Christ’s Identity and Purpose – A Declarative Prayer

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Christ’s Identity and Purpose

 

Lord, I affirm and accept my status as a new creation in Christ and I thank you for making me a joint heir with your Son, Jesus Christ. I proclaim and also affirm that I am among the chosen, the fortunate ones you have selected as your holy and beloved.

Father, I thank you for piercing the darkness and searching for me and I especially thank you for your patient endurance in pursuing me, especially when I was fleeing and hiding from your Light.

I am eternally grateful my Father that you were steadfast in your love for me and that you found me, embraced me, and carried me out of this dark kingdom. I awakened in the brilliance of the One True Light which fills your glorious kingdom – indeed Lord, the New Canaan, the realm of your sinless Son who you loved even before the world began.

Dear Lord, I know in my mind and in my heart, and I affirm with my tongue and lips that you are the perfect, visible image of the invisible God and that when I look upon you, I behold the fullness and totality of God. I realize and affirm that to know you Lord Jesus, is to know the Almighty, the one true Creator – He who was, is, and is to come.

Lord Jesus Christ, you are the firstborn of the entire cosmos, the first person to appear in creation and that you are preeminent in all of it. All things visible and invisible were created by you, through you, and for you. You are the Originator and the Goal – the Creator as well as the Consummator – the Alpha and the Omega – the beginning and the end.

Lord Jesus Christ, you existed before time began as the eternal Son and you were before all things. The entire universe is held together in you and you are the cohesive force – the gravitational power that holds all created elements, seen and unseen, together. Without you, the entire universe would disintegrate.

It is you Dear Lord, the One True Light – Adonai – that gives meaning to all creation and all of life. Without you, there is no purpose, either universal or personal, for it is you Lord Jesus, that rose higher than the highest heaven, filling all things with your presence and your purpose. You are indeed the Way, the Truth, and the Light –

I thank you for adopting me into your Family of Light and I commit my life and my ways to you, your care, and your blessed Kingdom.

In the Holy Name of Jesus I pray,

Amen.

 

Proactive Compassion and Authentic Christianity (Part Two)

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L.D. Turner

(continued from Part One)

Our nation has evolved a Christian faith that is a far cry from the one Christ intended. Blended with our culture’s worship of individualism, materialism, and personal freedoms, the Christianity that developed in America was, and remains, more American than Christian. The fact is, and few of us want to face this reality, our minds and hearts remain too small for Christ’s gospel. The following words by Houston Smith, renowned scholar of comparative religion, ring far too true:

…we have heard Jesus’ teachings so often that their edges have been worn smooth, dulling their glaring subversiveness. If we could recover their original impact, we too would be startled. Their beauty would not paper over the fact that they are “hard sayings,” presenting a scheme of values so counter to the usual as to shake us like the seismic collision of tectonic plates…We are told that we are not to resist evil but to turn the other cheek. The world assumes that evil must be resisted by every means available. We are told to love our enemies and bless those who curse us. The world assumes that friends are to be loved and enemies hated. We are told that the sun rises on the just and the unjust alike. The world considers this to be indiscriminating; it would like to see dark clouds withholding sunshine from evil people. We are told that outcasts and harlots enter the kingdom of God before many who are perfunctorily righteous. Unfair, we protest; respectable people should head the procession. We are told that the gate to salvation is narrow. The world would prefer it to be wide. We are told to be as carefree as birds and flowers. The world counsels prudence. We are told that it is more difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom than for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye. The world honors wealth. We are told that the happy people are those who are meek, who weep, who are merciful and pure in heart. The world assumes that it is the rich, the powerful, and the wellborn who should be happy. In all, a wind of freedom blows through these teachings that frightens the world and makes us want to deflect their effect by postponement – not yet, not yet! H.G. Wells was evidently right: either there was something mad about this man, or our hearts are still too small for his message.

For those of us steeped in Western culture and raised within the walls of the church, it is hard to fully grasp the true revolutionary, radical nature of Jesus’ teachings. Yet when compared to the general religious worldview of his day, as well as the practices that went along with that worldview, the Master’s approach to the spiritual life was a complete anachronism.

We get the first hint of this on the occasion of Jesus’ first public miracle – the turning of water to wine at the wedding feast in Cana. The magnificence of the miracle itself, the changing of water into wine, often overshadows a more subtle, symbolic aspect to the events of that day. The water Jesus changed into wine was not just any water – and the vessels holding the water were no common containers. Instead, Jesus told the servants to fill six stone jars to the very top with water. These stone jars were the ones used for people to wash themselves in compliance with the dictates of their religion. By this act, Jesus used his first public miracle to deliver a symbolic yet very real message.

