No Name Christians?

Tomorrow (according to the Episcopal calendar) is the feast day of Saint Matthias the Apostle. You will recall, that Judas Iscariot, in addition to betraying Jesus, also committed  suicide, leaving eleven apostles in charge of the early Church.  

After Jesus’ death and resurrection the first Christians thought it necessary for there to be twelve apostles. From among those who had been with Jesus during His earthly ministry they presented two candidates for apostleship: Joseph, called Barsabbas, and Matthias. They cast lots (perhaps a better system for election to high office in the Church than we presently have) and the lot fell to Matthias.

Matthias is only mentioned by name in Acts chapter 1. The rest of his life and his apostolic ministry are never referenced again in the New Testament. Yet, the Church acknowledges Matthias as a saint. His faithful, unsung, largely unrecorded life was recognized as being of great value to Christ and His Church.  This is good news for the vast majority of us as Christians, whose lives of service and commitment to Christ will never be recorded, written about, or made into a major motion picture.  

Our aspiration must be to serve Christ faithfully over the years of our lives, whether many or few, hoping not for earthly fame, but merely that our names will be listed among those welcome in heaven. 

Do we Stand for Anything?

This Friday the Episcopal calendar features the feast day of Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer from sixteenth century Germany. Luther, when brought to trial for heresy and ask to recant (take back) his teachings, is reported to have concluded his defense with these words, “Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me. Amen.”  In the sixteenth century such rhetorical heroism could result in censure, imprisonment, or even death. Luther is certainly not the only example of a Christian who believed strongly enough in something that he was willing to take a stand for his faith, even if his stand was unpopular with some. This makes me ponder. What about my faith would I be willing to go on trial for? What about your faith would you be willing to go on trial for?

Going on trial is a rather exceptional sort of instance (for North American Christians anyway), so perhaps a softer question is in order, “are we willing to place our two metaphysical feet on the ground for anything related to our faith?”  My experience is that church people are often willing to take stands on issues like the color of the carpet, the personality of the pastor, and whether or not a beloved tradition will be continued. I’m not saying that these things aren’t important or don’t merit some attention (in some cases minimal attention albeit), but what about doctrine, belief, our creeds, the existence of God, will we stand for any of these?  

Or, are we simply content to allow others to stand for us? Maybe the reality is more tragic, namely, that we are so lukewarm in our faith that nothing about Christianity could move us to our feet except the closing hymn of the service?

Where would you stand? 

Reforming North American Christianity, part 7

Well, this is my last post in this series on “Reforming North American Christianity.” This series has prompted some interested conversations, both on the blog, and off the blog. The sociological landscape of North America has shifted, and I believe this requires we make some adjustments to our Christian way of life. I’ve talked about the need for more quiet, more silence, a greater comfort level with being different, and most recently, to thinking of ourselves as missionaries in a post-Christian society.

In particular, I believe a renewed emphasis on lay spirituality will be required if any sort of reformation is to take place. No doubt ordained members of the Body of Christ have been used by God in important ways over the centuries, but at the heart of the Christian faith is the ordinary man or woman of God. Across Christian denominations there are different perspectives on the roles of clergy and laity (and whether in fact there should be such distinctions at all), but surprisingly, in the last sixty years there has been a remarkable agreement by most of the major Christian traditions that the laity are the primary ministers of the Church.

I love the priesthood and being a priest, so I am not calling for an abolishment of the clergy or seeking to invite clergy bashing here. Yet, if reformation is to happen, we must return the focus of the Christian faith from the majesty of the sanctuary to the lowliness of the sidewalk – to the addresses of our daily lives. This means we must not view worship as an isolated event from the rest of our week, but instead, view worship as a launching pad for our week and for our lives. In some liturgical churches the final hymn of the service is called a processional (yes, just like the first hymn, no typo here), meaning that as the worship “service” ends, the real work of serving God begins as we process out into our everyday lives with their challenges, joys, chaotic interludes, and predictable routines.

Besides all this, a reformation of the laity will require:

1.      An acknowledgment that every Christian is called to be a theologian, meaning that every Christian is called to understand their faith and do some serious thinking about it.  

2.      A stronger equipping role by local congregations, helping lay people think through, often at sophisticated levels, what it means to be a Christian in the world. What is particularly needed here is helping Christians sort out what it specifically means to be Christian in a particular vocation or season of life.

3.      Regular dialogue between those serving within the gathered church and the vast majority of Christians (the scattered church) living for Christ out in the world (at home, school, work, in the midst of family life, friendships, etc.).

What am I missing here?

Post-Modern, Post-Christian, huh?

There is a lot of talk by theologians, concerned lay and ordained leaders, as well as sociologists about the changes our society is experiencing and what these changes mean for Christianity. Yet, the average Christian is usually unable to name these trends, though most of us are able to tell things are not what they once use to be as far as the Church and society are concerned. Sociologists are telling us that we are living in a society that is making the following transitions (among others):

From Modernism to Post-Modernism

Modernism was a way of thinking about the world that was rooted in science, logic, and a relatively stable Western world. Modernism is still a powerful force across the planet and many people (particularly Baby Boomers and older generations) tend to view things from a modernistic perspective. Modernism holds that there are in fact real answers to the questions we might ask about life and these answers our found through science, logic and for many moderns, religion.

Post-modernism denies that there are any real answers to any questions (though all questions are real and meaningful). This is because no one has the ability to be truly objective and thus any answer is subjective and thus flawed from the get-go. Post-modern folks are very skeptical about religious truth claims and tend to believe that spiritual and religious truth is purely subjective, a matter of personal opinion (this is a pretty loose summary of modernism and post-modernism.

