Churches of Christ: Welcome to the Twenty-First Century
Yesterday: a message for those who aren't members of churches of Christ. Today: a reality check for the rest of us.
A message to my friends in the churches of Christ:
Nancy Grace is not our problem. She is a symptom of a much bigger problem. Our uncomfortable experience in the national spotlight earlier this week was not an isolated incident that will eventually fade away, allowing things to return to normal. It was only the beginning. Possibly, the beginning of the end of our fellowship of churches.
A few of our leaders have been warning us that this was coming. The world is changing. People don't know who we are or what we are about. And when they do find out, they aren't going to like it.
The questions that are being asked by Nancy Grace - and a lot of other questions - are not going to go away:
Why aren't women allowed to participate in leadership and worship?
Do you think that God is going to put everyone who doesn't agree with you (or with Christians generally) through eternal torment? Even people who live good lives?
Why are those with gay and lesbian sexual orientations excluded from your churches?
Why are all of you white?
Why don't the other denominations like you?
You say you love everyone, but I don't see you doing much to "help" people, other than those who look and act similar to you. Why?
Do you really believe all of those stories in your bible?
Isn't the bible sexist?
Do you think God cares about global warming?
Do you care about people with AIDS?
What was Jesus really like? Do you even know?
If our effectiveness during the twentieth century was defined by our ability to answer abstract, theological questions, our effectivness during the twenty-first will be defined by our ability to put our theology to work, responding in tangible ways to the larger social and political issues of our day.
If we offer sixty year-old answers to questions like these, expecting that sensible bible-oriented banter will impress people, we will be treated the same way as Rubel Shelly on Wednesday night. And we will ultimately be tossed aside into the margins of our culture, written off as a crazy cult.
The time has come for a serious dialog about the questions that people are asking us, reexamining everything in the light of a fresh understanding of scripture and of the nature of Jesus. We no longer have the luxury of coddling those among us who are determined to keep everything - our teachings, our organizational structures, our practices, our worship and bible class formats - frozen in the 1950s. We no longer have the luxury of sitting around in bible classes and small groups - recirculating the same tired, old discussions and occasionally bemoaning the fact that we don't get out in the world and do more. We no longer have the luxury of endless whining about how wrong people were in the way they did things fifty years ago, content that simply by disagreeing with the past, we have somehow gotten our own acts together.
People don't see the love of God in us. They see a bunch of whackos who are despirately clinging to bizarre ideas that have very little to do with the real Jesus. And in some cases, they are right.
The time has come to finally get serious about discipleship and begin moving into the world to demonstrate the love of Jesus not only for those that we deem worthy of it, but for everyone: every race, every gender, every income bracket, every tongue, every tribe, every nation. In short: during the next fifty years, we must either become more like Jesus or fade into history.
Welcome, my friends, to the twenty-first century.
(Note: I won't be posting or commenting late Friday or Saturday.)
Related Tags: churches of christ, church of christ, nancy grace, postmodernism, emergent church, emergence
A message to my friends in the churches of Christ:
Nancy Grace is not our problem. She is a symptom of a much bigger problem. Our uncomfortable experience in the national spotlight earlier this week was not an isolated incident that will eventually fade away, allowing things to return to normal. It was only the beginning. Possibly, the beginning of the end of our fellowship of churches.
A few of our leaders have been warning us that this was coming. The world is changing. People don't know who we are or what we are about. And when they do find out, they aren't going to like it.
The questions that are being asked by Nancy Grace - and a lot of other questions - are not going to go away:
Why aren't women allowed to participate in leadership and worship?
Do you think that God is going to put everyone who doesn't agree with you (or with Christians generally) through eternal torment? Even people who live good lives?
Why are those with gay and lesbian sexual orientations excluded from your churches?
Why are all of you white?
Why don't the other denominations like you?
You say you love everyone, but I don't see you doing much to "help" people, other than those who look and act similar to you. Why?
Do you really believe all of those stories in your bible?
Isn't the bible sexist?
Do you think God cares about global warming?
Do you care about people with AIDS?
