All Style, No Substance

During my recent convalescence, I spent a day with this book about the beliefs of five pastors of “emerging” churches. For some time, I’ve been interested in the relationship between the Christian faith and things “postmodern,” and that is what the emerging church claims to be working on. What this book clarified for me was that the distinction between beliefs (doctrine) and the way in which beliefs are communicated and practiced (style) is an extremely important distinction, and one which is mostly lost on the practitioners of the emerging church.

With the sole exception of Mark Driscoll, the contributors don’t really want to answer the question, “what do you believe?” Several of them, in fact, criticized Driscoll for being dogmatic. It would seem that they don’t regard any fixed doctrine to be the essential feature of the Christian faith. They would rather envision the faith as a participation in an ongoing personal narrative or conversation that never arrives at any solid conclusions. The result is a variety of expressions of pragmatism. Church is about how we do things more than about what things we hold to be true.

To the extent these writers do reveal their doctrinal positions, they also reveal that there is no doctrinal unity within the emerging church. Their beliefs range from conservative evangelical to mainline liberal. What this tells us is that the movement is a style movement, not a substance movement–the latest in a long line of Church growth strategies.

The problem with this is that the heart of Christianity is a bit of news–an actual truth claim that the eternal Son of God was incarnated, died for the sins of his people, rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, and will return. To be a Christian, one must hold these things to be true. Certainly that’s not all there is to being a Christian, but that’s the centerpiece. “If Christ be not raised, then our preaching is vain, and our faith also is vain.” The assigned mission of the Church is the proclamation of this message in words and deeds. It has been shown repeatedly in the history of the Church that when we focus our attention on style, we start to forget the substance. This book shows that it’s happened again in the emerging church.

 

The Story of the Crucifixion of Andrew the Apostle (adapted from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs)

In my Sunday School class, we recently engaged in a discussion of Jesus’ challenge to would-be followers to “take up your cross.” This story is an interesting sidebar to that discussion, a recording of which can be found HERE.

According to tradition, Andrew—who was Peter’s brother and the first follower of Jesus—preached the gospel in the region North of the Black Sea and in various parts of Greece. His life ended in Northern Greece in a city called Patras. He was crucified by Aegeas, the governor of the region at the time.

Andrew was a diligent preacher of the gospel and had brought many people to faith in Christ. When Aegeas the governor heard about this, he came to Patras to put an end to the Christian movement there. To do this, he enforced a legal requirement that everyone worship the Roman gods by making sacrifices to them. Andrew immediately decided to resist Aegeas and went to address him directly.

“It would be wise for someone who judges men,” he said, “to know the One who is his Judge—the One who lives in heaven. And once you have known Him, you will worship Him, since He is the One true God. In so doing, this judge of men will turn his mind away from false gods and blind idols.”

These words from Andrew angered Aegeas. “Are you the same Andrew that overthrew the temple of the gods?” he demanded. “Are you the same Andrew that goes around persuading men to believe in superstitions which Rome has abolished? I have been commanded to put an end to such teaching.”

Andrew replied by saying that it was indeed a fact that the Roman authorities did not understand the truth. “The Son of God came from heaven into the world for man’s sake,” he said, “He taught us that these idols you honor as gods are not only not gods, but are actually cruel demons. They are enemies to mankind, and they teach people nothing except things which offend God. As a result, these people fall into all kinds of wickedness, and when they die, they have nothing to offer to God but evil deeds.”

As you might imagine, the governor was not appeased by what Andrew had to say. Instead, he commanded Andrew to quit teaching and preaching these things immediately. If he refused, he would be fastened to the cross at once.

But Andrew did refuse to change his mind and replied to the threat of crucifixion by saying, “I would not preach the honor and glory of the cross if I feared the death of the cross.”

So the sentence of death was pronounced, and Andrew was taken away to be crucified for denying the religion of the Roman gods. Because crucifixion was an especially cruel and painful death, men who faced it often lost their minds from fear. They would frequently faint when they saw the cross. Andrew, however, didn’t even pale. Instead, out of his deep love for Christ, he spoke these words that strike the heart like sparks of fire.

“O cross!” he declared, “O cross most welcome and long anticipated! I come to you with a willing mind, with joy and desire. Since I am a follower and a student of the One who died on you, I have always loved you and sought to embrace you.”

And so Andrew gave his life for the love of Christ.

Paintings of the martrydom of Andrew (like this one by Bartolome Esteban Murillo) always depict an X-shaped cross. Tradition says that the Romans rotated the traditional cross onto its side as an insult. This is also the origin of the Scottish flag, depicted above, known as “St. Andrew’s Cross.”

 

Unfulfilled Promise: A review of Off-Road Disciplines by Earl Creps

I promised to review this book on my blog in exchange for a free copy, so let me begin by saying thanks to the author and publisher for that opportunity. I’m not enthusiastic about Off-Road Disciplines (I don’t think I would have read it had I come across it in a bookstore), but I appreciate what I perceive to be the motivation of its author, which is his love for the Body of Christ and those who minister in it. While I share that love, I think this book simply doesn’t fulfill its promise. “Missional leaders,” Dr. Creps writes in the introduction, “see the world through the eyes of Jesus.” The rest of the book, however, seems aimed mostly at helping leaders to see Jesus through the eyes of the world. So while not wanting to be simply pragmatic, Off-Road Disciplines ends up being ultimately pragmatic, seemingly built on three faulty assumptions:

The first is: Relevance is king. The “truth” Creps is most concerned about is the cultural environment of the Church. There is a lot here about what we can do to understand and fit into what he calls our “tiempos mixtos” or mixed times. There is very little about how the message of the gospel might address and challenge contemporary culture. For example, in his chapter on Reverse Mentoring, Dr. Creps notes that there is plenty of opportunity for older folks to learn from younger folks, especially when it comes to utilizing the technological gadgets of our day. Nothing wrong with that; the scripture calls the Church to a relational strategy of ministry. But we also need to take a prophetic stance—what Vanhoozer calls a disputational stance—against the ills of human culture. So while I get to know young people who are technologized, I’m also concerned about how technology may be dehumanizing them in the way it allows them to escape the sort of face-to-face interaction that real discipleship requires or in the way it facilitates the development of virtual personalities while ignoring the development of character.