Rather than ritualistic cleansing, rules, and regulations, through Jesus God was bringing something totally new into life on this planet, something much more intimate and celebratory. Through Jesus, God was indeed bringing joy, good news to the people. As the Master said when he quoted the prophet Isaiah, he had come “to set the captives free.” And the irony of all ironies is that his people were not enslaved by the Egyptians as in the time of Moses. No, and the enemy was not just the Romans, either. Instead, I am convinced that Jesus saw his mission as intricately tied up with subverting the existing religious order, which had turned what was intended as a vital, dynamic, and intimate relationship with God into a burdensome shackle of trivial religious laws. Bruxy Cavey, in his excellent work entitled, The End of Religion, describes the subversive, radical nature of the Master’s mission:

I was faced with an unexpected but undeniable fact: Through his first miracle, Jesus intentionally desecrates a religious icon. He purposely chooses these sacred jars to challenge the religious system by converting them from icons of personal purification into symbols of relational celebration. Jesus takes us from holy water to wedding wine. From legalism to life. From religion to relationship……Jesus seems to be saying that his message of love – a radically accepting love – is too great to be contained by the old ways of religious tradition. His new wine demands new wineskins (see Matt. 9:17).

As Cavey later points out, and as any astute reader of the four gospels will soon discover, Jesus did not come as the meek and mild savior with a flower in one hand and a white dove in the other. No my friends, Jesus made it quite clear from the outset that he came to shake things up. If you have any doubts about this, go back and carefully read through the gospels. Pay particular attention to the Master’s words in Matthew during the Sermon on the Mount. See how often he prefaces his teaching by saying, “You have heard it said, but I say to you.” Jesus challenges the old teaching and then replaces it with a new one.

Jonathan and Jennifer Campbell, in their remarkable, insightful book entitled, The Way of Jesus, make the timely observation that:

God is bringing forth new wineskins for a fresh outpouring of wine, and it does not look like anything we’ve ever seen. So we must focus on Jesus and the wine he is pouring out, and not on the wineskin. Remember, the purpose of the wineskin is to furnish the appropriate environment for the juice of the choice grapes to ferment and season at just the right time. We should be open and flexible, like new wineskins, in order to have Jesus fill our hearts and communities. This new wineskin must be very simple and able to expand and grow with the new wine.

Renewal is not enough. We all need to go through a conversion something like what the apostle Peter experienced in Acts 10 and 11. Peter’s conversion from an ethnocentric Jew to an advocate for Gentile missions was one of the most significant paradigm shifts in the history of the church. Likewise today, the church must repent of any cultural tradition that hinders the movement of the gospel across cultures. The current spiritual-cultural crisis calls for nothing less than complete repentance, what the Greeks called metatonia, a transformation of the mind, a change of heart, and a new way of living. Just as Gentiles received salvation free of Jewish tradition, so all people have the right to follow Jesus without having to become Western or institutionalized…………Jesus calls his followers to undergo a systemic shift that goes to the root of our identity – one that questions all the assumptions of the Christendom model. What we really need are people living the life of Jesus in community, drinking the new wine of the Spirit and living as fresh wineskins in the world.

From all that has gone before in this article, it should be apparent that as followers of Christ we have a divine calling that is both real and urgent. Our world is wounded and hurting and there is a strong need for grace and healing. Yet if any degree of healing is to take place, we Christ-followers must deeply understand that it has to begin within our own walls. It is imperative first of all that the Body of Christ become more unified in both theology and purpose. Yes, there is indeed a place of diversity, but diversity must never devolve into divisiveness. As Christians, we have to get our minds and especially our hearts around the concept that no matter what our differences might be, we have a divine calling to give flesh to grace and that his calling, given by the Master himself, transcends any sectarian differences that may exist.

Listen to Richard Stearns again as he speaks to the missing link in our gospel understanding as well as points us in the right direction.

I believe that we have reduced the gospel from a dynamic and beautiful symphony of God’s love for and in the world to a bare and strident monotone. We have taken this amazing good news from God, originally presented in high definition and Dolby stereo, and reduced it to a grainy, black-and-white, silent movie. In doing so, we have also stripped it of much of its power to change not only the human heart but the world. This is especially reflected in our limited view of evangelism. Jesus commanded His followers to take the good news of reconciliation and forgiveness to the ends of the earth. The dictate is the same today.

