This post is part of a synchroblog, a bunch of different Christian bloggers reacting to a common topic. Wanna get in on it? Visit the synchroblog blog.
This month’s synchroblog topic is “Calling us out of numbness,” and uses at its starting point some questions that we Christians need to ask ourselves on a regular basis. I realize the point of the synchroblog is for me to answer these questions, but I’m gonna start by challenging my readers to answer these questions for themselves.
- What’s stirring up in you?
- What’s God challenging you to consider?
- How does it intersect with your faith and practical experience?
Of course, the first question presumes something actually is stirring up in us. For many Christians, little is stirring, except maybe some emotions from time to time. The way I interpret this is: What new thing do you feel driven to do? Could be something you want to start; could be something you’ve just started. But I suspect the thinking behind the question is that this new drive may be a God thing.
The second, which asks what God is challenging us to consider, likewise presumes we’re accepting any such challenge. Again, for many Christians, nothing is challenged: We get set in our beliefs. We learn all the theology we care to, figure we have God figured out well enough, and stop trying to grow… and in some cases, fight any new growth that God is trying to develop in us, on the grounds that “there is no new revelation,” or that God’s not gonna make us Kingdom-ready until we’re resurrected and physically in the Kingdom. You know, the usual cessationist* crap that we use to weasel out of following a living God, by declaring three-quarters of the bible to be dead, and that He’s sitting on His hands till the next dispensation.* We don’t humbly recall that we’re wrong and Jesus is right; we figure we’re right, and God has nothing more to add. But for those of us who recognize He is anything but silent, what has He recently corrected—or what is He currently correcting—in you?
Lastly, we ought to consider what good this new drive and new thinking will do. Yet again, for many Christians, there’s a disconnect between our religious beliefs and our daily life. I’m not talking about outright hypocrisy, where we’re pretending to be one thing and are truly another. More like we’ve adopted different personas in different spheres of our lives. For some folks there’s the at-work version of them, and the at-home version, and the with-friends version, and the online version, and the at-church version. The only difference between these versions was how much of their guard they’d let down… or put up. I admit, I used to do this a lot—and still do when I don’t make the conscious effort to be outgoing. Lots of people do. But one of the things we guard most, especially if He’s precious to us, is Jesus; and He’s the one thing we need to share most. When the guard goes up, the Christianity hides, and we can’t be doing that. So how are we going to not hide it? How is the new stuff going to integrate with the old stuff?—all of the old stuff?
Okeydokey, my answers.
In my case, what I’m stirred up about is taking all this stuff here at More Christ and teaching it in a new believers’ class at my church. I’ve taught it before, of course, but my church doesn’t have a newbies class yet (although we need one) and my pastor and I have been discussing the prospect.
What’s God making me consider? Well, a lot of it you see on this blog. As I’m writing on any particular topic, God regularly corrects me. I have a lot of knee-jerk beliefs that I grew up with, and He’s purging them out of me. Lots of times I start an entry expecting to come to one conclusion, and thanks to Him I’m obligated to come to another. (Of course I do not claim I infallibly hear Him. Any errors you find on this blog, and I’m sure there are many, are totally mine.) But more recently, as you can likely tell, He’s been putting more of my focus onto how He considers fruit far more important than orthodoxy; that orthodoxy is only one of the fruits, but love gets mentioned in the bible far more.
How do they intersect with real life? Lots of ways. Fruit over orthodoxy applies to the way I interact with virtually everyone. It makes me more forgiving, less legalistic, more accepting, less fearful of heretics (’cause when I was a kid, we were raised to think of them as boogeymen), and more appreciative of grace. Yeah, I’ll still nitpick theological beliefs from time to time, ’cause that stuff is important to me, but I recognize that it’s important to me; God can save despite how imperfectly we perceive Him, ’cause we all have errors in our thinking. (We’re wrong, remember?)
When churches have their membership classes, they tend to incorporate a crash course in their particular beliefs, and sometimes those beliefs are of course the basics of Christianity. So, having moved around a lot, I’ve been through far too many newbies’ classes. And of course, they emphasize—whether they mean to or not—orthodoxy over fruit. Understandable; you shouldn’t join their church if you can’t go along with their faith statement. But in a non-membership-style newbies’ class, it’s not appropriate. “After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?” as Paul put it. (Ga 3.3) Because that is what most churches’ emphasis on orthodoxy turns into: Legalism. Maybe not of deeds, but definitely of thoughts and words, which don’t save either.
Well, I’ve said quite a bit on this elsewhere, so I’ll stop before it becomes yet another rant, and encourage you to think about your own answers to these questions.