18 Aug 05 An Invitation
In preparation for the Zoe conference, as recommended by Mike Cope, I’m reading StormFront: The Good News of God (Brownson, Dietterich, Harvey and West). This book, actually a series of papers, is written to challenge a North American view of Christianity which they contend has become a “consumerist menu of personal spiritual care products intended to assure eternal life at minimal cost to the customer.”
Some interesting ideas are suggested in this book about the incorrect way churches “market” themselves to appeal and reach a consumer oriented society. The result of this effort is a misunderstanding regarding salvation.
In the final analysis, the biblical understanding of salvation is not merely that our lives will be set right again at last. The biblical understanding of salvation is that our lives become swept up into something larger and greater than ourselves, into God’s purposes for the world. In other words, the receiving of salvation and the call to mission are not to be conceived sequentially, as if one followed the other (first salvation, then grateful obedience in mission). Rather, to receive salvation is to be called into something larger and greater than we are, to be invited to participate in God’s saving purpose and plan for the world. That is why the gospel is primarily about God, and only secondarily about us.
How would our way of doing “church” be impacted where we to adopt the view of an invitation to participate in God’s saving purpose and plan for the world?
We’ve got our purposes and our plans for our communities. We seem to charge ahead and expect God to bless something we have invited him to instead of allowing him to invite us into his work. Our numbers shrink so we automatically think it is because we are not doing whatever the church down the road is doing. So we reinvent, recast and rebrand news which has longed ceased to be good.
But our culture is relentless in its tendency to twist the biblical, missional understanding of the gospel into a consumerist one. This tragic result has been the proliferation in America of passively oriented churches, preoccupied with their own survival and the care of their own members and struggling to discover a sense of transcendence and the presence of God.
And that quote, unfortunately, has found its mark within my own church experiences.
By contrast, the gospel calls into existence churches whose fundamental identity is that of a people called to participate in God’s mission, caught up into a reality greater than themselves, invited to bear witness to the world of a new way of being human in God’s presence.
And that quote, fortunately, shows how to escape the status quo of survival. It reveals the path from passive to passion. It closes the window on struggling and successfully opens the door to the throne room of God.
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Dear Randy:
Thank you for the invitation. This is a serious subject and I get “rev”ved up just thinking about it…
How many times have we experienced our members leaving the church over issues such as worship and children’s programs, as if Christ said that the most important commandments are (1) to worship properly and (2) to find personal fulfillment in me. An Oscar Meyer product comes to mind.
We recently left a church precisely because of its insular, defensive attitude toward the community at large. The questions asked each week had nothing to do with how to better the community, how to feed the poor, house and clothe the homeless, or encourage the troubled, but were instead questions of personal morality and self-assurance (read your Bible more, pray more, don’t look what indulge in worldly temptations, etc.) Granted, the latter is of utmost importance, but personal morality should always lead to external works. Reading the Gospel should translate into self-sacrifice. Where we now worship there are several ministries: OPALS (Old People With Active Lifestyles), the youth group, women’s ministry, men’s ministry, worship, and even a couples ministry. Great. But, I ask myself, what about a ministry for those with real economic and physical needs. How are we serving others beyond the membership?—this is the question that needs to be asked.
Recently I saw a church banner that read “Get Fed,” yet it omitted the corollary “Feed Others.” Both physically and spiritually. I think it would be great to see a big sign that reads:
“Come If You Need Help/Be Prepared To Help Others.”
But this is too long to read when one is driving by at 75 mph and, perhaps, too idealistic. Or is it?
I am reminded that I, personally, need to do more. And so I appreciate that you have brought this up. If we can continue to keep this issue at a proper level of consciousness, then spiritual renewal is on the way, leading to action and material change.
P.S. - Some good things have been written lately on this state of affairs, such as “With Jesus As Our Connector” (New York Times Magazine, 27 March 2005), and especially “The Christian Paradox” (Harpers July 2005). [The Harper’s piece should be available online.] There was also an excellent editorial in the Post two Sundays ago about benevolence in Northern Europe which I found to be enlightening.
Your blog reminded me of Jesus’ words to the Samaritan Woman in John 4:21 where he said a time was coming when they would neither worship God on the mountain or in Jerusalem. Who ever perpetrated the notion that there are “5 acts of Worship” on our fellowship did all of us a huge disservice. It’s this kind of thinking that causes some people to go through the “5 acts” and then leave after the Lord’s Supper thinking that they are right with God. Jesus’ words tell us that worship isn’t confined to a place or specific time. Our life is worship. We come together to edify each other on the Lord’s Day. God doesn’t need our worship but we need it. We need it to encourage one another to allow the Holy Spirit to work on each of us to transform our everyday lives. This is our act of “spiritual worship.” Not from just 10am to 11am (that’s 10am to 11:45am at our church) but 24/7.
I’m looking forward to my first Zoe Conference. I hope you and Greg can stay away from the Guitar Factory long enough to allow some “face” time.
Such good thoughts…
I will be interested to see where Mike takes us this year at the Conference.
I love to be challenged in my thinking.
So…I’m assuming you’ll be at the Conference?
God Bless!
If you get a chance could you please say a prayer for a little girl named “Rebekah” who has cancer. God knows who you will be praying about! Thank you so much!
Trying to rally some good Christian Prayer for her and her family!
Very good thoughts and of particular concern as College Church has some decisions laying before it. Is our focus where it should be? I’m not truly sure.
I wish you all the best at the conference and in preparation for it. I’ll try to channel my envy into prayer.
I expect the conference to do a lot to move us out of our comfort zones. We need it.
Very thought provoking and insightful. We need reminding once in a while that God needs to get some mileage out of us.
Are “pbegin” and “cwinwc” trying to say that the manner of our worship doesn’t matter to God?
I won’t speak for them but I don’t get the impression, from reading their comments, that this is what they are saying.
The point is we’ve allowed a consumer oriented approach to mandate the way church (and even worship) is packaged and marketed to the community.
This means that a church is only as good as what programs it can offer. Which is the school of thought we are opposing.