concentric circles

Colossians 3:17
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

1 Corinthians 10:31
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Romans 11:36
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

The idea of concentric circles means that no matter what size or in what direction a circle goes, that it circles a fixed point. For me, any discussion of the church has to be christologically centered. Not ecclesiastically nor sorteriologically. The ecclesiology serves the Christology (not the other way around) and the soteriology comes out of the Christology (salvation is through Christ alone).

My application of this is that whatever we do as the church gathered or the church scattered, it is to be Christ centered. In my mind, I am trying to tie things back to that common denominator. If they do not go back to Christ, they should be modified or discarded. I don't want religion or carnality masquerading as being Christ centered. I do want humanity with all it's flaws and weaknesses linked with Christ. To me, that is the true Christ-ian-ity. Because of Christ, we do not hide in the bushes of shame, over our sin; nor are we shame-less, god-squad, holy-huddle, gnostic, or religion-addicts.

On the macro level, I think this also describes how different denominations or streams or tribes of the body of Christ can be so different, yet right on. They might look and sound and smell different, but what's important is the center of orbit.