Seeker sensitive, mega church, traditional, contemporary, relevant, post modern, attractional, missional, incarnational, house church, cell groups, small groups, church plant, multi-site, micro church, church growth, church health, simple church, church vision, church mission, church story…
New books are written, church leaders are burnt out, and the beat goes on.
Every week we get more calls from church leaders groping for direction and clarity. But where do we find it? The great poet T.S. Elliot once wrote:
“We shall not cease from exploratio
n. And the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started and to know the place for the first time.”
It seems that the Church may very well be arriving back to where we started. It was James who said these words 2,000 years ago:
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
That’s just what we’re seeing today with the renewed ministry focus on discipling and impacting our local communities. Exploration, discovery, and innovation are part of any healthy ministry, but I wonder if this past generation of spiritual exploration is simply bringing us back to knowing for the first time what James knew all along.
What do you think?
Not exactly on topic, but I always appreciate when I can find something that’s been addressed in the past(the older the better ideally). Richard Feynman in one of his books was talking about coming up with a conundrum for a couple Jewish men he worked with, thought he was being very clever, after he told the conundrum to his friends, they quickly replied that this had been handled by a Rabbi a thousand years before. In my own life I’ve recently found that writings by St. Augustine that settled an issue I was having.
I think it is the last part of that verse that causes many divisions inside the church specifically “and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world”. Everyone has an opinion on that, I grew up in an area with a large population of Amish families, to them individual automobiles, personal telephones… were causes of pollution. On the other end of the spectrum it is hard to get elected if you don’t at least feign a religious belief (generally Christianity) but it would seem that the need to get a majority of the electorate to agree with you would then dictate that you had to be of the world, thus putting the individual in contradiction.
Coming from a computer background, I think returning to its roots is good thing. In fact I think Christianity has maybe over complicated itself. The verse
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
is rather elegant, it is simple and yet covers most everything.
Of course, that still doesn’t help with determining what constitutes pollution
TS Eliot’s quotation sounds like the beginning of Chesterton’s journey to orthodoxy.
“I have often had a fancy for writing a romance about an English yachtsman who slightly miscalculated his course and discovered England under the impression that it was a new island in the South Seas. I always find, however, that I am either too busy or too lazy to write this fine work, so I may as well give it away for the purposes of philosophical illustration. There will probably be a general impression that the man who landed (armed to the teeth and talking by signs) to plant the British flag on that barbaric temple which turned out to be the Pavilion at Brighton, felt rather a fool. I am not here concerned to deny that he looked a fool. But if you imagine that he felt a fool, or at any rate that the sense of folly was his sole or his dominant emotion, then you have not studied with sufficient delicacy the rich romantic nature of the hero of this tale. His mistake was really a most enviable mistake; and he knew it, if he was the man I take him for. What could be more delightful than to have in the same few minutes all the fascinating terrors of going abroad combined with all the humane security of coming home again? What could be better than to have all the fun of discovering South Africa without the disgusting necessity of landing there? What could be more glorious than to brace one’s self up to discover New South Wales and then realize, with a gush of happy tears, that it was really old South Wales. This at least seems to me the main problem for philosophers, and is in a manner the main problem of this book. How can we contrive to be at once astonished at the world and yet at home in it? How can this queer cosmic town, with its many-legged citizens, with its monstrous and ancient lamps, how can this world give us at once the fascination of a strange town and the comfort and honour of being our own town?”
RB,
Great thoughts…
I’ve always found it interesting that the Bible contains most of the human miladies yet was written 2000-6000 years ago.
There really isn’t anything new under the sun yet we think our day, our current culture is always the most evil. You know, the good old days thinking. It fascinates me how ego centric we all really are.
Most times divisions do come down to definitions of things like pollution and many times that is significantly influenced by our temperament and experiences. Its so very relative to how we’re wired and what we need for simple things like safety and affection.
And yes, James does get it down in simple terms. Things like helping the helpless and managing our jealousy and pride.
Great insight.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing
Nick,
Hummm….you have an interesting mind for sure.
The book wild at heart suggests we all need a battle to fight and an adventure to live. We all need a compelling purpose or life becomes worthless…purposeless…and we emotionally shrivel up and die.
Could this need for purpose be what drives us to explore and push ourselves to find something new. Yet there is little that is truly new so we imagine and manufacture adventure and that new thing. But in the end its the old but we see it different, we see it knew.
Interesting…
Ed
Luke 4:43 Jesus tells us why he was sent here and what His purpose is, to preach the Kingdom of God.
Luke 9:2 and 9:60 Jesus tells His disciples what He wants and expects them to do…. preach the Kingdom of God.
Church leaders, thinkers, and philosophers concentrate so much of there time on the methods of reaching peolple until they miss the simple instruction and example that Jesus put out there.
When I say simple that does not mean it’s easy or not adventuress.
