The purpose of this month’s blog is to discuss the balance between grace and legalism within the Tres Dias ministry.  Let me start with what might sound controversial:  Depending on how you define it, Legalism is always bad, except when it’s not!  And Grace is always wonderful, except when it’s not!

GRACE:  Is obviously one of the most profound aspects of our faith – freely given by God and all we need to do is accept it. However, sometimes people take the concept of Grace and extend it to areas where the scriptures never intended; resulting in what might be called “sloppy grace” or even an excuse to sin.

• • Grace must be the active force behind any Christian ministry, especially Tres Dias.

LEGALISM: Is generally considered a bad thing in our faith.  We all know about the legalism of the Pharisees which Jesus condemned.  However, we do need guiderails (ie: rules/policies) to help keep us from taking Grace to extremes that would change the focus of Tres Dias to something that was never intended.  In some cases, as we’ve seen, even enabling activities that the Scriptures clearly refer to as sinful!

Some would refer to those rules as “legalism” whereas others would consider them to be guiderails; acknowledging them as being a critical component of enabling Grace within the Tres Dias environment.

In other words, it’s important to keep in mind that all Christian ministries, including Tres Dias, must have boundaries within which participants function in order to stay within the focus of that particular ministry.  As we are seeing in our society today, time has a way of changing the opinions and focuses of long-standing traditions, and Tres Dias is no exception.  Despite the fairly clear focus of the Essentials, some communities have taken actions or created processes that run contrary to the focus/intent of the Essentials, which occasionally requires that action be taken.  This has resulted in some accusations that Tres Dias is too legalistic in our decisions; feeling that we are undermining Grace with rules.  What I’ve learned is that, in most cases:

• • Rules (legalism?) are justified to protect the integrity of the ministry as a whole, provided there is an exception for Grace – but there are limits on both.
  • Most important: There needs to be adequate explanation of the reasons for the rules – and that’s an area where we have not always been effective. (The days of “because I said so” or “because we’ve always done it that way” are gone).  People need to clearly understand the reasons for rules if we can expect them to abide by them.

The need for rules and guidelines become obvious once we understand that Tres Dias covers many demographic areas, denominations, personalities, cultures, attitudes, politics, etc.  Relatively small, repetitive deviations can (and have) resulted in communities losing their focus.

OUR RULE BOOK:  The ESSENTIALS lay out the goals, purpose and focus of the ministry; focusing on discipleship and preventing the Movement from becoming something it was not meant to be (for instance: discipleship vs evangelism).

This is why one of the key requirements for communities to maintain their Charter is clearly outlined in the Preamble, where it states: “in order to ensure consistency and stability within the TRES DIAS Movement, there must be certain essential aspects to which all TRES DIAS organizations conform.  These Essentials fall into two categories:  those which are quantitative and those which are qualitative in nature.  It is the intent of TRES DIAS to use both of these categories as criteria for chartering local secretariats.” It goes on to state that any deviations must be reviewed and are subject to the approval of Tres Dias. And the Policy Committee, answerable to the International Secretariat, is the assigned arbiter.

SO WHAT DOES “QUANTITATIVE” AND “QUALITATIVE” MEAN?

• QUANTITATIVE (objective, measurable criteria) can be considered the “principles” of the movement which should be virtually unchanging regardless of time or circumstance.
• QUALITATIVE (subjective, inferred intentions) are related to applying the principles of the Essentials when making necessary changes. (This is the area that some communities have difficulty with; not understanding that any procedural changes must be consistent with the original principles, goals and intent of the Essentials.

HERE’S A REALLY QUICK EXAMPLE:  Think about the concept of “CLOISTER” and how different it is today (cell phones, ipads, etc) compared to the 1980’s when the Essentials were written (wrist watches & transistor radios).   In response to these changes, Tres Dias has had to implement policies and guidelines that attempt to maintain the integrity of the principles of the Cloister while adapting to 21^st century realities.  Definitely not an easy task – and not one that everyone agrees with!!  (You can check out the Cloister document here if you’re curious about the many facets related to the concept of Cloister).

SUMMARY:  As Tres Dias continues to move forward, it’s critical that we continually re-evaluate our relevance to the Christian community; knowing that change is inevitable – whether we like it or not.  HOWEVER:  Any change we consider MUST be in keeping with the original PRINCIPLES of the Essentials and, unfortunately, sometimes require rules and enforcement; ideally applied with equal Grace!

What are your thoughts on this?  Are there areas where you feel TDI has been overly legalistic?  Or perhaps areas in which you feel too many exceptions have been made in the name of Grace?  Let us know what you think by commenting on our Private Facebook page (https://facebook.com/groups/tresdiasinternational).

And here’s wishing you all a safe and joyful holiday season, a blessed Christmas, and an inspiring New Year!

De Colores!

Jeff Mehl
President
Tres Dias International