I don't want to be new and innovative
Friday, December 12, 2008 at 2:10PM A great post by J.D. Greear:
It seems that a really dangerous temptation of us that are younger is the desire to be new and innovative... to discover groundbreaking truth or some new methodology that changes Christianity, and then be able to speak prophetically into the church. I can't tell you how many times I talk with guys in seminary who, when asked why they are going into the ministry, say, "I want to change this or that about the church."
There is, of course, some level at which this is good. We really do need to rethink the state of the church on a continual basis.
But the need for newness is not the primary need of the hour. The problem is not that most people need a new way of hearing the Gospel, but that most people have never heard it all. My goal each week is not to give what the people in front of me will perceive as a "new approach" to the Gospel, but simply to explain the really old Gospel in as clear a way as possible to them.
If that is "new," then let that be new. But my goal is not newness. It is the clear communication of the really, really old.
Reader Comments (5)
As someone who is a constant critic of organized religion this post made me stop and think. Have people really not heard the gospel? I think they have and they've rejected it as either irrelevant, hypocritical, fairy tale or some other reason. The reason the young people are trying to find some new thing to make church relevant is they realize it's over. Church in Canada is finished for the next generation. I'm never going back and I couldn't imagine taking my kids back. Very few folks I work with have ever been to church except the standard wedding, funerals, Easter, Christmas. No one can say I've never heard the gospel either. I've rejected the conservative, literal view of the gospel for many reasons, not hearing it wasn't one of them. I've rejected Church because I have heard and experienced what Church offers and I'm not interested. If you believe the problem with Evangelical Christianity in Canada is that folks haven't heard the gospel...you'll excelerate what I believe to be inevitable, the end of Chirstianity in Canada. Rob
Rob: It's not hard to see why someone would be disillusioned with church. But this points to the problem: to the extent that the church is off track, it is so because we are not in line with the gospel. By and large, we've looked elsewhere for answers. But I'm not so sure we've really looked to where we really need to change. I think a lot of us have been exposed to religion - and this might be the people group that most needs to be reached by the gospel.
Rob, I was very interested in your comments. And to expand, I hope, on what Darryl said, I would say that curiously, as a follower of Jesus Christ and a person who firmly believes that the message of Christ is true, I have experienced in churches exactly the disillusionment of which you speak. I don't live in Canada, but I think the issues with church that have driven you away are probably similar where I am. If I'm honest, I don't really want what most churches have to offer either. This has been primarily because they have lacked the very things that the message of Christ says should be their core values: Love. God so loved the world that He gave His Son to die for us. See John 3:16-17 Redemption. God can redeem anyone, and desires to redeem all, if they would just turn to Him. See II Peter 3:9 Humility. Jesus humbled himself to the point of giving up being God and becoming human to pay the price for our sin. See Philippians 2:5-11 Faith. Faith is what gets us back to God. We trust His plan, His sacrifice, His redemption, and He changes who we are. See Ephesians 2:8-10 And to be fair, I have always found individual believers in churches who truly incorporate these ideas and a faith in Christ in their lives in a compelling way. Yet church as a whole is far too often loveless, far too often arrogant, far too often believes certain "sinners" are beyond hope, and far too often simply exhibits no faith. So I would have to agree with the original idea, at least as modified slightly - many people have not heard the gospel - at least from anyone who apparently believes it. This doesn't mean I don't believe in or care about church. I do, deeply. But it also doesn't mean that much of what calls itself church today is necessarily good, Godly, or right. And I would really encourage you not to abandon seeking what might actually be true because of the lack of faith you may have seen in church. I work with a lot of younger people in Bible studies, and in life in general, and many of them also have found their church experience to be, at best, irrelevant. I would never tell them to look to a church as the ultimate arbiter of Truth. I tell them instead to talk to God and challenge Him with what church has told them - and with what I have told them - because ultimately, their relationship with God comes down to finding out what is actually True about Him, and when they find what is true, individually deciding whether they will place faith in that Truth. Not what I say. Not what a particular church thinks, and not whether they sign on to a particular church's membership roll. If we honestly ask God what is real, and what is true, He is fully capable of sorting out the good from the dreck, and showing us what is True. And if churches would consistently do the same, and seek Him in faith and love, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation. Jeremy Lowrey
Jeremy and Darryl, Thanks for the response. Jeremy, I've heard that Gospel and seen that Gospel my whole life. That's the Gospel I reject. If that Gospel were true I'd see some evidence of it changing people, especially those who claim to have the truth. I love CS Lewis, and I especially love his book Mere Christianity. In there he talks about why Christians can still be not nice, despite understanding and believing the Gospel. My challenge to you folks is this...what percentage of your Church budgets go to salaries, building and programmes? At BBC it was 90%. Another question, perhaps too personal, but I'll ask it anyways...if you're Churches would cease to exist would your communities notice? I sat in a Church meeting once. The pastor was talking about growth targets. The goal was to grow the Church by 500 people that year and make 100 new Christians. By this time I was sufficiently upset that I put up my hand and said, "If we're only making 100 new Christians, where do the other 400 come from?" I read a statistic from George Barna who said the Evangelical Church over the past 20 years has taken in 1 Trillion dollars. I've got to ask, based on the evidence I've seen, would that money not be better spent on Education, Healthcare (especially if you're an American), ironically I'd even rather give that money to the Salvation Army. (If they disappeared their communities would notice). So the way I see it, if I'm following your thoughts properly, the explanation for this is that we've got the wrong gospel. If that's true and we've all let it go on for as long as we have, at what point do we just shut it down, or try some new thing? Rob
Rob: Out of all the objections to Christianity, you raise one of the toughest to answer. If the Gospel is true, why are Christians and churches the way that they are? You ask some great questions, and I agree with a lot of what you say re: impact on community, the way we spend money, and the goals we pursue as a church. These really need to be answered, and you're right to raise them. I've had to face a few issues: that I'm part of the problem, and that people are always going to let me down, so I shouldn't be surprised when it happens. Also that Jesus was one of the harshest critics of religion, and that the people who critique Christianity are often borrowing from Christianity's own critique of itself. I like what Tim Keller writes: "The answer is not to abandon the Christian faith, because that would leave us with neither the standards nor the resources to make that correction. Instead we should move to a fuller and deeper grasp of what Christianity is. The Bible itself has taught us to expect the abuses of religion and it has also told us what to do about them." If we've been all about the wrong things, we can either shut it all down - or get back to the right thing. If the gospel is true, it's much better to pursue the latter option.