Stuck in the Middle with…many of you?
This is a follow-up to my last post about feeling alienated in the North American Church.
So I’ve been speaking with quite a few of you out there. Some have responded directly to the blog in the comments (always appreciated), while others have communicated with me face to face and online elsewhere. There seems to be a growing number of people out there, in the early-to-mid 20s, that seem to have a growing dissatisfaction with Church at large. I, in my limited wisdom and knowledge, do not know if this is transcendent amongst all twenty-somethings for all time, within the Church, or if this is a new(er) phenomenon. If it is something that happens to everyone, everyone over the age of 30 give us some sage wisdom; but if it is something beyond that, I think we all need to listen to everyone around us for some clues.
Before I write anything further, many of you will come forward and say that my education is what’s to blame for this, and to an extent, it is. I can’t unlearn the evils (re: realities) of literary and historical-cultural biblical criticism, nor can I ignore the same realities and implicaitons of what bodily resurrection and homousion really mean either. More importantly though, I’m bringing this up because my problems are being felt by people outside of my educational circles as well. So I’m going to write what I think are the most important things not to do in this time of disillusionment:
Don’t start a new church.
The Lord has enough buildings and institutions consecrated to him. Adding another with a new faith statement and a new, hip congregation will not make you feel better. It is better to work within the places we know and the places that have kept the Church for us to inherit. It is harder, to be sure, but for now, in North America, let’s start in the places we are.
Don’t stop going to church.
This is probably the worst idea of all. To cut yourself off from other believers is to tie your own spiritual noose. Read a book like Life Together, by WWII martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer to understand what I’m getting at on this one. We are made to be in communion with other believers. Don’t ever forget that. Even if everyone at your church is a moron, try to love them and look for their genuine love – if the spirit is in them, then you will see the love.
Don’t feel overly righteous about your own convictions.
Like I said at the top, we don’t even know if we are right about the problems going on. We could just need a slap to the side of the head and a suck it up to realize we are being whiny wimps. Humility is the number one thing to strive for in this time. (Trust me, this is hard – probably what I struggle with most, being so knowledgeable and wise and all.)
Don’t stop questioning.
We shouldn’t just shut up, however. If you see something that is wrong, pursue and learn and critique. Get some answers. Challenge the authority. You might even be able to effect some change.
Don’t stop listening.
Despite our own unease, our Church fathers and mothers still have a lot of good to teach us, so don’t close your ears and eyes to it all around you, while you wait to be vindicated. Listen to what people are saying, and maybe you’ll find you aren’t the only one after all.
Don’t stop loving.
Finally, I urge you to never, ever, stop loving your Christian brothers and sisters. We’re all saved and we’re all going to be with Jesus eventually. If you get into a big argument with someone, it’s only because both of you care about how God wants his church today. Keep loving others to keep God the focus of this transition.
I might be talking more about this later, but until then, remember these intermediary priniciples.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on January 5, 2009 at 1:54 am, filed under Christianity, Church and tagged Church, Disillusionment, Evangelicalism, North America. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Stuck in the middle…with you?
I’m starting to think that there is very little middle ground in North American Christian circles.
It seems that you are either a social and economic conservative, intent on ‘keeping to a literal interpretation of the Bible,’ and espousing a very strong set of convictions (see my posts on Evangelicalism),
or
you are a social and economic liberal, with a low-view of Christ (e.g. not divine, etc.) and God (Deism),
or
you are a part of a Christianity that is primarily cultural (i.e. family-tied) and is very closed on almost every respect.
I’m not any of these. And I feel alienated because of it.
It’s difficult, because for the last 3 years I’ve had a exhilirating time delving deeply into the Word: learning the original (or as close as we can understand) languages, defining contexts – both historical and literary, redefining my theology to align with what I truly and utterly believe is the biblical theology. But, because of this, I’ve had to make some concessions. Concessions like, maybe the Old Testament isn’t entirely a factual, scientific document; maybe only the Gospel of John calls Jesus divine; Maybe the Rapture doesn’t exist (ok, that was an easy one); maybe there isn’t a soul separate from the body and that heaven and death and end times as we commonly understand them have little to do with each other?