Christianity is a faith that was meant to spread – but not through coercion. God’s love was intended to be demonstrated, not dictated. Our job is not to manipulate or induce others to agree with us or to leave their religion and embrace Christianity. Our change is to both proclaim and embody the gospel so that others can see, hear, and feel God’s love in tangible ways. When we are living out our faith with integrity and compassion in the world, God can use us to give others a glimpse of His love and character. It is God – not us – who works in the hearts of men and women to forgive and redeem. Coercion is not necessary or even particularly helpful. God is responsible for the harvest – but we must plant, water, and cultivate the seeds.

Just as Christ knelt before his disciples and washed their filthy feet on the night before he died, we are to do the same. No, this does not necessarily mean that we have to wash each other’s feet. What it does mean is that we must be sensitive enough to discern where need exists and willing to go forth in faith and love to address that need. This requires each of us to transcend our own tendencies toward self-absorption and personal preoccupation. We must, with the power of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts, become “other-focused” and willing to get down and get dirty if need be. Christ embraced the lepers of his time and in our own day and age, we are to do no less.

I am of the firm belief that if we who follow the Master consistently exhibit this kind of servant evangelism, we can do much good in this world. And while we are at it, we might make great strides toward healing the title “Christian” as well.

© L.D. Turner 2011/All Rights Reserved

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Proactive Compassion and Authentic Christianity (Part One)

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L.D. Turner

When we take an honest, unbiased look at the life of Jesus as presented in the four Gospels of the New Testament, we are left with the undeniable impression that his primary concern in inaugurating his kingdom on earth centered on caring for the poor and the marginalized. Despite the concerted efforts of those self-proclaimed “believers” who have made brazened attempts to alter the message of Jesus to fit their political agenda, anyone with even a grain of objectivity and personal integrity will admit that the Master called us in no uncertain terms to care for the less fortunate among us.

“I have come to preach good news to the poor,” Christ tells us in Luke 4:18. With these words, and a proclamation taken from Isaiah 61 Jesus launched his mission. If anyone doubts his concern for the marginalized, let them study carefully his closing words in Matthew 25: 31-46 where the Master states clearly that our eternal destiny is intimately connected with how we treat the poor, the sick, and the infirm. As disquieting as Christ’s words are in this section of Holy Writ, the implications are clear and cannot be dismissed out of hand, just because they happen to fly in the face of our political ideology. It is for this reason that when the LifeBrook Faith Alliance began back in 1997, it was with these words as our motivating credo:

As followers of Jesus Christ, our prime calling is to give flesh to grace.

I am convinced that this was the directive Jesus operated under and I feel I should do no less. In concrete terms, instead of giving people advice, trying to convert them or get them to come to church (these are not bad things by the way), our mission is to help those who are hurting find a better way of navigating through their problems and living in the solution. Instead of asking, “Are you saved?” we instead ask, “What do you need?” or “How can I help?”

Unfortunately, the vast majority of practicing Christians in America have drifted far off course. Instead of looking for positive and effective ways to be of service to others, many of us have opted for a more comfortable and less challenging version of the faith. Seeking at all cost to maintain the status quo and keep the application of Christianity within the respectable bounds of American culture, we have settled for something far more tame and far less radical than what the Master called for. In the process of living beneath the standard set by Christ, we have also managed to more often than not, major in the minors. And in doing so, the once-honorable title “Christian,” has become a derided term.

Francis Chan makes the following cogent observation regarding the contemporary church in America:

I quickly found that the American church is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live out New Testament Christianity. The goals of American Christianity are often a nice marriage, children who don’t swear, and good church attendance. Taking the words of Christ literally and seriously is rarely considered. That’s for “radicals” who are “unbalanced” and who go “overboard.” Most of us want a balanced life that we can control, that is safe, and that does not involve suffering.

I have found that at least in a general sense, most American Christians shy away from churches that are serious about putting on the mind of Christ. Like Chan says, the typical American believer prefers a church that is safe and predictable. This desire for safety and predictability goes even farther. These same Christians also prefer a Jesus that is equally safe and predictable – one that sits quietly on quilt-board displays holding lambs in his lap and patting kids on the head (or maybe that’s the other way around, with kids in his lap and patting lambs on the head).

The point is this: the radical, firebrand Jesus that showed up in the flesh and went on to challenge the religious leaders of his day, calling them everything from a brood of vipers to white-washed sepulchers, was and is far too dangerous. That’s why one of the primary tasks of the church throughout the centuries has been to domesticate the rough-edged revolutionary who set this new faith in motion.

