reflections on a Christian life

Maybe it is my Baptist roots, maybe it is my naiveté regarding church history or maybe it is a rebelliousness- but it seems that Evangelicals are surrendering to a hierarchical priesthood of professional clergy, paid staff and wisemen rather than diligently taking responsibility for themselves and for one another to encourage, teach, admonish and minister.

Somehow I grew up with the impression that the pastor, church leaders, and teachers were fellow spiritual travellers, maybe more experienced or schooled, but still able to benefit from my youthful spiritual insights and learning as was I from their more seasoned perspective.

When it was testimony time, the floor was open to all.  Prayer meetings were intergenerational (there just weren’t that many of us), and Sunday school was more discussion than lecture.   At summer camp, as a high school counselor, I would either be leading a Bible study of campers or be participating in one with my peers.  The director and senior counselors sat with us in morning devotions as we all shared from the text under review.   In high school and college Bible studies, we would typically rotate responsibility for leading the discussion counting on Holy Spirit’s work within the group to guide our time.

My sometimes selective recollection of Evangelical history brings to mind preachers like DL Moody and Billy Graham who were ready to absorb help from the lay people of the church as quickly as they could be deployed.  Graham’s crusade follow up teams consisted of individuals who were given a training session in how to guide those who came forward and the local churches were enlisted for helping new believers grow in Christ.

Now, it seems that we are less content to subject ourselves to the vagaries of the Holy Spirit working in the body, preferring to vet our leaders through a progression of preparatory steps.  We have discipleship plans that move the participants around a baseball diamond or toward the bull’s-eye on a target as if spiritual growth were assured through so many hours or class sessions.

What did we lose through this?  I think we lost accountability for one another and the ability minister to one another.  We are willing to push responsibility up the chain to the pastor, the elders, the small group leader, the adult.  The hierarchical model not only disempowers the participants but also insulates the leaders.  We become eager to be fed digested truth from above on up the chain rather than doing the hard, patient work of reading, meditation, interaction, and waiting on the Spirit.

One year my son and two friends began a Bible study for high school kids in our home.  My wife, Janet, would meet with them on their preparation and debrief on how it went, but they conducted the study on their own.  It only lasted a season because one of the moms with passion and drive wanted to setup a teen CBS ministry, led by adult discussion leaders and a teaching adult.  It became a bigger ministry, but I’m not sure that it was more conducive to spiritual growth.

Sitting under a tarp during a rainstorm we three counselors were killing time while our campers were doing their own best to make the most of a down day.  We were on a weeklong climbing trip and at our base camp so there were no indoor activities to fill the time or an alternate destination to slog to.

I think the conversation was within the context of preparing an evening talk for the campers that would connect with both climbing and faith.  One of the counselors was apparently on the trip more for his climbing interest and ability than his faith in that he exhibited a basic indifference to spiritual things.  In spite of growing up in the church and having attended a Christian private high school, he, at this point in his life, seemed to have neatly compartmentalized church and religion well removed from his vocation and other interests.  I was somehow cast as the “most likely to be overzealous” of the three of us so when we started discussing how our faith impacts our climbing, he thought he had fully anticipated my response.

“What does your faith in Christ mean to you as a climber?”

“Well- it’ is just part of who I am and what I do, and if that helps me relate to God and to others in some way I otherwise would not be able to, that’s what it means.”

In “Chariots of Fire”, Eric Liddell says, “When I run, I feel his pleasure”.  Well- he was a world-class runner and I was no world-class climber.  If God was at work in my climbing, he didn’t seem to be giving it much attention.  Frankly, I don’t think God’s focus is on making us great climbers, runners or successful in other ventures.  I think his focus is on working in us to transform us to be more Christ-like.  If being Christ-like leads us to be more diligent and good stewards of our abilities, then we can be confident that we are performing “as unto Christ”.

There was a movie a while back called “Touching the Void” about a climber who survived an incredible ordeal in which he fell into a crevasse and was presumed dead, but crawled to safety over several days.   When asked whether he encountered God during his ordeal, he responded that he had no spiritual epiphany or yearning- there was nothing.  I don’t think he had a need to lie, so I’ll presume that he was truthful.  People do function without an awareness of God.  I won’t assert that they are unaided by God since Christ is declared as the active sustainer of all creation.

As Christians, we acknowledge Christ’s involvement in our entire life.  It betrays a theological naïveté to suggest that there is a point at which God takes a situation we are incapable of handling adequately on our own.  I also have no doubt that there are individuals who do not acknowledge Christ who have accomplishments I will never achieve or have triumphed over some incredible predicament.  The non-Christian has been the unwitting beneficiary of God’s general grace, the Christian can respond in gratitude to his maker and sustainer.

Maybe that’s what underlies the polarizing affect Tim Tebow has on the football world.

(I’ll admit the extent of my knowledge about Tebow consists of a few headlines and articles on Yahoo sports or in Sports Illustrated, and endless segments of Sports Center- And I have no idea how he interprets Gods role in his sports success)

He doesn’t have the right mechanics, he has colossal miscues coupled with a determination to drive for success with whatever skills he has- and he appears to respond both the scorn and praise with humility and recognition of God as his sufficiency.  Tim may or may not develop into an NFL superstar- whether he does or not should not change his testifying to God’s work in his life, which includes who he is as a football player.  The media and the church are much more comfortable giving the microphone to those who are at the top and will tolerate whatever one-liners they throw in about God’s involvement.  Rather than an emerging story of success against all odds or a player personnel selection soon to be revealed as a wasted selection which has delayed Denver’s rebuilding, Tim’s story is about not being ”ashamed of the gospel”- or thinking that God is needs us to be at the top to establish his own credibility.

Somehow I managed to start out climbing and end up talking about a football player, skipping twenty-five years in the transition.   I hope I kept it connected.