Bright Wings

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with Ah! Bright Wings.

August 27, 2008

The New Emergen-ese

The cry is often heard that the world does not understand the body when we speak Christian-ese. We are told to beware alienating the ‘un-churched’ with language that is foreign and confusing to them.  The call of Scripture to be in the world but not of the world is the essence of the plea.  Don’t be so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good. Let your speech be seasoned as with salt. Let the cross be the offense, let the gospel be the stumbling block – don’t trip up the seeker with your strange tongue and weird, antiquated bible-speak. With this cry I am mostly in agreement.  The smooth tongued and unctuous preacher who begins each sentence with ‘dearly beloved’ and makes God a three syllable word is as nauseating to me as the next guy. We need to always be defining the terms. No question.

Yet, we need to remember that the regenerate community is a group of ‘strangers and aliens’. We cannot escape the reality that we will behave and speak and believe in a fundamentally different way than the world. There is a fine line between wisdom and propaganda in these matters. It is one thing to be careful to identify the biblical categories and contexts behind language and concepts that are confusing, strange, and rejected by a disbelieving and lost world.  This is called good stewardship, intentionality, love, and grace. To abandon biblical concepts and categories – and the words that come with them- because it hurts (or at least fails to tickle ) the sensibilities of the hard heart is manipulation and capitulation.  I’ll spare us all the debate over hermeneutical spirals, the possibility of textual meaning, and the other postmodern problems of the day.  You get the point.

It amazes me how churches have lurched headlong into this pit of meaninglessness in their striving after relevance.  We have replaced christianese with what I call emegernese. People don’t understand, or don’t have categories for, say- membership class?  Emerge!  Let’s call it something else. Make it cool, hip, and edgy- and just a wee bit inscrutable. How about connection sessions?  The guy with the soul patch and square glasses playing capture the flag with your high schooler is no longer the ‘youth pastor’. He is now the lead strategist for student oriented ministry involvement. The Senior Pastor becomes the Catalytic leader via strategic communication.  Children’s ministry keeps its name but just puts a ‘z’ in crucial places: Childrenz Ministry.  The fellowship hall is now the 2-4-6 room (after Acts 2:46; or because of Ezekiel 24:6 or maybe Deut. 2:4-6; or maybe it is open 24 hours each day except Monday). The sanctuary is now the ‘gathering zone’ and the narthex is still the, uh, narthex. I had a conversation with a younger pastor recently who was decidedly much more rad than I who kept asking me about our ‘church DNA’.  I told him that I was not an ecclesiastical biochemist, so I really don’t know.

The problem with this emergent project– this ‘repainting’ of the Christian faith as Rob Bell calls it - is that the timeless truth of the gospel can quickly become the handmaiden of the fickle demands of cultural relevance.  The call of the Reformers to be ‘always reforming’ was a call to constant vigilance around the principle of ‘sola scriptura’ – scripture alone. The motto of the pomo reformation is the same, only it is a call to constant vigilance around the principle of ‘sola cultura’ – culture alone.  The other day I heard a college student laugh at the song list on a friend’s walkman – sorry – ipod, “those guys (referring to some band) are so five minutes ago!”  Cultural relevance is a cruel mistress. If you’ll allow me to keep throwing metaphors at you- reaching for relevance is like catching a tiger by the tail: you got him one minute; you are tiger lunch the next.  We are all victims and instigators in this chase, to be sure (we are called ‘Four Oaks Church’ and hardly anyone knows why; we have a 2-6-8 room and only Paul Gilbert knows why).  It is not wrong to be creative, it is not wrong to be ‘timely’. But watch out that your timeliness does not take the place of what Os Guinness calls ‘prophetic untimeliness’- our ability to speak into the needs of the world because we have refused to give way to its every demand.  We must at some point square off with the root of much of this thirst for timeliness- our idolatry, our pride, and our longing for acceptance from the world- often at the cost of losing the message of reconciliation that we bring to the world.