In the somewhat detailed notes below, taken from Richard Stearns The Hole in Our Gospel, the author describes how anemic and superficial Christianity has become. From his perspective as President of World Vision U.S., Stearns also looks at some of the causes of this situation and how a return to a more complete gospel, based more solidly on the actual teachings and life of Jesus provides a way for the church to heal.

More and more our gospel has been narrowed to a simple transaction, marked by checking a box on a bingo card at some prayer breakfast, registering a decision for Christ, or coming forward during an altar call………..It was about saving as many people from hell as possible – for the next life. It minimized any concern for those same people in this life. It wasn’t as important that they were poor or hungry or persecuted, or perhaps rich, greedy, and arrogant; we just had to get them to pray the “sinner’s prayer” and then move on to the next potential convert. In our evangelistic efforts to make the good news accessible and simple to understand, we seem to have boiled it down to a kind of “fire insurance” that one can buy. Then, once the policy is in effect, the sinner can go back to whatever life he was living – of wealth and success or poverty and suffering. As long as the policy was in the drawer, the other things don’t matter as much. We’ve got our “ticket” to the next life.

There is a real problem with this limited view of the kingdom of God; it is not the whole gospel. Instead, it is a gospel with a gaping hole. First, focusing almost exclusively on the afterlife reduces the importance of what God expects of us in this life. The kingdom of God, which Christ said is “within you” (Luke 17:21 NKJV), was intended to change and challenge everything in our fallen world in the here and now. It was not meant to be a way to leave the world but rather the means to actually redeem it.

Jesus’ view of the gospel went beyond a bingo card transaction; it embraced a revolutionary new view of the world, an earth transformed by transformed people, His “disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:19 NKJV), who would usher in the revolutionary kingdom of God. Those words from the Lord’s Prayer, “your kingdom come, you will be done on earth, as it is in heaven” were and are a clarion call to Jesus’ followers not just to proclaim the good news but to be the good news, here and now (Matt. 6:10). This gospel – the whole gospel – means much more than the personal salvation of individuals. It means a social revolution.

For those of us raised in the embrace of American Christianity these words may be difficult to digest, but digest them we must. The Master we have chosen to follow calls us out of our comfort zones and into the roiling cauldron of poverty, disease, and injustice. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are not afforded the luxury of sitting quietly on the sidelines, shaking our heads in dismay, spouting scripture, and uttering a chorus of sympathetic platitudes while children are starving and dying of preventable diseases. As those bold enough to take on the mantle “Christian,” we have not only blessings but responsibilities. Christ charged us with taking care of the last, the lost, and the least. When we do this, our hands are likely to get dirty and our hearts are likely to be broken. Jesus warns of this and encourages us to count the costs before we set our hand to the plow.

To be continued……

(c) L.D. Turner 2011/All Rights Reserved

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Wisdom for Reflection and Application

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We find it difficult to grasp the idea that God calls us righteous because we actually are righteous. It feels more humble to believe we’re filthy worms awaiting a future change into beautiful butterflies…………..Jesus stated it best. He said that our righteousness must surpass that of the Pharisees in order to enter the kingdom (Matthew 5:20). So if we Christians don’t claim to possess perfect righteousness, we are lowering God’s standard. We are watering down the gospel. We insinuate that Jesus can unite himself with sin. And we insult the perfection of God.

Andrew Farley

(from The Naked Gospel)

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Remedies for What Ails the Church: Christ’s Proactive Love (Part One)

Mick Turner

For quite some time now I have pondered and prayed over the various reasons the contemporary church is in such a state of crisis. In addition to people leaving the sanctuaries in drove, the church itself is rapidly becoming marginalized in its impact on American culture and this, coupled with dwindling numbers and a chronic affinity for internal bickering, has left the Body of Christ in a general state of paralytic impotence.

There are many reasons for this state of affairs – far too many to catalogue in this brief article. I would like, however, to focus in particular on one specific causational factor that I think contributes greatly to the church’s current woes.  Before delving into that issue, however, I want to spend a few moments discussing the issue of “lost faith” or, as some describe it, “weak faith.”

