A question.

In a large portion of the Christianity, particularly the younger generation, the orthodox tenets of the faith are being 're-imagined', 're-painted', and ultimately 're-written'.  I believe much of this is being done in the name of cultural relevance instead of in the name of Jesus, with Biblical truth bowing to popular culture; not for the sake of evangelism but for the sake of acceptance.

The Bible, our highest authority and truth, finds itself secondary to, among other things, cultural trends, popular opinion, therapeutic needs, and entertainment.

In an article, David Wells quoted radical deconstructionist Stanley Fish as saying, "since there is no such thing as truth, all that we have left is power, politics, and persuasion."

In a time when American culture as a whole seems hopelessly adrift and when some in the Church are cutting loose their anchors and sawing down their masts to drift ever more efficiently, is this true?

In the absence of Biblical truth, is the Church left with only power, politics, and persuasion?

If so, what do we even have to offer the world but more of the same?

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Recently, I’ve felt bursts of panic. The safe, mainstream Christianity of my childhood is starting to look more culturally dangerous than I ever believed. I think Jesus would be pleased.

First of all, somewhere during my lifetime, organized religion became a dirty word. It just sneaked up on me. I’m trying to figure out when it happened. Was it when Jim Bakker, the PT Barnum of Christian television, landed in jail? Did John Lennon get things rolling with his infinitely cool exploration of generic spirituality? Can I blame the academics for their relentless, decades-long attack on absolute truth?

And just like that—I realize that the guy who started dismantling organized religion in the first place was Jesus Christ.

I’m just as surprised as you are. And yet the way that Jesus overturned his uptight religious contemporaries is a world away from how self-proclaimed tolerant Americans are now dismissing the institutional church. We had better figure out the difference.

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Ever since I can remember, I have gone to church and loved it. I loved the Sunday School games, the hymns, the Christmas programs, the energy, the potlucks...we were a church family. However, I was just a child then. I went to church where my parents went to church, and no questions asked. Now, as I am newly married, a seminary student, and am asked by my community, my family and my self, what type of person I will be, what I will believe, and what I will allow to define me; my husband and I find ourselves very seriously thinking about where we go to church. For someone who has always accepted church as being a part of the non-questionable Sunday routine (and youth night when the activity seemed fun enough to go), we are finding ourselves refreshingly shocked that we are not taking church with such openness. We are being very particular, and dissecting the sermons, the worship and, if I am honest, the leadership.

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Wordle is a web application that creates 'word clouds' of texts. Basically, the more frequently a word is used the bigger it is in the 'cloud', the less it's used, the smaller it is.

For example, here is the book of Luke wordled:

And here's Hebrews:

You can do any text you like with it. Here is one of Luther's Easter sermons:

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Not long ago I was meeting with a mentor of mine, who has functioned as a spiritual director to me at various times the last few years. In my mind, our meeting was not about spiritual formation but to catch up on some other stuff going on, but all of the sudden he asked me a question, seemingly out of nowhere. He asked, "so what is God doing in your life?" An innocent and fine question to ask, but not one I had come prepared to answer. I immediately told him what I had been studying in my devotions and how it had been going.

He, being the type that he is, saw through my religiosity and complimented me upon my extraordinary accomplishments, but then asked again what God was doing, NOT what I was doing. He then politely excused himself to get some more tea while I was allowed to humbly recover for a bit. When he returned from getting tea, I began to tell him that I was not really feeling that God was doing something, but told him instead about a good friend who was in the process of moving away and how this was affecting me.

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These are three quotes by AW Tozer in his critique of the church during his life 50 years ago.  They are evidence that some things in human nature don't change and that many of the errors that exist in the church are simply new expressions of old faults that have plagued the Church since it's inception.  They should be a swift kick to the pants of Christians of any denomination or age.

 

“To speak of the ‘deeper life’ is not to speak of anything deeper than simple New Testament religion. The ‘deeper life’ is deeper only because the average Christian life is tragically shallow.” 

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"The contemporary moral climate does not favor a faith as tough and fibrous as that taught by our Lord and His apostles. The delicate, brittle saints being produced in our religious hothouses today are hardly to be compared with the committed, expendable believers who once gave their witness among men. And the fault lies with our leaders. They are too timid to tell the people all the truth. They are now asking men to give to God that which costs them nothing.

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A discussion between Sean McDowell and Tony Jones

Tony says:

Sean, today I was watching CNN in the morning, and something occurred to me. Not only are we talking about a woman candidate for President of the United States, but the majority of the CNN hosts and reporters were women. There I was, receiving my authoritative information on the Burma cyclone, the presidential race, and the weather from women. And I got to thinking, Why would women be excluded from presenting me, a man, with authoritative instruction in the Christian faith?

As you might guess, I think that excluding women from full participation in the leadership of Christ’s church is a sin. We’ve talked enough about the Bible in this space for you to know that I take it very seriously, and that you and I differ on how to interpret it at points.

Getting our ducks lined up

I’m sitting here on the shores of a river in Maryland.  It’s 7AM and all is quiet as I’m reading my Bible.  Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a flock of Canadian geese walking along the road that runs parallel to the riverbank, some distance away from where I’m sitting.  Soon I hear their voices and I put down my book and simply watch.  There they are, walking along with one out front, 3 abreast, sometimes 4, stretching out for about 50 yards worth of geese.  The scene fascinates me because, like sheep, everyone appears to be following the lead goose.  I ponder what would happen if some goose tried to take a different path?  Would that one be cut off from the flock?  Would they even be allowed to leave?  Perhaps none of the geese would care, trusting that the stray goose, in its authenticity and individualism would surely arrive at the same place as the rest of the geese.  

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I don't think I've posted this on here yet, but if I have that's ok because it deserves to be watched twice.  This video should resonate with anyone who's ever had a heart for other people and the truth of the Gospel.  It's sad and disgusting that this is not only taught to Americans but taught BY Americans to people in countries as impoverished as the one I'm in now.  (You'll have to excuse the bad graphics and focus on the message itself.)

 

 

 

This is a posting about the need for the church (that’s me – and many of you) to catch God’s vision for us: We’re called to be reconcilers, peacemakers, celebrators, justice seekers, and being about these things means learning crossing over to the proverbial ‘other side of the tracks’ by entering into relationships with those who are different than us.

We need to begin though, not with the scriptures posted above, but with a consideration of the progressive nature of salvation, because in spite of the fact that most of us reading this blog already know the above scriptures, having read and heard them many times, the fact remains that the church in America is often terribly weak at testifying, (by virtue of it’s non-diverse character in particular local churches), of God’s power to break down dividing walls that separate people. “The most segregated hour in America” as we’ve often been told, is the worship hour on Sundays. So, saved though we may be, God's vision for us in not yet fulfilled. We need to learn how to cross over the barriers that divide us and create reconciled relationships. How do we do this?

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