Living Out The Gospel Is No Longer Enough?
James 1: 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
One of the most dangerous things about our tendency to embrace modern western culture as Christians is the reality that we have subtlety, yet deeply, convinced ourselves that we are in fact embracing the gospel of Christ when we do so, albeit rewritten and redressed in post modern garb. We believe somehow that through our rocking praise bands and our huge worship centers and our shopping mall reception areas and our big screen videos and our amazing sound systems and our life changing productions and our charismatic pastors and our huge billboards and our use of modern marketing techniques and our make believe smiles that some how, some way, people will discover Jesus through the post modern fog we create. We look straight way into the gospel of Christ, looking at our faces in the mirror, seeing ourselves as desperately in need of grace and mercy with each breath, then go on our way, immediately forgetting what we have seen. Because our theological gazing is often superficial, based on our own privatized versions of morality and Christian living, dogmatically autonomous and rigidly personal, and because we have been taught to trust ourselves above all others, we lose our way when it comes to critiquing the power culture exercises over our thinking. And when God sends us prophets to help us see, we dismiss them out of hand because we have not heard this Word from God in our own private versions of faith. We have somehow convinced ourselves that we can trust our intuitions, our personal piety, our personal religious enthusiasm. We have taught ourselves to believe that the ends justify the means, that secondary culture is sovereign (http://taoism21cen.com/Englishchat/essay9.html), and that nothing good comes to us unless it is empowered by positive emotional experiences. We have persuaded those around us that God is primarily concerned about our happiness, that our churches are not God centered unless they are concerned about our happiness, and that there is nothing wrong with our non-committal search for those things in life which will bring us happiness - whether we speak of marriage, job, or church. We have redefined the “perfect law of liberty” as “our own personal law of liberty”.
In his book, The Next Evangelicalism, Pastor Rah tells a story of a leader in his church whom he called Jack. In a moment of frustration he writes that he “not so pastorly” told him, “It is not the churches (or the pastor's job) to make you happy.” To which Jack immediately responded, “It most certainly is my churches job to make me happy.” The saddest thing about this observation is that most American Christians would most certainly agree, even if they would not choose to verbalize it as clearly as Jack did. The post modern world in which we thrive has indoctrinated us into our patriotic duty to be good citizens within the confines of our consumer society. Good citizens shop. We faithfully practice this in our marriages, we display this worldview with our toys and gadgets, and we model a consumer mentality in our church life as well. Rah writes: “American evangelicalism has created the unique phenomenon of church shopping – viewing church as yet another commodity to be evaluated and purchased. When a Christian family moves to a new city, how much of the standards by which they choose a church is based upon a shopping list of personal tastes and wants, rather than their personal commitment to a particular community or their desire to serve a particular neighborhood? Churches, in turn, have adapted their ministries to appeal to the consumer mindset of the American public……The acquiescence to the consumer culture means that churches fall into the vicious cycle of trying to keep the attendees happy.” For if we don’t, they will leave. And if we do, they will most likely leave anyway, for sooner or later discomfort, selfish anger, petty pride, and a desire for church to be “easy” will win the day.
After serving as Associate Pastor or Pastor in just five churches I have learned that I can almost always predict the people who will eventually leave. I just look for those who have left a church before (when the going gets tough, most just go), who refuse to attend bible studies that teach things they don’t agree with (My truth is my truth and I dont even need to hear about any other truth), who define their commitment to their church in their like or dislike of a Pastor(I am not part of a body unless I like where the body is headed), who only value leaders who see things the way they see things (who ever said that the christian life is about humility and servanthood never went to my church), or those who have so privatized their faith they have never embraced the joy of living in a community of love, sacrifice, and accountability to a local Body (I am all for love, sacrifice, accountability, as long as I'm the one doing the holding and I'm only accountable to me.) One or more of these qualities will often lead to these people “moving on”. While Paul cries out for us to “take our stand” only in the gospel of Christ (1 Cor. 15:1-11), it is very easy to recognize those who take their stand elsewhere. These criteria almost always predict correctly, for sooner or later disappointment will come. I often wonder, do these people really believe that once they move on that the Body they leave behind is not bleeding in their wake? Is it even part of the decision making? Or has the church become so engrossed in the post modern mind set of personal taste and felt needs that the consequences reaped by the brothers and sisters who remain are no longer a part of the equation? While the Churches in conflict in the New Testament find ways to forgive, reconcile and move forward, we just proclaim our autonomy, reject our brothers and sisters, and go shop around for what we need. Is it really a surprise that young Americans are becoming indifferent and disinterested in such a Church as this? (more thoughts to come, peace/out)
Written on Monday, 22 August 2011 09:59 by Rick Farmer
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