reflections on a Christian life

I don’t know if it is a particular affliction of the evangelical church or whether it is a universal experience that has been going on since the Reformation- but we seem to be enamored with programs and formulas.  It wouldn’t be so bad if these formulas were not often easily debunked as repackaged pop psychology.  It isn’t all bad- I mean- we are people who exist in a culture and the God meets us within the culture- the part that I don’t get is why we box God into our culture.  Worse than that, we box God into our subculture so there are different anthropogenic churches clashing with each other in the marketplace of ideas and the sideline watchers figure that we are just another convenient rationalization and social group.

When I left college, the Jesus People were winding down and the organized church was jazzed about “Church Growth” models.  The research concluded that homogeneous churches grew fastest so the strategy was to formulate your church such that it was racially, economically and generationally as uniform as you could make it.  Then there came the Seeker Sensitive model.  Worship became a dramatic and musical spectacle with performers on stage and an audience in the pews.  Church ministry became focused on serving lattes in the lobby and providing social services including financial seminars, marriage and child rearing classes and auto repair.  Some of this was fine when presented in the name of Christ, but the worship offered to God morphed into entertainment offered for men and current social theory depreciated timeless Truth.  In the mean time, as the percent of Americans attending church moved nowhere, churches became bigger and loaded up on staff and services including gymnasiums and schools- kind of like the growth of government- so that for those who attended the church, there was even less reason to be involved in the PTSA, local sports club or other community organizations. While we were insulating ourselves from the community around us, our spiritual muscles atrophied as we relied on the professional infrastructure of the church to teach us, counsel us organize us and lead us.  We didn’t leave our kids to play pick-up stickball- we organized sports leagues with adult umpires for them- why would we let them form their own Bible study group or take on a ministry ourselves with out staff vision and leadership?

In the 90s, the organizational prowess of the evangelical church birthed the Christian Coalition and the evangelicals became a political force.  We were now fully invested in influencing civil government to drive our agenda.  The Modern church was about achieving driving our agenda through our ambition, influence and wealth and of course, our agenda was God’s agenda.  God had become our insurance policy, protector and hero and he demonstrated his love for us by giving us good things.  If God didn’t bless you with a successful career, well-adjusted kids who were great athletes, and a Stepford wife, you need to examine your heart.

Well, many of those who couldn’t sustain that fantasy stumbled on to the emergent formula.  They tried to get back to something real, and to them, real was something which was meaningful.  This woke the antibodies of the modern church, who assumed if real implied “meaningful” these emergents must not value “factual” and should be viewed as risks if not as heretics.

Now I understand there is a group called Hipsters, which I can’t claim to understand very well- but seem to be into fine dining and green living.

Why this long digression?  Because, in spite of all the formulas, strategies, and classifications, we are all people just trying to live in obedience to Christ.  Seldom does an individual fit the type once you get to know them.  And if you dig deep enough, you might discover the self-doubts of the “How to Succeed in Christianity” peddler.  Life in the church means sometimes being caught up in, sometimes fighting against these trends.  If I walked away, I would probably end up starting a cult so I need to stay on the inside (John says something about that in his letter – 1John 2:19).