It’s not easy getting christians to realize that they are in this world yet not of it, that they switched kingdoms when they made Jesus their Lord, that they don’t have to depend on or be “polluted” by what’s going on around them…they have a different kingdom (system) that they can depend on for what they need.
That’s hard work and a adventure worth exploring.
The calls that you get from church leaders groping for direction and clarity are because they are trying so hard not to be wrong in the methods instead of simply following the instruction.
Sometimes we get too much information, and not enough revelation.
Just yesterday I was hit with a memory of the tiny little sunday school room that I went to as a child and remembered that it was up a little narrow staircase into a balcony area that seemed very mysterious and snug to a little person’s mind. I would wish that sweet secure feeling for any child over a huge mega church classroom where everyone has a name tag with their digital picture printed on it. I remember the light coming through a little window…little wood desks…attendance chart…but most importantly I remember a small little group of kids, not perfect kids, not perfect teachers, but a small little group that I knew cared about me. I also remember mom being home with me…not a perfect day every day, but she was there.
Now that I have kiddos, I have been thinking of what I want for them. I’ve come full circle to realize that the most important thing in the world for them is not exposure to everything new, novel and expensive…but what healthy kids of the passed had, which was people who loved them deeply around them as much as possible. It’s such a basic idea…totally not new. But coming back to that is what needs to happen in church and families. We all need to look into an honest face that loves us.
An
So can maybe gramps was right, “more and bigger” does not equal “better”?
An,
What a powerful thought….”We all need to look into an honest face that loves us.”
We just need to sit quietly with that one for a while.
Ed
Deeptime,
It seems like you and An are hitting on the same theme. Yes, character in our youth seems to be built through people who love them deeply around them as much as possibly.
But what do we do with all those dysfunctional families that aren’t healthy enough to provide that? That’s the challenge many of these city churches are trying to solve.
Ed
You ask a very good question and you don’t have to go to the “city” to find it. Several friends/relatives have worked with the local (decidedly rural)school systems for years. In talking with them, after translating all the current front-burner, politically correct babble, into KJV adjectives and verbs, I can see the issue is widespread beyond the “cities”.. Still, as I think you would agree, “things are as they are”, and your point,”what do we do with all those dysfunctional families that aren’t healthy enough to provide?”…still demands and answer…from us.
It is the brokenhearted who are at times most ready to accept God’s love without shame or pride. If they didn’t get the love they needed as a child…they know it. We all missed out on something, we are all broken. It seems like the hurting have a head start when it comes to admitting it while the rest of us pretend we are ok for far too long. Could it be possible that:
“The Way” is narrow not because God makes it so, but because the proud never see the small gate and the hurting think the gate is for everyone else but them?
An
Deeptime,
Once churches learn to attract a stable following this community need issue rapidly surfaces. And, the fact the US government is broke, for all practical purposes, is shifting the responsibility back to the community as well. To meet the needs will require a far deeper commitment than the church seems to have been willing to give.
However, there does appear to be a shift to a more “other focused” ministry effort. It will require more from us than our 2 hours a week and 2-3% tithe.
It is changing for sure…
Ed
An,
Now there’s a thought that requires some real meditation:
“The Way” is narrow not because God makes it so, but because the proud never see the small gate and the hurting think the gate is for everyone else but them?
Sobering…
Ed
As I get older, I realize it really is a “touching-one-soul-at-a time”, thingy. For myself it was when I realized deep relationships touch more souls than deep sermons, that forced me into a commit/don’t commit corner… I seriously think very few folks are really willing to invest the necessary time/effort/emotions to touch souls in a life changing way. I realize that is painting with a broad brush, which is a little unfair, but it does make the point. Our society is geared for narcisstic, self-focus. It permeates just about everything to some degree…including our theology. Discipling is time consuming, but until we get depth, we are nothing more than 10 million beach-front trailer-homes, waiting for the the next hurricane.
Deeptime,
“Beach-front trailer homes waiting for the next hurricane”…now that is a visual.
But your assessment aligns with many experienced pastors these days. They see the lack of impact and realize we must go deeper relationally. The seeker sensitive approach by itself doesn’t get you there. And that requires a far bigger commitment. Without it Christianity has no real hope of remaining a dominate influence in culture and people’s lives.
Because discipling takes so much work we often hesitate to ask them to come to church in the first place.
So…where do we start to make a difference?
Ed
So…where do we start to make a difference?
(TOL)
That’s the $64K question, I wish I had the answer. Middle-age/Younger folks seem hungery, sensing the deficit in their lives, yet it seem they are reluctant to go very much beyond the emotionally appealing “eye/ear candy” gospel presentations. I’m not picking on the younger folks, every age group has its “generational disease”, and inability to sustain focus seems to be theirs. Again, I swinging a broad brush and can personally think of several young-folk, who do not match this discription.
I think it starts with you and I….tomorrow.
The answer isn’t out there.
And our young people, as we all must, will need to come to grips with the weight of their words.
Ed