From a Christian Society to a Post-Christian Society

There was a time in the United States (as recent as fifty years ago, depending on where you were living) where Christianity and American society were mutually supportive of one another. To be a good citizen meant you were also a good Christian. During this time American Christianity tended to serve as a “chaplain” to society supporting its leaders, serving as its conscience, and encouraging its social values and practices. Pastors were often the most respected members of their communities and the Church had a very public role to play across the spectrum: political, social, familial, educational, religious, etc.

This period of time is quickly coming to an end (and already has in many parts of the country). Increasingly, expressions of Christian faith and practice are being forbidden from public venues and limited to the realm of private belief. Also, you no longer need to attend church or believe in the Christian faith to receive education, health-care, or adequate social standing in society. Research (click here) shows that the younger generations (Generation X and Y) are indeed very spiritual, but they don’t tend to view the Church as being a spiritual place, instead they view it as an institution that is outdated and out of touch with reality (whatever they may be.. of course). The result of all this, is that increasingly, North American Christians are becoming, and will become (like European Christians are finding themselves) more and more marginalized and more and more a minority.

This actually could, in God’s providence, be a good thing. I say that because this transition in our society is forcing Christians to think about what does it really mean to be a follower of Jesus, and what are our distinctive values, and what does it mean to live as a minority people surrounded by others who do not necessarily share our beliefs? It is also forcing congregations to re-think how they organize themselves and what their real purposes are. I am hopeful that in the midst of these societal transitions God will lead us back to Christian basics and back to discipleship – the result being a strengthened and more faithful North American Church.

Reforming North American Christianity, part 6

It’s time to get out. I mean out of our churches and out into our communities. It’s time to get out of the holy-huddle business and time to get into the holy-giving away business. It’s time we moved the bulls-eyes of the Christian life from the Sunday morning service to our service of Christ in the faces of the people we interact with each day. If Christianity is going to be reformed and revived in North America we must start living and thinking like missionaries and stop thinking and living like museum curators and docents. For those of us raised in the Church this will be, in most cases, an extremely painful transition. We will have to be willing to part with many customs and activities that we have come to treasure in order to embrace new ways of being the Church (for example, see the Fresh Expressions movement).

Would we rather preserve the furniture on the deck of the Titanic or let the furniture be washed away and preserve the ship itself? At a recent gathering of faithful folk I vocalized my belief that many of us in the Church today must be willing to labor and break-ground for a revived Church that we will not live to see fully blossom, but will blossom never-the-less for our children’s or perhaps grandchildren’s generations.  But how do we do it? How do we begin turning staid, conservative (sociologically) congregations into mission outposts for the Kingdom of God? Into churches that are not so much places where people go once a week, but places where people are continually coming and going on Gospel business? (see the Abbey model for an interesting proposal in this direction).

Here are some first steps I think we as individuals and congregations can begin with:

1.      Ask ourselves and our sessions/deacons/Vestries/parish councils, etc. “Would our community miss us if we closed tomorrow? Why or Why not?”

2.      Stop hosting all of the churches meeting at the church building. Meet in a local café, park, bar (gasp!), coffee shop, etc. Get out of the Christian ghetto!

3.      Stop pretending we live in a Christian nation. Embrace the fact we live in a post-Christian nation and learn to live like a missionary.

4.      If your building is killing your congregation, get rid of it.

5.      Stop treating Sunday worship as the pinnacle of Christian life and practice. Doing this is like saying that the pinnacle of family life is sitting down to eat a big meal together once a week. Surely such sit-downs are important to a family, but they are not the sole arbiter of a family’s health or bonds of affection, are they? (if family members are not showing up at the big sit-down dinner does this mean something is wrong with the meal or something else? Hmmm…)

6.      Don’t bother with a mission statement or a long winded planning process. Instead read Matthew 5-7 and obey. Hard medicine, I know.

7.      Laugh together, have a good time, throw a party (invite your neighbors).

 Some starters, what would you suggest?

Super Bowl Controversies

In our controversy oriented culture the Super Bowl has become yet another forum for talking heads and pundits to argue about, particularly as it relates to the event’s commercials and half-time shows. While these latter accoutrements to the game no doubt raise issues of political and familial significance, is it really necessary to create a crisis around each poor choice of taste or each clever manifestation of social commentary? I understand that our media succeeds (read: ratings and dollars) by serving up a fire hose of continual alarms and latest greatest news stories to grab our attention.  

Yet, is it necessary to make every public event a hotbed of controversy? Is this healthy for our children, for ourselves, for the future of our society? Whatever happened to friendly disagreements, where we might heartily disagree, but end by shaking hands and not fists? Or how about the old fashion kind of rivalries that are innocent fun, where gentle teasing and witticisms are signs of friendship and affection and not thinly veiled assaults on persons we despise?

Is a commercial worth foaming about? Is poor taste in entertainment justification to rage without a hint of Christian charity?  Is a game, however important, just cause to hold grudges and weaken friendships?  

(Disclaimer: Yes, I realize that each of us has at least one person in our network of family and friends who takes the Super Bowl just as seriously as the return of Christ. Though they may be surprised to discover that Jesus is a Saints fan, and is therefore not really interested in whether the Packers or Steelers win)

As Christians, we are of course, called to speak out in love (repeat: in love…) for our beliefs and this sometimes requires entering into controversies, but our main calling, when it comes to all the huffs and puffs of society, was perhaps best put by the Apostle Paul when he said, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders” (1 Thessalonians 4:11).  If we participate in the superficial and serious controversies of our society just like everyone else, why should outsiders to the Christian faith bother listening to our supposed Good News?