First, as a college student I was privileged to spend two summers in Austria with Greater Europe Mission. What I learned there changed my entire worldview: the Church is bigger than the little church world in which I had grown up. God's work is about a worldwide community.
Second, as a seminary student I read a book that shook me to my core: Ronald Sider's Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. I learned from Sider, and I wish I could say I have practiced as much as I have learned, that we are responsible for one another and especially to care for the poor and needy in our world. Of all the places in the world where care for the poor should be visible, the church should be at the top of the list. (It wasn't then, it hasn't always been, but it is getting better.)
Third, from 1996 until now, as a result of teaching college students and listening to both their sharp critique of the church and, at the same time, listening to their lack of interest in attending local churches, I learned something else: the gospel we are preaching is so individualistic, so tied into getting the individual into heaven, that the church has become an afterthought for many Christians today. The current generation of young Christians is now living out, so I believe, the gospel my generation preached to them - the individualistic gospel. This gospel is deconstructing the church, making the church little more than a Sunday morning option for those who want to follow Jesus. Do you realize how far this church-as-option is from what we see in Luke's wiki-story of the Story? For Luke, the church isn't an option; it's the main stage.
These experiences of mine, combined with reading the Bible's Story, have led me to a deep shift on how to talk about the gospel and what it means to live out the gospel in our world today. I am learning that the Bible, which is filled with blue parakeets to remind us, confronts you and me with a gospel that redeems individuals in and through communities and it redeems those individuals so they might contribute to those communities. Any kind of gospel living that is not first and foremost church-based is simply not the biblical gospel living. Notice now how John calls people to respond to the gospel of the kingdom - he calls them into a community that is unlike the culture surrounding them. (I wonder what John would think of the gospel I sketched at the beginning of this chapter.)
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Both this Kingdom series and the Justification series have been great for me to read. I HAVE TOO MUCH TO READ! What I'm so amazed by is how God can teach me similar themes through multiple sources at the same time. I've been reading some Scott Hahn and J. Ratzinger. I started The Meaning of Christian Brotherhood today and the ties to this blog series are quite apparent. The Holy Spirit's ability to teach to me is just awesome.
DJ|AMDG
Even tho we're high on inerrancy in the evangelical camp, we don't pay enough attention to the form of Scripture do we? The earliest NT documents, the epistles, were written to communities, not individuals. The gospels were shaped by the needs of the communities of Matt, Mk, LK, and John. The OT is written for the community.
And don't we need the gospel everyday?? A wedding ceremony is not the end, it's the beginning of a marriage. Our initial reception of the gospel is not the end/goal, it's the beginning as we enter into the marriage of Messiah and His bride.
"The current generation of young Christians is now living out, so I believe, the gospel my generation preached to them - the individualistic gospel. This gospel is deconstructing the church, making the church little more than a Sunday morning option for those who want to follow Jesus." AMEN!
I believe this is one of the challenges that my church is currently facing. Practicing the gospel in such a way that is an attractive and desirable option. I've observed many people -- not all young, mind you-- for whom the church is just one of a number of options in their jam-packed, busy lives. When we get back to living and presenting the true, life-changing gospel, I believe the church will move up on people's priority lists.
Of course communal worship is optimal---and is something God wants and encourages. The problem with church/religion is that humans impose "rules" on the pure worship of God, rules which vary from religion to religion and thus from church to church. From Catholicism to Mormonism, each religion considers itself "true" and condemns the rest.
The "rules" of each church are human-made; God is only tangentially evident. A profound relationship with our Creator is an incredibly powerful, intimate, and, yes, individual thing. To share that love with others makes the relationship stronger and pleases God. But the human aribiters of the "rules" of any religion discourage the thoughtfulness God desires of his children. Homosexuality, for instance, was never mentioned--not once--by Jesus Christ. In fact, there are a mere two admonitions against homosexuality: one in Leviticus and one in Paul's letter to the Romans. Those who profess to follow the teachings of Christ ignore the fact that He, in fact, made no mention of homosexuality (in addition to the fact they are cherry-picking one law from Leviticus while ignoring or decrying the hundreds of other laws governing behavior.)
If God creates gay and lesbian human beings, are we not required to consider the possibility that such sexual orientation is not sinful? If Jesus Christ, God's own Self on Earth, mentioned not even once this God-created yet unambiguously condemned genetic state, doesn't that suggest that sexual orientation itself is not, in God's mind, central to the question of what it means to be righteous in His eyes?
And that is only one, albeit one of the most inflammatory, issues which both govern the operation of a church and cloud the waters of God's intentions--which are not, religious law notwithstanding, absolutely obvious.
God bestowed on the human race brains capable of abstract thought and a nature both blessed and cursed with free will. "Religion" does not trump belief and worship of God. Churches are not necessarily bastions of truth nor specially endowed with an exalted understanding of what God expects and desires of us, his creations, his children. Yet religions, and the churches that serve them, would have us believe they know best and that we must obey and think as a group about complex and equivocal matters.
There are few things lonelier than going it alone, worshipping alone. But loneliness is the price I pay because I cannot abdicate my responsibility to think for myself.
I am one with my Heavenly Father, my Lord, my Creator, my beloved Christ. Sadly, I cannot say the same about other human worshippers. The divisiveness of religion is simply a manifestation of our most primitive instinct to form tribes and pit ourselves against one another. Until and unless we recognize the reality that, yes, there is more than one path to reach God and do His bidding, devout believers like I will be unable to "belong" to a church or consider myself a "member" of a specific religion.
Which is not to say I have given up seeking a church that is pure, that does not overlay with human invention the simple beauty of Christ's words.
I hope and pray I find a community of worshippers to which I can belong without betraying my own freedom of thought and personal relationship with God. But I cannot be hypocritical. I do not need a hierarchy of priests, cardinals and Pope to connect with or be forgiven by the Lord. I am not a sinner if I vote, have a blood transfusion or drink coffee. I am not choosing to believe what is convenient; I am being faithful to God's desire that I obey Him in all things.
Thus, I disavow tribalism in all its forms. Even religious tribalism. And I continue my spiritual quest for a community in which I can worship with the rest of the Body. I know God will answer my prayers and provide me with that sustanance.
In the interim, I do God's bidding, have no church, and endure the loneliness.
Traveler: You have hit on one of the most central and complicated causes of division and "otherness" in the church today. Press on. Real Christian community is out there. God provides.
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