I mention this because I think that these faith problems are related to our overall lack of understanding and acceptance of Jesus Christ, his mission, and the impact of that mission on life as we know it. As we will discuss below, one of the primary factors contributing to the exodus from the church is that it has lost its most vital, life-giving focus. A side-effect of this is that many people have what those – in – the – supposed – know call a “crisis of faith.” This crisis can take many forms, but each tends to share a few common elements. The following description by Brian McLaren provides a cogent summation of what I am talking about:

One way or the other, we outgrew the faith of our childhood or youth. Now we are seeking for a faith that we can hold with adult integrity, clear intelligence, and open-eyed honesty. So, many of us need in this way to renew or replace the faith we lost – to fill the old vacancy in a new way, to see faith with fresh eyes, or better – to let a mature, refreshed faith become the new eyes through which we see life.

Others of us have faith, but it is weak or damaged. We feel that we are walking on a sprained ankle or trying to enjoy a delicious meal with a bad tooth. Perhaps we have been spiritually undernourished, malnourished, or mistreated and injured by a church or religious family member. We don’t have confidence in our faith, and it brings us more pain than comfort. Or we have a faith that is little more than a set of concepts to us. This kind of faith is often called nominal, meaning “in name only.” It doesn’t affect our behavior, at least, not positively. Perhaps for some of us, faith is like a vaccination – we have just enough in our system to keep us from getting “infected” with a full-blown “case” of vibrant faith. There’s faith there, but it needs to be “set on fire”; it needs to come alive; we need to really “catch” it. In these ways some of us need to invigorate the faith we already have.

I don’t know about you, but I can see myself and many others in this description of those in a “faith crisis.” I especially recognize McLaren’s description of those whose faith is like a vaccination, giving them just enough Jesus to prevent them from catching the real thing.

As I stated earlier, the reasons for the dwindling numbers and declining social impact of the church in our culture are many and multi-faceted. And, I might add, the responsibility for more than a few of these problems lies with the church itself. Overall, I think it is safe to say that as a body, we have done a generally poor job of carrying out the mandate given us by the Master before he departed for the heavenly realms.

One major reason for this situation flows from the fact that the church has lost focus on Christ, who and what he was and is, what he accomplished, and what he expects of us. Without this knowledge, a Christian lacks a functional compass with which he or she may navigate through the shoals of daily living. Further, when the focus on the biblical Christ is either weak or lost, an individual lacks the basic information needed to truly make a decision as to whether or not to follow Christ. I dare say that there are untold numbers of self-proclaimed Christians out there who, other than the standard “he died for my sins” teachings, have no clue as to the true magnificence of Christ’s being.

Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola, in their excellent book Jesus Manifesto, speak directly to this situation and how it impacts the most fundamental question each person who faces Christ must answer:

Can our problems really be caused by something so basic and simple as losing sight of Christ? We believe the answer is a resounding Yes. Answers other than Christ to the problems of the church today mean we are more into solvents and solutions. For that reason, this global, Google world needs a meta-narrative more than ever, and the Jesus Story is the interpreting system of all other systems in this hour…

Sweet and Viola then state that each of us needs to answer one specific question and if you think about it, every other thing that follows hinges upon how we answer that question. It is the same question Jesus put to his disciples:

“Who do you say that I am?”

I have come to the conclusion that the church has, as a whole, done a poor job of educating its members on the importance of answering this question and furthermore, our efforts at educating new believers on the incredible nature of this being we call “the Christ.” We have played the “personal savior” and “Son of God” tapes until they have lost much of their meaning. Although the importance of Christ’s role in the process of restoration of right standing with God and the remission of sins is a key element in his mission, but it is only an element. And his status as the Son of the Living God, as evidenced by Jesus’ response to Peter’s answer, is also highly significant, but this, too, is only one aspect of Christ’s identity and his agenda for coming to earth.

I am of the strong belief that until we educate new Christians (and reeducate established ones) on the truly magnificent nature of Jesus Christ, who and what he is, all that he accomplished, and his agenda for the restoration of God’s plan on earth, we cannot hope to fulfill the mandate we have been given as the Body of Christ.

I am hesitant to give a highly specific prescription for how churches might go about this educational mission, primarily because each church is a unique entity in terms of its congregational demographics, its denominational affiliation (or lack thereof), its theological orientation, and its particular mission. However, several areas of commonality may be mentioned.

To be continued…..

©L.D. Turner 2011/All Rights Reserved

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Wise Words for Today

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If you ask most people what Christians believe, they can tell you, “Christians believe that Jesus is God’s Son and that Jesus rose from the dead.” But if you ask the average person how Christians live, they are struck silent. We have not shown the world another way of doing life. Christians pretty much live like everybody else; they just sprinkle a little Jesus in along the way. And doctrine is not very attractive, even if it’s true. Few people are interested in a religion that has nothing to say to the world and offers them only life after death, when what people are really wondering is whether there is life before death.

