Christians experience today. There are plenty of places you can go to read up on church history, but I can’t pass up this opportunity to mention the Christian History Institute, which distills many of the most memorable people and events in church history into short, readable essays.

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4 Comments

moe
August 9, 2007 at 08:45

one of the rewards of studying Christian (and church) history is to see the depths and sacrifice of man who have decided that Christ was worth suffering for. The church was bought at a great price, first the great sacrifice of Christ, and then that of great pioneers of the faith.
mo
August 9, 2007 at 22:11

Elmer Town’s “The 10 Greatest Revivals Ever” and Bruce Shelley’s “Church History in Plain Language” were both books that inspired me. I added John of the Cross, the Moravians and Savronola among others to my “cloud of witnesses.” I was tried tracing my Christian roots based on the movements which influenced the movements which influenced the movements that eventually led to my hearing the gospel. That was really cool.
servant
August 10, 2007 at 10:57

I think that you have to pick what period of church history you want to talk about. Early church, medival church, post modern church or the new emerging church.

Most of the ammunition agaist the faith from individuals outside has come from something that happened at their parish and or point out something that happened in church history.

I don’t know why we just can’t keep the public relations in good order in this respect.
mo
August 17, 2007 at 01:22

servant,
When people bring up abuses from church history or even current abuses, apologize to them. I think it was Donald Miller who suggested this is “Blue Like Jazz” but it could have been someone else, I’ve read so much lately I can’t remember who said it.

Say that we, as Christians are sorry. Say that we were wrong. Even though we who walk in the 21st century didn’t participate in the offense, it was carried out by people who might end up being our eternal neighbors. What they didn’t know then, they know now. If they really loved Jesus and truly thought they were acting in his name, they’d probably love to apologize now for the wrong and all its ramifications.

I think it’s sort of sad that to build a multicultural ethic, we learn about people from different cultures who did great things but often all Christians hear about church history is the crusades who slaughtered innocents and crushed cultures, the inquisition (what a show) and the Puritans who went around making sure nobody was having any fun and burning witches. There are actually lots of Christians in history who we don’t have to be embarrassed about.

If we know about them we can not only apologize for abuses but give individuals outside the church some positive role models to ponder as well.