Sunday Evening Triage
The evening began with
tacos and ended with a triage. Everyone
was scattered everywhere for the evening meal.
Some were at the table, others in the living room, all were enjoying the
Diana’s homemade taco salad. After clean
up, some creative seating arrangement and brewing the coffee, we were ready for
the discussion part of our evening.
During the morning communion
service I had talked about our commonness in Christ, and now I hoped to linger
over the idea. We came at it from a number
of angles. One of my last questions
was, “Our commonness is not in the nuances of our beliefs. What do you think about that statement?”
“I think we need to view
beliefs through a theological triage,” Nate commented. That intrigued me. I had never heard of such a thing.
I learned that a triage
is the protocol an emergency room uses to determine priority of care. As Josh, who is a nurse, pointed out, “It
assures that the person who has a broken leg doesn’t get treated before the
person who had a heart attack.”
Theological triage is the
idea that just like an emergency room there are there are levels of priority in
biblical doctrines.
Nate went on to explain
along these lines, “The first level is doctrines that are most central and
essential to the Christian faith. Without
them the gospel would be compromised. Second
level is doctrines that create significant disagreement among believing
Christians and that cause them to set up boundaries between themselves. When believers organize themselves in
congregations and denominations, these doctrines became distinguishing
factors. And third level is doctrines in
which Christians may disagree but feel comfortable remaining in the same
fellowship.”
His comments gave me
pause to consider and wonder which doctrines fit into which levels. They also brought some clarity to a statement
I have heard from Augustine. He said
just about four hundred years after Christ, “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty;
in all things, charity.”
Photos taken at the Beckley Art Center where the group met one Sunday evening to enjoy art and a concert