Shane Claiborne

(from Irresistible Revolution)

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Wisdom for Personal Reflection

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…..we feel a massive disconnect in the church today, and we believe that the major disease of today’s church is JDD: Jesus Deficit Disorder. The person of Jesus has become increasingly politically incorrect and is being replaced by the language of “justice,” “morality,” “values,” and “leadership principles.” The world likes Jesus; they just don’t like the church. But increasingly, the church likes the church, yet it doesn’t like Jesus. . . . . . . Something is wrong when it’s easier for some Christians to think of the world without Christ than the world without Bach or the Beatles or Bono. When we dethrone Jesus Christ from His rightful place, we tarnish the face of Christianity and redefine it out of existence. . . . . . . Can our problems really be caused by something so basic and simple as losing sight of Christ? We believe the answer is a resounding “Yes.” Answers other than Christ to the problems of the church today mean that we are more into solvents than solutions. For that reason, this global, Google world needs a meta-narrative more than ever and the Jesus Story is the interpreting system of all other systems. In this hour, the testimony that we feel God has called us to bear revolves around the primacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Specifically, we need to decide how we are going to answer one question. . . . . . . “Who do you say that I am?” is the question required of every generation, and every generation must answer it for itself.

Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola

(from Jesus Manifesto)

 

The Death of “Sunday Christianity”

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L.D. Turner

Christianity, as most Americans have known it, is in its final death throes. Almost all denominations have witnessed dramatic reductions in membership numbers and fewer converts are entering the faith than at any time in its history. Many view this as a negative trend and in some respects perhaps it is. On the other hand, I firmly believe that something highly positive and creative can be birthed out of the current travail of the institutional Church.

This positive birthing, however, will require a major paradigm shift.

Robin Meyer speaks clearly regarding the current situation of the church and its seeming inability or unwillingness to feed those very people who are so spiritually hungry.

There is a deep hunger for wisdom in our time, but the church offers up little more than sugary nostalgia with a dash of fear. There is a yearning for redemption, healing, and wholeness that is palpable, a shift in human consciousness that is widely recognized – except, it seems, in most churches.

Strangely, we have come to a moment in human history when the message of the Sermon on the Mount could indeed save us, but it can no longer be heard above the din of dueling doctrines. Consider this: there is not a single word in that sermon about what to believe, only words about what to do. It is a behavioral manifesto, not a propositional one. Yet three centuries later, when the Nicene Creed became the official oath of Christendom, there was not a single word in it about what to do, only words about what to believe!

My friends, there is something wrong, drastically wrong, with this picture. Doctrine can do no more than guide our thoughts in one direction or another. It has no transformative power of its own, however. Today’s church is by and large an impotent institution and the sooner we get our minds around that salient fact the better. Only when we confront the reality of the situation the postmodern church finds itself in can we begin to make plans for any kind of effective, beneficial, transformational, and lasting change. Until we come to grips with the enormity of our problems, we are only whistling in the wind.

Over the course of the centuries since Christ walked the earth, we have gone about domesticating Jesus and his mission. In the process of doing so, we have lost something very important – in fact, the very source of the church’s life. By taming Jesus and toning down the revolutionary character of what he is calling for, we have lost contact with the vine. And the Master told us quite clearly what happens when such a thing occurs. Branches die when they are severed from the vine.

In the meantime, we have settled for a weak-kneed, timid imposter of a church. At the heart of the church is a fabrication, a weak-kneed imposter of a Savior that is a far cry from the revolutionary firebrand that set his world ablaze 2,000 years ago. Instead of the radical, world-changing Jesus, we have settled for a much safer version – a version that, in the words of Brian McLaren, is a:

…..popular and domesticated Jesus, who has become little more than a chrome-plated hood ornament on the guzzling Hummer of Western civilization…

It’s no wonder people are fleeing the church in staggering numbers. Robin Meyers continues:

The earliest metaphors of the gospel speak of discipleship as transformation through an alternative community and reversal of conventional wisdom. In much of the church today, our metaphors speak of individual salvation and the specific promises that accompany it. The first followers of Jesus trusted him enough to become instruments of radical change. Today, worshipers of Christ agree to believe things about him in order to receive the benefits promised by the institution, not by Jesus…..Christianity as a belief system requires nothing but acquiescence. Christianity as a way of life, as a path to follow, requires a second birth, the conquest of ego, and new eyes with which to see the world.