What was Jesus really like? Do you even know?
If our effectiveness during the twentieth century was defined by our ability to answer abstract, theological questions, our effectivness during the twenty-first will be defined by our ability to put our theology to work, responding in tangible ways to the larger social and political issues of our day.
If we offer sixty year-old answers to questions like these, expecting that sensible bible-oriented banter will impress people, we will be treated the same way as Rubel Shelly on Wednesday night. And we will ultimately be tossed aside into the margins of our culture, written off as a crazy cult.
The time has come for a serious dialog about the questions that people are asking us, reexamining everything in the light of a fresh understanding of scripture and of the nature of Jesus. We no longer have the luxury of coddling those among us who are determined to keep everything - our teachings, our organizational structures, our practices, our worship and bible class formats - frozen in the 1950s. We no longer have the luxury of sitting around in bible classes and small groups - recirculating the same tired, old discussions and occasionally bemoaning the fact that we don't get out in the world and do more. We no longer have the luxury of endless whining about how wrong people were in the way they did things fifty years ago, content that simply by disagreeing with the past, we have somehow gotten our own acts together.
People don't see the love of God in us. They see a bunch of whackos who are despirately clinging to bizarre ideas that have very little to do with the real Jesus. And in some cases, they are right.
The time has come to finally get serious about discipleship and begin moving into the world to demonstrate the love of Jesus not only for those that we deem worthy of it, but for everyone: every race, every gender, every income bracket, every tongue, every tribe, every nation. In short: during the next fifty years, we must either become more like Jesus or fade into history.
Welcome, my friends, to the twenty-first century.
(Note: I won't be posting or commenting late Friday or Saturday.)
Related Tags: churches of christ, church of christ, nancy grace, postmodernism, emergent church, emergence
posted by Matt at Friday, March 31, 2006
3 Comments:
This is an excellent analysis and, in my opinion, prophetic about the days to come.
Last night my brother was at my house and I showed him the NG bit with Rubel. My brother was brought up in the CofC in the 70's and ran screaming when he reached adulthood. Here were his problems with what he saw.
"Why AREN'T women allowed to do as much as men?"
With this I am in total agreement. To the shock of my brothers and sisters (see, I preach occasionally), I believe that women should be allowed to do anything a man can. Yes, preach. Yes, be an elder. That is not unscriptural. That is understanding the context and spirit of scripture. I'll probably blog on this soon and lose every reader I have.
"Do you really think that Jews and Muslimes won't be allowed into Heaven???"
Yes, I do. Unless they accept Jesus as Who He Is. We talked about the difference between what Jesus said and what Paul wrote. If the Son of God says, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through Me," I have to put my faith in that. If you believe in Him, so do you. Hard to accept? Yes. But it's the very reason we are so anxious to share Him with others.
"So, if you pin so much on what He said, why don't you do what seems to be the most important thing? Why don't you feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit those in prison?"
...
Yup. Good question. And we all need to talk less and do more.
We talked about "Mere Discipleship" by Camp. We talked about the need for the church to be Jesus in the world. And I acknowledged our (my) many shortcomings. But the truth is, he's got us there. And the only thing that will make the world stop seeing us as they do is our actions of the present speaking far louder than our words of the past.
Excellent post. Excellent Questions. I won't even attempt to answer. God is just so big and we cannot even begin to possibly imagine what's on His mind. God is the one who can judge hearts.
I will address one thing here. If you are in a church that is excluding someone for sin - any kind of sin - then that is just totally wrong. We need to be a source of encouragement for those in sin to repent - but not a bang-ya-over-the-head-until-you-bleed or say "uncle". But in a spirit of love. It is possible to do that without condoning the sin - because we love the person. It's our place to love - not judge. I might raise an eyebrow if someone says that muslims are going to Heaven; but I conceed that I don't know God's plan or how He will go about judging each individual. I have enough on my plate worrying about me and my own heart!
Thanks for the comments, Thurm and Melanie. I appreciate your willingness to re-examine issues with me, and I hope this space can continue to be one (of many) safe places where we can do those things together.
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