Reforming North American Christianity, part 5

In my last post I discussed the necessity of reclaiming our  unique character as followers of Jesus Christ, which requires, among other things, a certain comfort with being social misfits. This is a difficult comfort level to achieve, as those who relish being social misfits may have a hard time conforming themselves to the teachings of the Gospel and those who find security in social conformity will have hard time acting differently because of the teachings of the Gospel.

The fact is, that as Christians, we are called to be set apart from the world and we are called to be in the world. This is a dynamic tension that like many other Gospel tensions (e.g. justice and mercy), should be maintained rather than resolved. The dangers of resolving these tensions are fairly obvious, choose the separatist way and you have a Church that is irrelevant to the struggles of the world, choose the cultural way and you have a Church that looks no different (maybe more miserable?) than the culture around it.

While we must become increasingly comfortable with being different, we should not embrace strangeness or oddity with abandon, in a sort of who cares what other people think attitude. Such an attitude is liberating and has its merits, but as Christians we do need to be concerned with how we are perceived by those who do not (or as often in the case in North America, no longer) share our faith (for a very sobering view of what unchurched think about us read the book “UnChristian" ). If we are scaring people off from Christ merely because we choose to be culturally ignorant, or old fashion, or dressed up or whatever, we need to reconsider the packaging we are presenting Jesus in – and despite popular opinion packaging influences the punch, that is the messenger shapes the message.

Sorting out the right packaging for the message of the Gospel is a complex job. It is really an awful business of heavy discernment that is not easy to do (just look at all the debates about contemporary vs. traditional, vestments no vestments, dress up or dress down, topical vs. expository, missional vs. doctrinal etc. that rage in the church), but is part of the task that the Church in North America must take up prayerfully if a Godly reformation is to take place.

What challenges do you see for us as we sort out the tension of living in the world, but not being of the world? 

When were you converted?

When were you converted? This is an important question for every Christian to consider and reflect upon. The answer may not be as simple as you think. Some Christians emphasize a moment of conversion, a place and time in their life where they willfully made a decision to follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This moment serves as the marker in their life of when they became a Christian.

Other Christians think of conversion as a process and while many know they have made a commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior they cannot pinpoint the specific moment in time when they made this decision. This second approach is somewhat like being in love, it can be hard to pinpoint the moment it all began. Reflection often reveals a slow growing sense of being in love, or in the case of our discussion, a growing sense of commitment to Christ.

The danger here (with this second perspective) is to assume you have made this commitment to Christ. It is not necessary to agonize over whether you made this decision or not, but simply to review the facts of your life and the state of your soul. If you aren’t sure about where you stand with God you should talk about this with a trusted friend whose Christian faith and commitment are mature.

Lastly, many Christians view conversion as a life-long process of growth, change, and transformation. This developmental aspect of Christian life is certainly is true, whether we call it conversion or not (or as others would prefer sanctification).  

Are you converted? Are you being converted?

Reforming North American Christianity, part 4

Besides a return to the wells of spirituality in prayer, contemplation, and silence we have some additional work to do as North American Christians. This work does not involve programs, gurus (whatever their current iteration, e.g. trendy in grunge, or casual in collar and jeans), or the latest pronouncements from ecclesiastical central avenue. Rather, this work is dreadfully mundane, painfully difficult, and without a hint of sexy at all. I’m talking about the work of re-forming our essential Christian character, both as individuals, and as local congregations. As North America Christians we must become increasingly comfortable with being different, often radically different from those around us.

We can expect the culture to continue to move away from the Church and the fading glories and atrocities of Christendom, leaving us behind as a sub-culture, dangerously out of tune with the times. This comfort with strangeness will not be of the exciting sort (often enjoyed by the outcasts along the edge of every culture), but a hard strangeness that will cost us more than dirty looks and derogatory comments. If all that was necessary for this was the wearing of cassocks or clever t-shirts our reformation would almost be complete. Rather, our strangeness must be our difference in character, our difference in moral values, our difference in how and who we spend our time with.

We get a peek at this sort of difference when we look at our brother and sister Christians who are being persecuted around the world. How increasingly post-Christian and post-modern societies will serve up their persecution remains to be seen (though I continue to argue that its worst and most insidious method is and will continue to  be indifference), but we can be certain that what is presently considered unfashionable may soon be understood as indefensibly quaint.

In other words, if you’ve been struggling to grasp my subtly, we must allow the Holy Spirit to shape our characters to be more and more like Christ (what we sometimes use to call holiness). We cannot lift a finger in evangelism, in witness, if our individual lives as Christians continue to be largely no different than the lives of non-believers. If the only difference between Christians and non-Christians is that some of us go to Church on Sunday and some of us do not, why bother with the whole enterprise at all? The great apologetic of the North American reformation of Christianity will be holy examples, not found in a few saints, but found in struggling little communities of faith, hope, and love. May you and I be part of such communities, whether in founding them, joining them, or sticking with them despite all the temptations to join trendier or more respectable crowds.