 The Demise of “Christendom”

It is imperative that those of us who identify ourselves as followers of Jesus accept one salient fact: in terms of the West, the era of “Christendom” is over.” The church as we have known it, both in terms of actual numbers and cultural impact, is dead. The sooner we come to grips with this reality, the sooner we can get on with the business of birthing its successor.

It is important that we face facts here. The version of the Christian faith that has been dominant in the West over the past two to three centuries eventually evolved into something akin to what I call “Everglades Christianity.” I grew up in southwest Florida and later, as an adult, spent 15 years living in Dade County. As a result, I became quite familiar with the famous “River of grass.” The fact is, the Everglades is a river that flows south from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay. It is about one foot deep and 50 miles wide. Everglades Christianity is a similar phenomenon. Our churches are filled will too many believers that are quite satisfied with big numbers and shallow substance. This version of the Christian faith is superficial, focused on belief rather than genuine spiritual experience, and more often than not, choked to death by legalism and rigidity of thought.

Increasingly, however, there are more optimistic voices being heard regarding the future of the Christian faith. Perhaps the passing of Christendom, especially as described above, is not such a bad thing. It is only when the old forms of a tradition are removed that room for something new and refreshing is created. Michael Frost, an Australian Christian writer and professor, sounds a more positive tone when he says:

….there are other voices that express real hope – not in the reconstitution of Christendom, but in the idea that the end of this epoch actually spells the beginning of a new flowering of Christianity. The death of Christendom removes the final props that have supported the culturally respectable, mainstream, suburban version of Christianity. This is a Christianity expressed by the “Sunday Christian” phenomenon wherein church attendance has very little effect on the lifestyles or values or priorities expressed from Monday to Saturday. This version of Christianity is a façade, a method for practitioners to appear like fine, upstanding citizens without allowing the claims and teachings of Jesus to bite very hard in everyday life. With the death of Christendom the game is up. There’s less and less reason for such upstanding citizens to join with the Christian community for the sake of respectability or acceptance. The church in fewer and fewer situations represents the best vehicle for public service or citizenship, leaving only the faithful behind to rediscover the Christian experience as it was intended: a radical, subversive, compassionate community of followers of Jesus.

 I am of the opinion that future historians will look back on this period of church history and describe a rich tapestry of theological transition, eventually resulting in a new Reformation. These same historians will see that the polarization between the liberal/social gospel branch of the church and the fundamentalist/conservative/evangelical branch, spurred on by the Emergent Church movement over time led to a synergy that gave birth to a vital, comprehensive, service-oriented Christianity steadily grew in terms of both numbers and cultural influence. People who formerly beheld organized religion with marked suspicion were now among its most ardent and committed advocates. Many of you may be thinking right about now I have gone around the bend, but I trust my own insanity regarding this issue. I have great optimism for the church’s future and trust that just as the prophet Isaiah recorded long ago, God is once again telling us:

 I am about to do something new.

See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?

I will make a pathway through the wilderness.

I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

The wild animals in the fields will thank me, the jackals and the owls, too, for giving them water in the desert.

Yes, I  will make rivers in the dry wasteland so my chosen people can be refreshed.

(Isaiah 43: 19-20 NLT)

 Am I being too idealistic? I hope so. It is only when the idealistic people in this world catch God’s vision and spread it far and wide does major and lasting change take place. In the words of the late John Lennon:

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one….

In a similar vein, Michael Frost continues:

I, for one, am happy to see the end of Christendom. I’m glad that we can no longer rely on temporal, cultural supports to reinforce our message or the validity of our presence. I suspect that the increasing marginalization of the Christian movement in the West is the very thing that will wake us up to the marvelously exciting, dangerous, and confronting message of Jesus.

The new Christianity that is taking shape comes in many forms and, in the long run, will appeal to a wide variety of spiritual seekers. It is difficult to accurately predict what the picture of the faith will be like twenty years from now, at least in the West. Whatever forms eventually coalesce and move forward, we can be sure, however, won’t be the “Sunday-go-to-meeting” variety of Christianity that dominated the past century. In and of itself, that is a step in the right direction.

 © L.D. Turner 2010/All Rights Reserved

 

Books That Bless: Saving Jesus from the Church (Part One)

Mick Turner

If you are a heavy reader like I am, you will fully understand what I mean when I say that I recently read one of “those books.” One of “those books” is a book that I needed to read at exactly the time that I read it. The Holy Spirit, knowing me better than I know myself, put this book in my path at just the right time, then opened my heart and mind to the message contained within its pages. As a result, I came away from my experience with that book a changed person.

