Missing in Sunday School August 26, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Bible, Christianity, Church, Spirituality.Tags: Sunday School
1 comment so far
This morning I taught my Sunday School class like I do almost every week of the year. It’s a wonderful group of people, and I’ve had the privilege to teach the class for more than six years. The average age of the class is probably a little older than me, about 58-60 probably — men and women.
Usually we have about 30 people in our class but sometimes we reach as high as 40 or more. Earlier this year, the church finally moved us into a larger room that was more fitting to our size, and the attendance promptly decreased. We had about 20 this morning, only 12 last week. Some would say it’s just a summer slump, but I wonder.
I know I shouldn’t care how many people I teach, but I do. It’s not, however, just the numbers that bother me. I get the sneaking suspicion that nothing that Scripture is saying is making a difference — that all of us middle-agers are already pretty set in our ways — and even when we learn something new, it doesn’t matter in how we live.
As in most things spiritual, I do not have a firm and easy answer. I will continue on for now, but I do not want to just say that’s the way it is, get used to it. I don’t want to get used to low living; I want to pursue high living, and I don’t mean what the Miller High Life commercials put forth.
The challenge of studying Jesus April 7, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Bible, Christianity, Church, Emerging church, Jesus, Scripture, Truth.1 comment so far
Since our understanding of the time of Jesus is growing, then we need to keep an open mind in our interpreting of Scripture. Some of our long-held assumptions may be incorrect. Some things we have thought of as literal may need to be seen as metaphorical.
That’s my paraphrase of a section from the first chapter of N.T. Wright’s The Challenge of Jesus (p. 17). He, of course, would not want to take credit for those exact words and might even question the accuracy of them; but it’s what I think he’s saying. The first chapter is titled “The Challenge of Studying Jesus.” I would like to unpack its meaning a little.
Another paraphrase:
Post-Reformation theology created a new set of dogmas that have been sustained as institutionalized beliefs, and these have created people with interests at stake in maintaining these dogmas. (p. 20)
I’m involved in this exercise of paraphrasing because I believe Wright has a great deal to say to believers today. I put parts of his book into my words in order to try to better internalize it.
Paraphrase again:
When the church stops trying to understand, it begins to slip into idolatry and idealogy. (p. 21)
Why does the church stop trying to understand? Fear, I think; at least that has impacted me. I have, at times, been afraid that my faith would be shaken, that the theological ground would fall out from under me if I explored too much outside the safe havens of my faith group. By the grace of God, I have been able to overcome those fears and explore. My fears have never been realized. Whenever I read outside of my own Christian tradition or outside of Christianity, I find my faith strengthened. Of course, the content of my faith or my theology has changed, but I feel more firmly rooted in the truth. Despite this experience of growth, there is still fear at times.
Another paraphrase:
The Enlightenment created a divide between faith and reason. This is an unnatural divide but it has shaped much of the discussion for 200 years. (p. 21)
I have been aware of this divide but have always thought it unhelpful, probably because I have been a person who valued both faith and reason and the interplay of the two. Apparently, I should be thankful, and I am.
Three more paraphrases:
There are many misunderstandings of Scripture that have been enshrined as church tradition. (p. 27)
And he’s not just talking about Catholic Church traditions. We Protestants have ours, as well.
It takes courage to read the Bible in new ways. (p. 28)
The community of Christ is called to tell the story of Jesus and model it. (p. 32)
Now a quote:
“Do not be afraid of the Quest. It may be part of the means whereby the church in our own day will be granted a new vision, not just of Jesus, but of God.” (p. 32)
Looking at a Jesus-centered future March 15, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Christianity, Church, Jesus, Religion, Truth.2 comments
If we think about a future-church possibility, what might it look like? If we can learn anything from the temple-to-church transition then we can surmise that the church-to-future church transition will involve a carrying over of the truths of the church into a broader understanding of God’s means of shining His light into reality.
Jesus said He didn’t come to do away with the law; He simply gave us a new way of understanding what God was doing through the law. If a new transition were to take place, God might say to us that He is not doing away with the Old and New Testaments; rather, He is giving us a new of understanding what He was doing through those revelations.
And if He does that, what will he say about other religions. I suspect He might say that He’s been revealing truth to mankind in many different ways through the centuries and that some of that truth is expressed in other religions. He might also help us to see that other faiths are linked to specific cultures. Just as some parts of Gentile, pagan culture was absorbed into Yahweh workship, what if some parts of Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic culture were absorbed into Yahweh worship today?
