Christian Living

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PREFACE

The words revival and renewal are familiar to most Christians and they generally have an appealing ring. The first means to bring to life. The second is like a two-room, two-day television home makeover program. In my opinion the Church doesn't need to be brought back to life and She doesn't need a makeover. The Church is alive and a makeover is hardly the kind of change She needs. 

Allow me to offer a third possibility; the word is reformation. What is reformation? Reformation is a thoroughgoing, inside-out, head-to-toe reformatting. To reform means to reshape. It's like a trip to the potter's wheel. When a vessel leans, flops, bulges or droops, the craftsman removes the clay, then kneads and reshapes it. Let me ask, what shape is the Church in today? Does She need a potter's wheel experience? To answer those questions we need to think about the forces that shape Her: contemporary culture, religious tradition and Scriptural principles. The question is how much those things influence Her.

CONTEMPORARY CULTURE. Let's consider the influence contemporary culture has on the Church. The Church ought to be culturally relevant. It's important for us to identify with the folks around us. After all, 'Jesus became flesh and lived among us'. Now that is identification! He identified with us in order to transform us. He didn't come to fit in with us or to adopt our attitudes, ways and culture. He came to change us. In the same way, the Church is a transforming and transformational organism. Like the Master, we must be culturally aware while refusing to let culture digest us. We can't allow contemporary society to shape who we are and what we do.

How can we be culturally relevant and remain unseduced by the world around us? First, we mustn't cling so tightly to the past that we ignore cultural changes. Second, we must never bow so low to current trends that we lose sight of our spiritual heritage. Cultural change forces us into a tenuous balancing act; we need to know what parts of current culture to embrace and what parts of past culture to let go. If we change for the wrong reasons we simply miss the boat. And if we resist change we miss opportunities.

Ask yourself this; have we been abducted by present societal trends and attitudes or are we responding to them? For example; will an unwitting visitor be able to tell the difference between Church and a rock concert; a stand up comedy show and a sermon; or a Rotary Club meeting and a Church gathering? Have we become so culturally acceptable that we've lost sight of simple, authentic Christianity? Have we embraced a culturally-bred, Western-style of Christianity at the expense of biblical principles? Have we have lost sight of primitive Christianity―the kind of Christianity that literally turned the world upside down. More bluntly, is culture shaping us or are we shaping culture?

RELIGIOUS TRADITION. Let's think about the impact tradition has on the Church. I believe in the stabilizing, life-balancing value of tradition. At the same time, I question the predilection the Church has for unquestioning attachment to traditional religious practices.

Consider the sixteenth century Reformation. The Reformers (Wycliffe, Hus, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Knox, Melanchthon, et al) questioned and challenged myriad theological traditions. They unapologetically thrust them into the light of biblical revelation. In fact, they did so at the cost of their very lives.

Those revolutionaries labored to unearth long buried theological treasures. They sifted through centuries of doctrinal artifacts and infertile spiritual soil and unearthed scriptural gems like grace, faith and the freedom of forgiveness and new birth. Our courageous spiritual forebearers left us a profound and immeasurably important heritage. There is one caveat, however. Their reform efforts basically concerned doctrine. The Reformers didn't dig exhaustively into the traditional ecclesiastical foundations—that is, the way we do things. That soil has remained unturned for the last five centuries. We still do the very same things the Church did in medieval times. Our theology may be different, but we 'do Church' very much like our somber-gray-stone-Gothic ancestor. In short, many medieval ecclesiastical traditions remain unquestioned, unchallenged and unchanged to this very day.

Let me give you an example of unquestioned tradition.

A young, newlywed bride hosted her first family Christmas dinner. She was excited and more than a little apprehensive. She put out the hors devours. The table was beautifully set; china, silver, crystal, linen and fresh cut flowers. The side dishes, salads, rolls and desserts were ready to go. Finally, the time came to put the roast in the oven. The young bride cut the ends off the expensive piece of meat, carefully laid it in the pan and slid it into the oven. She looked over to her mother.

'Mom, why do we cut the ends off the roast?'

'I don't know. That's what Grandma did. Let's ask her.'

The ladies found Grandma in the living room enjoying conversation and canapés.

'Grandma, why do we cut the ends off of the roast?'

'Well sweetie, my oven was too small to fit the whole thing. So I had to cut off the ends.'

There was a time when end-cutting made sense, but it developed into an unquestioned and quite unnecessary tradition. Ask yourself this; how much of what the contemporary Church does is merely cutting ends off of roasts? Frankly, we've maintained and manicured unreformed medieval traditions for too long. We still do things the way they did during the Dark Ages. Does the way we 'do Church' really reflect the simplicity and power of the early Christian community? Why do we do the things we do? Are they mere habits or are they scripturally guided practices? I believe it's high time to reevaluate our traditions.

SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES. The Church is shaped by a third influence; and that is Scriptural principles. All of us want to be biblically accurate in our theology, forms and practices. We all want to do it right. After all, Scripture is our measure of faith and practice, isn't it? Absolutely! We all subscribe to that. However, can our desire for cultural relevance and and loyalty to religious tradition stand up to honest scriptural examination?

We must be firmly rooted in Christ. That sounds simple. And it is. We must also rediscover the simplicity of Christ and His people. We simply need to return to our biblical roots rather than continue with a culturally hijacked and traditionally bound way of doing Church. And like or reform fathers, it will cost us everything.

With that goal in view, I've made a series of contrasts; some between westernized Christianity and transcultural Christianity. Some between today's Church and her long lost Mother. What follows isn't a commentary or devotional, but miscellaneous musings. I hope you'll wince, laugh, grumble and rub your chin as you thumb through the following pages. Most of all, I hope you are challenged to think, reevaluate and pray.

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