I’m not a Liberal. I believe in the Creeds and all that they entail. But, as you see, I’m not a fundamentalist by any modern sense of the Word. I can’t adhere to any determinist view of God, but I can’t hold to any true open theism either. I’m stuck somewhere in the middle. A magical middle that doesn’t entirely seem to exist.
I’ve said from the start that I keep finding the Jesus and the Christianity I’ve always been looking for – a robust, intellectual, revolutionary, ancient and transcendent Christianity. Sadly, I’ve been losing a hold on how to understand our Church – its culture, place, and meaning. I see so many things that are contrary to what I now hold to believe the Bible is saying, and that people are creating part of a cycle that has little to do, and is often contrary to, the call to usher in the Kingdom of God.
So why am I worried about this? Why couldn’t I just start ignoring other Christians and live my own life, apart from them? Well the thing that I’ve learned more than anything else from God this year is how important faith community is to the Christian life. We need each other, consistently and constantly. We need to eat meals together, join in praise together, mourn together, hold each other up, hold each other accountable, save each other from trials and tribulations and be unified in love, because I believe that these things are good and well for our beings and our walks with the Lord. Strike that, it is imperative to our Christianity.
So how do I do that when I’m not sure about most, if not all of it, any more?
Suggestions would be great.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on December 30, 2008 at 9:24 am, filed under Christianity, Church and tagged Church, Disillusionment, Evangelicalism, North America. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Evangelicalism Then and Now: Activism
So we’ve come to our last of the quadrilateral, activism.
Bebbington defines it as: the belief that the gospel needs to expressed in effort. I define it as: the belief that the gospel needs to be expressed in effort to make Christianity the predominant Culture, ridding the evils of any one else’s point-of-view.
Out of all 4 points of the quadrilateral, this one is probably the one that would brand me a liberal by our more conservative brothers and sisters, but I feel this needs to be said: We do not live in a Christian culture, and the former ‘Christian’ culture of Canada was of face-value at best. A culture war is an exercise in futility.
And there you have it. North-American Christianity, though far more prominent south of the border (though that seems to be changing), seems to be deadset on winning some cultural war against sex, homosexuality, postmodernism, religious plurality, and, it seems, the political left. All of these contribute to the downfall of society, or so I was to believe, had I listened to the late Jerry Falwell, or even Pat “Assassination’s cool with God” Robertson.
Don’t get me wrong. Some of these things are wrong. Some of these things aren’t bad, they are just reality. I’m not going to tell you which, but I am going to say what I think are the two things Christians do in response to culture that is bogus: wholesale condemnation, followed by a really crappy, ‘cleansed’ copy.
First off, the condemnation. I don’t understand how we can condemn a culture that is devoid of the Word for doing things against the Word? Yes, there are things that are bad that need to be brought to justice and renewed (television standards and practices), and there are things beyond redemption that we need to just condemn outrightly (abortion), but we are doing it in just the dumbest way possible. Scare tactics, guilt, and even outright hatred are not the ways of how Christians are to respond, let alone how Christ responded to things he that were wrong. Where is the love for our fellow man in saying “God hates Fags,” or “Abortionists are Murderers?”
Secondly, we really suck at creating an alternative. Contemporary Christian Music tends to be about 4 years behind realities tastes and flavours, not even mentioning how mediocre most of the talent is, and don’t even get me started on Kirk Cameron and his Left Behind movies (or for that matter, Tim Le Haye and Jerry Jenkins for coming up with those pieces of trash). We North-American Christians, by and large, seem to hate to be innovative or creative. What happened to 2000 years of Art History centred around Jesus? What made Christians hate good art so much that they would create all this garbage? For the sake of the Lord, make something decent.
Solutions: First of all, I think we need to cast off the ‘Christian’ label we have attached to everything in our God-fearing households, and replace them with socially-responsible products (which I’m pretty sure Jesus would appreciate it more than you may think). Second, we to interact and dialogue with our communities, to not feel better abour oursevles, but to serve the needs of those seeking out the kingdom, wherever they may be.
So that ends this cycle on Evangelicalism. I think I may write one more post on implicatiions, but we’ll have to see. I hope you’ve gotten something out of thise.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on December 2, 2008 at 7:05 am, filed under Activism, Christianity, Church and tagged Activism, Christianity, Church, Evangelicalism. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Evangelicalism Then and Now: Conversionism
Someone clearly in touch with their roots.