The truth of the matter is that there are essential truths in the Scriptures that are fundamentally un-cool and unacceptable in all cultures and in every context (we might call it the ‘otherworldliness’ of the Christian faith). The death to self, the reality of innate sin, the need for atonement, the denial of works righteousness, the call to obedience, the core call to surrender and submission- all of these things are not just unknown to the world- but are also, for the most part, rejected and hated.  Jesus told us plainly that the bearers of this message would be hated by the world as he was hated. The beautiful thing is- this message saved my life, and will save the lives of all those who have ears to hear.

Do this: speak honestly, transparently, biblically, and sometimes with creative and provocative precision. Let our yes be yes and your no be no. Let the power of the gospel be the power of the gospel and not replace it with our own relatively impotent constructs- however cute or cool we might consider them.  Let’s repent often for our lust for acceptance. Let’s never apologize for our willingness to carry our cross daily and lose our lives for the gospel.

I’ll sign off now, I need to get over to Hebdomadal Litany and Intercession, sorry - Wednesday night prayer meeting.

Semper reformanda.

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posted by Erik Braun

August 21, 2008

Mother Teresa, we need you now. . .

A few of you have asked my opinion of the recent appearance of our two presidential hopefuls at the land of all things purpose-ful. From what I saw, it appeared that we fundamentally learned nothing new of either candidate. Obama seemed to run right down the left hand of the dial, with McCain down the right.

Obama said some pretty striking things, of which you can imagine my response. Obama said that the there are those who think life begins at conception as a matter of faith. I don’t fundamentally hold to an individual’s right to life from conception as a matter of ‘faith’- anymore than I hold to a toddler’s right to life as a matter of faith. It is a matter of scientific fact and clear medical evidence and claiming this pro-life position as a matter of faith (and so somehow not to be an issue of legislative action as other matters of life and death) is obfuscation and manipulation in my view.

Obama was asked when, in his view, a baby gets human rights. His response was fascinating:

“Whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity is, you know, above my pay grade.”

Obama is a legislator, civic leader, and running for the highest office in our land and must speak clearly on what is still the most important human rights issue facing our land. This defining moral issue is without a doubt well within the pay grade of our commander in chief. In reality Sen. Obama has made his views regarding the rights of the unborn clear in every forum thus far. Senator Obama went on to say in the forum that he ‘believes’ in Roe v. Wade. The infamous ruling of Roe v. Wade denies the human rights of the fetus and allows for abortion on demand through to term . Sen. Obama has campaigned unequivocally AGAINST the rights of the unborn and has promised this campaign to continue. His hemming and hawing on this question was deceptive.

The real issue that I had with the forum had more to do with Rick Warren. I felt he did a ‘good job’ as far as all that goes. He moderated well, asked some very helpful questions and was fair and balanced, just like FOX news. The problem with all this is the reality that our pastor-teachers are not called to be debate moderators or ‘forum’ providers for political hopefuls. They are to preach the gospel, to oppose sin and injustice, and confront governors and leaders with the truth of God’s Word. I do not mean to say that Rev. Warren shouldn’t necessarily host such a forum. I am concerned, though, that our pastors are seizing these opportunities as a priority above their call to proclaim truth and biblically address the issues facing our land. Pastors are called by God to be much more than talk show hosts that nod in agreement or smile benignly in the presence of our princes. I am reminded of the famous prayer breakfast when the diminutive and elderly Mother Teresa stood up among a crowd of clergymen and chastised President Bill Clinton for his woeful position on the issue of abortion. She refused the religous stature that the powers and principalities offered and instead chose the cause of the least of these. That Pastor Warren has by and large (along with so many pastors in the purpose - and market - driven movement) abdicated the prophetic nature of his office at such an opportunity is sad, to say the least. Though it might be argued that such prophetic abdication is the very reason why Saddleback had this opportunity in the first place.

“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” - Mother Teresa

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posted by Erik Braun