The book I am speaking of is Robin Meyer’s “Saving Jesus from the Church.” The sub-title is even more telling: “How to Stop Worshipping Christ and Start Following Jesus.” If that doesn’t grab your interest, perhaps the picture on the cover will. It is a head shot of Jesus with eyes almost closed and a strip of duct tape across his mouth. Given the book’s title and cover, I expected that this just might be a book that would both challenge me and, at the same time, make me think. Meyers delivered and delivered well on both counts.

A professor of philosophy at Oklahoma City University, Meyers is also a nationally syndicated columnist and pastor of Mayflower Congregational Church. In the book, the author explores a variety of themes that I find highly pertinent to the survival of the Christian faith. A self-proclaimed liberal, certainly much of what Meyers has to say will sit side-saddle in the mouths of those of a fundamentalist bent. Although there are several key points where I part company with the liberal wing of the faith, I can say the same about the more conservative side of Christianity as well. For these reasons, I have learned to have an open mind and perhaps it is also for these reasons that I find a book like this one so stimulating and thought-provoking.

I should also say at this point that this is not a standard “book review” or anything like that. Instead, it is just what it actually is – a blog entry. I hope, however, to be able to give my readers at least a glimpse of the importance of Meyers’ book and perhaps whet their appetites enough to motivate them to read the book and reflect on its content. I will do this by sharing several lengthy quotations from Meyers’ book, the first from near the front and the final one from the epilogue. I have selected these quotations because I think they give a generally vivid picture of Meyers’ take on the problems the contemporary Christian faith faces and possible solutions to those problems.

Near the beginning of the book (on page 10 actually) Meyers throws down the gauntlet:

“In the beginning, the call of God was not propositional. It was experiential. It was as palpable as wine and wineskins, lost coins and frightened servants, corrupting leaven and a tearful father. Now we argue over the Trinity, the true identity of the beast in the book of Revelation, and the exact number of people who will make it into heaven. Students who once learned by following the teacher became true believers who confuse certainty with faith.”

“We have a sacred story that has been stolen from us, and in our time, the thief is what passes for orthodoxy itself (right belief instead of right worship). Arguing over the metaphysics of Christ only divides us. But agreeing to follow the essential teachings of Jesus could unite us. We could become imitators, not believers.”

“Two roads that ‘diverged in a yellow wood’ so long ago looked equally fair, but now one is well worn. It is the road of the Fall and redemption, original sin, and the Savior. The other is the road of enlightenment, wisdom, creation-centered spirituality, and a nearly forgotten object of discipleship: transformation. This is the road less traveled. It seeks not to save our souls, but rather to restore them.”

If you have followed this blog for any length of time or read my writings in other venues, you should be well aware of my feelings about the whole “Fall-Redemption/Original Sin/Blood Sacrifice/Atonement” schemata and all that travels in its wake. Along with the whole “Faith vs. Works” issue, these doctrines have ripped the very guts out of the true gospel and have made transformational Christianity virtually impossible. I won’t go into that diatribe right now, for this is not the time nor the place. Suffice to say, Meyers is of the same opinion and fortunately, so are an increasing number of thoughtful followers of Christ.

Meyers goes on to say that if the church is to find healing, it must go back to that fork in the road and, as did Robert Frost, take the road less traveled. To do otherwise would be a betrayal of the very heart of the faith. According to Meyers, we must go beyond the attempts to maintain the status quo on the one hand, and the quest to “demythologize Jesus” on the other. Instead, our task is to:

“…let the breath of the Galilean sage fall on the neck of the church again. First, we have to listen not to formulas of salvation but to a gospel that is all but forgotten. After centuries of being told that “Jesus saves,” the time has come to save Jesus from the church….If any priest tells us we cannot sing this new son, we will sing it louder, invite others to sing it with us, and raise our voices in unison across all the boundaries of human existence – until this joyful chorus is heard in every corner of the world, and the church itself is raised from the dead.”

…..to be continued

(c) L.D. Turner 2010/ All Rights Reserved

 

Wise Words for Today

But there are some things in our social system to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I suggest that you too ought to be maladjusted. I never intend to adjust myself to the viciousness of mob-rule. I never intend to adjust myself to the evils of segregation and the crippling effects of discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic inequalities of an economic system which takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes. I never intend to become adjusted to the madness of militarism and the self-defeating method of physical violence. I call upon you to be maladjusted…The world is in need of such maladjustment. Through such maladjustment we will be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man’s inhumanity to man into the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice.

Dr. Martin Luther King