Half-Cooked Christianity?

One of the challenges that many of us face as Christians is over exposure to under-developed Christianity. That is, we’ve heard the basic truths of Christianity our whole lives and without zealous examples of these truths many of us have adopted a sort of half-cooked Christianity. One writer put it this way, “too many people have been inoculated with small doses of Christianity that keep them from catching the real thing.” The evidence that this is true can be found in many congregations when a high school student, or middle-age couple or successful career man starts to take their faith more seriously, living it out by serving the poor or witnessing to friends or reading serious works of theology (gasp!).

One of the ways we often try to deal with these sorts of people is to suggest that they become pastors, priests, or full-time church workers. This sort of thinking can prevent us from acknowledging the reality that all Christians are called to be committed to their faith, that all Christians are to serve Christ in the Church and in the world, and that all Christians are called to integrate their faith with every aspect of their lives. If we can continue to perpetuate the illusion that real commitment is limited to a handful of special people we can avoid having to be committed ourselves. This type of thinking has become normative in many Christian circles and has contributed to the weakening of the Church for centuries.  

The Christian man or woman, whether priest or plumber, in retirement or in the midst of a career, married or single, parent or not, receives the same calling from God. We are all called to follow Christ, to grow in Christ-like character, and to contribute to the advancement of the Kingdom of God. Of course, while we all share this same basic calling, our particular ways of living out this calling will be as unique and varied as there are individuals.

Live the call!    

Reforming North American Christianity, part 3

In my last post, I made a plea for a return to contemplation and silence on the part of North American Christians. This intentional commitment to making space for the Spirit of God to work in our hearts is not so that we might be irrelevant as Christians (saying nothing as the world struggles), but that we might be both relevant and reverent (relevancy without reverence usually leads to compromise).

Over ten years ago, I found myself sitting along the shore of the sea of Galilee (which a couple of days earlier I had attempted to walk across…please don’t ask how it went!). There, in the twilight of the day, I resolved to be a Dominican for the rest of my life. This resolution was whispered in my heart and no human being knew of my decision until later. The long hours of contemplation and silence had finally born fruit in my life, setting its direction.

While there has been a resurgence of interest in vintage Christianity and the practice of silence and contemplation (see for example the centering prayer movement), I fear such persons are usually viewed as “the spiritual junkies” of our parishes, families, and communities. In other words, commitment to contemplative prayer is not seen as normative for Christians in general, or local churches in particular.

While there are certainly those that have special gifts for prayer, we will have no Spirit driven reformation of North American Christianity without a return to silence, interior prayer, and contemplation by ordinary believers (if belief in the Triune God can ever be deemed “ordinary’). Where should we begin? With ourselves and our own congregations of course:

1.      Add silence to our Sunday services

2.      Then teach people to take advantage of this silence

3.      Add silence to our daily lives

4.      Learn how to take advantage of this silence.

5.      Assume God is speaking and you’re not listening (I know many husbands who intentionally choose this approach with their wives…)

6.      Do not read a variety of blogs, books, and articles about silence and contemplation. First, shut up for a while, then do the reading.

7.      Start to reclaim the practice of Sabbath keeping.

Some simple starters, what would you suggest?

Responding to the AZ Shootings

The shootings in Arizona have prompted a number of responses across the spectrum of political and social commentary in our country. Certainly, American Christians should be responding to this tragedy with ongoing prayer for those affected, but what other types of responses should we be making at this time?

There are doubtless a variety of answers to that question, some of which I lack the knowledge or awareness to give, but one answer that seems clear to me is our need to be better models of civil discourse, both within our Churches and in society at large. I wish commentators in their call for greater civility in public debate could point to various Christian communities in America as model examples of civil discourse when dealing with controversial issues.

As we all know, such examples are harder to find than we would like. Sadly, many Christian denominations have become well known for their lack of civil debate (e.g. The Episcopal Church), with internal wars and dissensions mirroring the styles of discourse we see in secular politics, local and national. The frustrating thing about this reality is that there are examples of civil discourse rooted in Christ’s call to love our neighbors as ourselves across our country, though they are seldom found at the denominational level.

In my own parish, there are both Democrats and Republicans, as well as all sorts of opinions and views about what the Church’s social teachings should be, and yet overall (every family has their spats) we maintain  respectful and even affectionate relationships with each other. I do not think my parish particularly unique in this regard; the challenge seems to be bringing this sort of friendly discourse rooted in Christ’s commandment to love one another to the denominational level.

There is an old hymn I learned at camp which goes, “They will know we are Christians by our love.” This first means, by our love for each other and then second, our love for those outside of the body of Christ. How can the American Church offer any prophetic critique of American society if we behave among ourselves no differently than the culture around us?

