Bright Wings

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

March 25, 2009

Some Much Needed Fiction

Though the pastoral life is oft stranger than fiction, my heart aches for a book that doesn’t have the words ‘exegetical’, ‘socio-rhetorical’, or - to be very honest - ‘commentary’ in the subtitle.
Here are some books I’ve enjoyed recently for you to consider reading. Yes, I’m asking that you please put down Gilead by Marilynne Robinson is the story of an old Congregationalist minister in Iowa. Sounds riveting, I know, but bear with me. The old pastor is the narrator- recounting the events of his life and his family’s history for his young son to read when he grows up. Robinson’s prose is wonderful, even mezmerizing. The book won the Pulitzer Prize, so, you don’t have to take my word for it.

Here is a sampling:

You and Tobias are hopping around in the sprinkler. The sprinkler is a magnificent invention because it exposes raindrops to sunshine. That does occur in nature, but it is rare. When I was in seminary I used to go sometimes to watch the Baptists down at the river. It was something to the see the preacher lifting the one who was being baptized up out of the water and the water pouring off the garments and the hair. it did look like a birth or a resurrection. For us the water just heightens the touch of the pastor’s hand on the sweet bones of the head, sort of like making an electrical connection. I’ve always loved to baptize people, though I have sometimes wished there were more shimmer and splash involved in the way we go about it. Well, but you two are dancing around in your iridescent little downpour, whooping and stomping as sane people ought to do when they encounter a thing so miraculous as water.

I am currently reading Robinson’s follow up and companion novel, Home. I commend it to you as well.

My sister, little Miss Kris, just gave me Peace Like A River by Leif Enger. It was a birthday present,by the way. My birthday being only a few days away now. So you don’t have long to shop. Remember, daddy loves him some diamonds. Anyway, It is a great read, and so far (I’m only a quarter way through) it sort of oozes truth in a most delightful way. The narrator is Reuben, recounting the tumultous events of his family’s life in his eleventh year. In this little scene, Reuben goes to a Pentecostal revival meeting with his Dad, who gets slain in the Spirit.

He was stretched on his back right up by the pulpit, as if he’d been first to go. I had a fleeting sense of forsakenness. I was marooned; though I knew most everyone here, the sight of Dad out cold on the floor momentarily tipped bedrock. I pushed open the dooor and went to him, stepping, I’m afraid, on some innocent hands. It was like walking out of a plane crash. Dad looked comfortable, though: arms above his head, feet pointed inward. Some of the others’ eyes were twitching beneath the lids. Not Dad’s. He looked exactly like he did on the odd sleep-late Saturday morning when he’d worked long at schoool the night before: appreciative, vaguely surprised, and above all unconscious. I knelt at his side…But how do you wake a man knocked cold by love? Because, as he told me later, that’s what it was: the electric unearned love of the great Creator, traveling like light down the nerves of the Reverend Johnny’s arm, crackling out the tips of his fingers. I looked at Dad’s face - at creases I’d never noticed, the nap of his loosening skin at his throat. In that instant it seemed to me he deserved to rest this way for days and days.

Ok, it’s back to the Sabbath for me. Enjoy.

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posted by Erik Braun

March 19, 2009

The Coming Evangelical Collapse

Last week I received about 50 forwards in my email box directing me to Michael Spencer’s (who is, as far as I can tell a blogger/journalist) apparent bombshell article sweeping the nation.  Our blogging Nostradamus has prophesied the collapse of American Evangelicalism within next ten years (you can read the full three part article here).  And this seems to be news to most evangelicals- which only serves to prove Spencer’s point.  Many have asked me what I think- do I agree or disagree with Spencer’s predictions? The answer is a resounding yes.  Here are some random thoughts. .

Spencer’s main thesis, as I see it, is that in the coming generation, ‘evangelicalism’ (whatever that is) will lose influence, affluence, and entertainment (or media outlets which provide Christian entertainment ‘alternatives’). Let’s remember that the Christian church is built upon sacrifice, is made perfect in weakness, and engages culture with the gospel. It seems that evangelicals (including me) are anxious that we might lose our homes, our jobs, and might just have to take up our cross and follow Jesus. What a woeful state of affairs! We do well to remember that Jesus never promised us a rose garden on our little evangelical island. The Bible is abundantly clear: we are aliens and strangers here on earth with a citizenship in heaven and a mission to the lost. We have made it about something else, and that dream is clearly dying. If the coming evangelical collapse means simply that Christians will lose power, cash, and kitsch - I say good riddance. We desperately need more Solzhenitzen’s and less Hybels’s. Problem is, one comes from the gulag and the other, well, doesn’t.

I am loathe to buy into the doomsday rhetoric of Spencer’s article. These sort of grim forecasts have circulated throughout the many seasons of Evangelicalism over the past century and have not come to pass. Wise men have been discussing and chewing on the basic realities facing evangelicalism (which Spencer articulates succinctly and clearly) and have seen much of this coming for some time now. How these realities will pan out is hazy to say the least. The comparisons of a post-Christian America to the current post-Christian Europe (which is for the most part Spencer’s point of reference) is not apt in many ways and this should temper our fears. 

The realities facing us I believe will lead to major shifts (and, in more hopeful terminology- reform and renewal) rather than collapse. Evangelicalism will be vastly different in the coming years, no doubt. Whether this is a ‘collapse’ or not is very difficult to say. But, I have not missed Spencer’s point: there is going to be a major decline of the social and political influence of ‘evangelicalism’ in the coming generation.  While this is bad for the current evangelical machine, I do not think this is bad for the church and for the gospel.  Not seeing Third Day or Amy Grant on the secular charts does not mean that the power of the cross of Christ is marginalized.

I believe it is crucial for us to think in biblical terms about these things. This is truly the main problem with evangelicalism and the main cause for it’s fragile future: A fundamental inability to think biblically and with theological discernment.  Spencer points to this problem by bemoaning the fact that many evangelicals “can’t articulate the Gospel with any coherence”. It would be helpful for us if Spencer, and every one else including me, would begin to think biblically- dare I say gospel-ly, about this dread collapse. For example- what does it mean when Spencer and others speak of a future in which ‘millions of evangelicals will quit’.  What are the biblical and theological implications of such a statement?  What are the ‘gospel’ implications of such a statement? What does Jesus say about this? What about Paul? Does the Apostle John have a word for us?

You can read some helpful interactions here and here until then.

Tags: Evangelicalism, etc.

posted by Erik Braun