The third point of the quadrilateral is “conversionism, the belief that human beings need to be converted,” and if there is one major emphasis in North-American Evanglelical Christianity, it’s evangelism. And evangelism is great, and needed, in our world. How can we reconcile our love for our neighbours (both commanded to us and dwelling within us through the fruits of the spirit) by not telling them about the Kingdom of God and all that entails?
But of course, that’s the problem: instead of an emphasis on conversion to the Christian faith, it’s the conversion to a particular denomination with the wonderful, ecumenical umbrella. Like our tradition-embracing friends pictured above, it seems Evangelicals will do as much as they can to make sure a) you know they are the ‘true vine’ and b)everyone else is at best, wrong, and at worst, apostate heretics. While this may sound like hyperbole, even a cursory view of the internet will present you with people in every denomination who thinks that everyone else are complete and utter idiots, not worth the time to blog about them (apparently they are).
Now, you may come out and say that this is no longer the case, but if you look at the comments on these blogs and websites, you’ll see overwhelming agreement, generally. With all this in-fighting, it’s a wonder anyone ever wants to be a part of Jesus’ KOG, unless you’re the kind of person who just loves finding who’s right and sticking to that. This is what the Pharisees were really about.
Ditch all the legalism stuff that people bring to the table, because that’s not the point behind the sin of the pharisees: it was their need to be right and their separation of the ‘in’s and ‘out’s in society. Evangelicals do this abundantly these days, in the form of proclaiming heresy or apostacy against Roman Catholics, Reformers, Baptists, the English, Charismatics, Wesleyans, etc. Did I miss someone? I’m sure a Christian somewhere thinks you are a heretic/apostate/fool too.
Solution: I know this one sounds strange, but don’t get rid of denominations. Denominations give structure and accountability against true heresy and apostacy, and their networks greatly help push the cause of Christ into the world. The solution is to open our minds and our hearts to all of our Christian family, and learn to accept our different faith traditions as outpourings of the same spirit. Evangelicals simply need to cease having to be right about everything. For more about being right, see what my friend Tim has to say.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on November 17, 2008 at 12:47 am, filed under Christianity, Church and tagged Bebbington, denominations, Evangelicalism, Pharisees. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Evangelicalism Then and Now: Crucicentrism
Looking out the main window of the Chapel of the Holy Cross, Sedona, AZ
Out of all 4 of the skewed definitions, this is the one that is most firmly entrenched in Evangelicalism, I think. The idea that the atoning work of Christ is simple fire insurance is the greatest disservice to Christianity that we (in North America especially) have come up with. But what about it?
The atoning work of Christ has been thoroughly dialogued about throughout the centuries, by the greatest Christian thinkers in our history. By reading Genesis 3, we see that the fall affected our relationship with God, each other, and all of creation, which brought death into the game. Christ’s atonement is the focal point of Christian history, because it brought us reconciliation with God, each other, and all of creation. Death was beaten and the Kingdom of God was victorious in the Cross. The amazing story that envelops Christians into the story that leads their lives.
And then a bunch of over-zealous preachers came along, threw out 1900 years of thought about the atonement and decided that Christianity’s number one goal was to get people out of Hell. Out goes creation stewardship. Out goes loving your neighbour. Out goes an ever-deepening discipling by God. That’s right, Christianity is now going through the Roman’s Road and saying the Sinner’s Prayer. That’ll be just swell.
Does anyone else think this is absolutely freaking ridiculous?
Without even coming to a consensus with what Hell even is, to cheapen the atonement is to cheapen the whole of Christ’s incarnation. It angers me that thousands of people see only the shallowest puddle of what the Trinity is doing in each of our lives.
So what is the solution? We have to start to looking at new ways to see evangelism. Maybe goes as far as putting a moratorium on Hell for awhile. I don’t know. Maybe it’s as simple as gagging certain preachers long enough to reboot the congregations into thinking for themselves.
Thinking for themselves? That’s the next Then and Now.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on November 7, 2008 at 1:04 am, filed under Christianity, Church and tagged Atonement, Bebbington, Christ, Evangelicalism, Hell. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.