Reforming North American Christianity, part 2

Being quiet may hardly seem like a sure path to reformation, but I would dare to say that being quiet may be quite revolutionary for the future of North American Christianity (I know that it has been, can be, and will be for anyone who dares to try it out. Some, particularly gifted with the gab, will be shocked at the sudden serenity gifted to the world…). Of course, contemplation, in just about any sense, is about more than simply being quiet. In Dominican spirituality the seeker of God must embrace contemplation, silence, and prayerful reflection if she intends to take her faith seriously at all.

The idea that we can run about constantly from one activity to the other (whether from Bible study to the coffee shop, or laundry to Sunday worship) and remain anchored in the all-encompassing, always present, presence of God is illusionary. Yes, we can find God in these things, though I have to tell you, I have never found God while washing the dishes (though I did find a pretty neat looking spider once while drying), so forgive me for not mentioning a predictable reference.

If you would care to object here, I can simply point to Jesus. Whose own manner of life while on earth was marked with frequent periods of silence and contemplation, such as one occasion, as Saint Mark tells us, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (1:35).

Of course, we often seemed more concerned with what Jesus would do, rather than how Jesus would be. This in itself is a great obstacle to our spiritual lives and will remain a great obstacle to any reformation by the Church in North America. If we cannot learn to be, we will find it difficult to do, at least as Jesus would do. More insidious to the state of our churches and Christian institutions  is a sense that we are advancing the Gospel by doing the things we are currently doing, totally unaware that we are not being as Jesus would be.

Contemplation, in classical Christian literature, is beyond words, personal reflection or even meditation (though meditation is often misunderstood today). It is simply being in the tangible presence of the Triune God. This, in its higher expressions, is less about emotion (the Episcopalians cheer), and more like a man waking up in the middle of the night to realize that someone else is sitting quietly in his bedroom (Episcopalians freak out).   

Even the first step toward contemplation, active prayer, does not seem particularly relevant -- to most of us -- to the challenges facing our churches today. But if we won’t even pray seriously, how will we ever reach the depths of contemplation? If the guy won’t even talk to the girl at the bar, how will he ever get to know her? (Yes, Biblical reference intended, but perhaps for reasons that allude you…).

Without contemplation, any attempts at reforming North American Christianity strike me as rather dangerous.

Epiphany: Whose That?

Today is the last day of Christmastide, which means that the twelve day season of Christmas is almost over. This also means that tomorrow is the Feast of the Epiphany, the day when the church has historically celebrated the visit of the three wise men to the holy family (this happened not as we popularly imagine at Christmas, but 2-3 years afterwards).

The word epiphany means “an appearance or manifestation, especially of a divine being.” The feast of the Epiphany celebrates the appearance of the Son of God to the world. The visit of the three wise men foreshadowed the fact that Jesus’ life would be concerned not only with Israel (the Jews), but with all people (Gentiles).  Basil the Great, a Christian bishop in the fourth century, wrote this about the Epiphany, Stars cross the sky, wise men journey from pagan lands, earth receives its savior in a cave. Let there be no one without a gift to offer; no one without gratitude as we celebrate the salvation of the world, the birthday of the human race. Now it is no longer, “dust you are and to dust you shall return,” but you are joined to heaven and into heaven shall you be taken up.

Epiphany reminds us that like the wise men we can offer Christ gifts. Of course, Christ does not need our gifts, but we show our love for God by giving Christ the gift of our worship and the gift of our obedience. Ultimately, to be a Christian is to imitate Christ Himself, which means that we are to give of ourselves for the salvation of others, whether we are saving them from loneliness, from starvation, or from ignorance of Christ.

Reforming North American Christianity, part 1

Today, I am beginning a series of blog posts dedicated to exploring the notion of reforming or re-imaging Christianity in North America. Of course, the need for reform and the pursuit of reform are not new ideas to me or anyone who has been paying attention to the North American Church in the last two decades. Whether coined missional, emergent, or Fresh Expressions – the need for a new approach, in a post-modern age, to following Jesus, both individually, and collectively, as churches and denominations is an idea shared by many who love Christ (if you aren't convinced of the need for this read this article from Christianity today about 20/30 somethings increasingly leaving the church).

While this re-imaging process is also happening and also very much needed in the rest of the West. My own context and my own responsibility in God’s kingdom is largely centered in North America, hence why my comments will mostly be directed at Christians and institutions in the U.S. and Canada.

I join my voice to this symphony of suggestions (ok, often it doesn’t sound like a symphony but a blended version of Frank Sinatra, MC Hammer, Lady Gaga, and the Dixie Chicks, oh yeah and this guy I know named Randall), because as an Anglican Dominican I have promised to give my life to the work of proclaiming the Gospel. 

I’ll admit, I’ve been hesitant to speak up in such venues, but recently have been led to believe that this reluctance to speak up is a failure on my part to witness to Christ in general and more specifically, to fail in my vows as a priest and a Dominican. In some ways my failure has been the failure of a large majority of North America Christians and churches. We’ve noticed the shifts in our communities and our parishes, we’ve read up on it, but haven’t done a whole lot to reform ourselves or our respective corners of the Lord’s Vineyard.

So it begins…(look for my next post on contemplation soon)