Brian McLaren comes at this differently, but makes a good point.
“… [I]t should be possible to be a Christian and yet be culturally Buddhist, Muslim, or Navajo,” says McLaren’s Neo character in A New Kind of Christian. “We have to realize that Buddhism is more than a religion, more than a culte. It is also a culture. So I can’t see why Jesus couldn’t invade Buddhist culture, just as he invaded Jewish and Greco-Roman culture in the first millennium and European cultures in the second. … That to me is the missionary challenge of the third millennium: not eradicating Buddhist or Islamic or tribal cultures but blessing them with Christ–letting Christ enter them and drive the evil from them. … And my guess is that each will bring something that will enrich our Christian heritage, too.” (p. 75)
Of course, Jesus is driving some of the evil from Christianity, as well.
However the future shapes up, with Jesus at the center it will be good.
Something is right March 14, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Christianity, Church, Jesus.3 comments
The other day I wrote about the shortcomings of the church writ large. Today I’m writing about the greatness of the church in the local sense.
I’m the member of a great church — not a perfect one, but a great one. There are self-centered people, there are petty disagreements, there is too much money spent on buildings; but it’s still a great church for two primary reasons — there are some wonderful, loving people in it and the church is commited to reaching out with love to meet the needs of hurting world.
We have a 40-something pastor, very intelligent and highly educated (has a real Ph.D. but doesn’t “doctor” himself or expect others to do so), energetic, creative, open to new ideas, patient with the older members, with a passion for missions all over the world. He is not slick handsome, so he doesn’t fit the megachurch plastic pastor mode. He’s also not great at pastoral care, but a guy can’t be perfect. Quite simply, he’s challenging and fun to be around. He has been our pastor for 10 years. It was a good church before he came, but it’s a great church now. He has patiently followed his heart’s desire to reach people and give some others time to make adjustments.
His leadership is so good that the greatness of the church is not centered around him. It’s centered around Christ and loving people.
So while I wonder about the future of “the church” on the large stage, I do not wonder about the future of this type of church. There will always be a place in this world for exalting Christ and loving people.
Those of you who do not have such a local church, I offer a blanket prayer — that you will join God in creating one.
Something’s not right March 12, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Christianity, Church, Faith, Jesus, Religion, Spirituality, Truth.4 comments
My friend at the a-muse-ing blog has again gotten me to thinking. She responded with the following to some of us writing on a previous post:
“Thanks to all of you. I needed to hear this today. I grow and learn from my online community, but how I wish I had people like you to spend time with in person. I have become so weary of people adding so much of their crap to this beautiful message of love that Christ has given us, that I have no desire to go to church anymore. I love Jesus, but have become hurt too often from christians.”
I wonder if God is as fed up with the church as is my friend.
N.T. Wright says the following about Jesus and the kingdom of God:
Jesus “was announcing the kingdom of God for which Israel had longed, but it was an announcment that warned of immient judgment rather than imminent rescue.” (The Challenge of Jesus, p. 67)
The people of God in Jesus’ time were waiting for the Messiah to deliver and exalt them, but they rejected Him because they didn’t recognize Him and thus sealed their own doom. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans about 30 years after Christ’s death.
Christians today are waiting for the return of Christ and His deliverance from this perverse age. I wonder if Christians, who see themselves as the “people of God” today, are failing to recognize God at work in their midst and are thus doomed to have their “church” destroyed.
Make no mistakes, the real church, the people of God, will survive and thrive; but the outward edifices of inner faith seem prone to at first help the people, then distract the people, and then stand in need of distruction by the God of the people.
If God decides to destroy the outward “church” — not buildings necessarily but the organized facade — then He will do it, I think, in order to release His real people, His real followers to something new and better, just as Jesus did 2,000 years ago.
Jesus “believed that the time had come for God’s kingdom to dawn and that with it a new agenda had emerged diametrically opposed to the agenda that had taken over the symbols of national identity and was hiding all manner of injustices behind them. Jesus … declared solemnly in deed and word that the divine judgment was now inevitable.” (Wright, The Challenge of Jesus, p. 67)
If God shifted gears at least once in history (from temple to church) might He be desiring to shift gears again (from church to what)?