The Christian message unavoidably criticizes human beings and the societies we form. If we ignore that reality in order to attract people to Christianity, we must inevitably either spring the trap, at which point people would justifiably feel misled, or continue to let people believe in an uncritical gospel, which is no gospel at all. Dr. Creps occasionally gives hints that he is aware of this problem. The chapter on “Reflection” is a good example, but even there, theological reflection is ultimately aimed at ministry effectiveness rather than personal knowledge of God in Christ and the resulting worship.

This leads me to the second bad assumption: The mission is being “missional.” After reading through Off-Road Disciplines, I find it troubling that I can’t remember a clear statement of what the mission of the Church or of the Christian is, even though this book is about being missional. The problem here is that the mission of the Church is quite particular and it has particular propositional content. The Christian and the Church are called to embody a particular message. The ultimate purpose of that message is not the redemption of people, but the redemption of people into proper worship of the true God. John Piper makes this point most excellently, by the way, in his book on mission called Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions. Our problem is not that we are inadequate in our attention to and understanding of human cultures so much as it is that we are inadequate in our attention to, understanding of, and appreciation for God himself as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ himself.

One might respond that these things are acknowledged as given, and simply not within the scope of Off-Road Disciplines. This implies what seems to me to be a third bad assumption: Ordinary Christians in America have been well taught the content of their faith. Perhaps Dr. Creps knows better, but my own observation is that in spite of unprecedented opportunity, our generation is as theologically illiterate as any in history. This is the result of the pragmatic orientation of 20^th century evangelicalism, an orientation which this book does little to correct. This is the problem I have with most of the “emergent” stuff I’ve read. It is critical of the pragmatic approaches of the Seeker Sensitive movement, or of the Church-growth movement before that, but fails to recognize that it is simply the latest version of the pragmatic Church.

Finally, I have to say that there’s nothing particularly “off-road” about Off-Road Disciplines. All of these things seem to me to be better described as ordinary tactics of biblical disciple-making. The principal advice—not the only advice—in this book is: spend some time getting to know people you plan to communicate with. That’s good advice, but there’s nothing radical about it. I found that as I read this book, I kept hoping for the fresh insight the title seems to promise. I’m sorry to say that hope remains unsatisfied.

 

Are you thinking?

Most Christians would rather die than think; in fact, they do.
–Bertrand Russell

I am afraid that Mr. Russell was right. Of course, we could substitute just about any class of people for Christians in this sentence, and it would still be true. And, it should be pointed out, all of Bertrand’s thinking didn’t keep him from dying. One has to wonder what is the point of thinking if it doesn’t keep you from dying. Woody Allen said it well: “I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.” Unfortunately for him, though, his work will certainly outlive him.

I digress. The point is that Bertrand Russell’s criticism of “most Christians” is true. And while all of his thinking turned out to be pointless, the thinking of Christian thoughts is not. The thinking of Christian thoughts is an essential element of eternal life. So it is a great tragedy if Christians are just not thinking much.

The proof that Christians are not thinking much can be found in any “Christian Store.” Christian Stores used to be called Bible Bookstores. Now they are filled with an amazing array of pablum. Even the books they sell are weak-minded and often not really Christian. Your Best Life Now? You’ve got to be kidding. If Christianity says anything, it says, “Your best life later.”

Please. I beg you. Swim against this tide of non-thinking. You could make a good start by reading A Mind for God by James Emery White. In this great little book (about 100 easy-to-read pages), Dr. White will encourage you to obey Christ by loving God with all your mind–to think Christianly. “Thinking Christianly,” Os Guinness wrote, “is thinking by Christians about anything and everything in a consistently Christian way–in a manner that is shaped, directed, and restrained by the truth of God’s Word and God’s Spirit.” According to the apostle Paul, the “renewing of the mind” is a critical aspect of a life that follows Jesus. Thinking Christianly is essential to living as His disciple.

A Mind for God will not only motivate you to repent of your mindlessness; it will also give you solid practical guidance. Some of the guidance is kind of obvious, like “turn off your TV and read.” Some of it is less obvious, like “morning is better than evening.” One of the great features of the book is its appendices, which contain a list of books that will turn anyone who reads them into a good Christian thinker.

There is one chapter that I wish Dr. White had thought to include. That chapter would say something about the life of the mind as it relates to the life of the Church. How should the Church foster deep, careful, Christian thinking? In what ways–and to what extent–should our fellowship and service be an intellectual exercise? How does or should our fellowship include a sharing of the mind of Christ? How should a thinking Church interact with the world? How could the Church have a truly prophetic voice in the greater culture, a voice that offers real thought rather than simplistic platitudes or moralistic presumptions?

Even though these questions are not addressed, a smart reader of A Mind for God should be able to begin on them, and that is the best way to take this book. It is a motivational guide–a beginning point–for those who would like to develop their minds for God. Read this book. Or at least read a book.

 

A Good Saturday Morning

I spent this morning with two of life’s great pleasures, a great cup of coffee and a really good book. The coffee was Kenyan Kiaguthu Peaberry roasted to the City+ level. Mmmm. The only way to get really good coffee is to roast it yourself, which I’ve been doing for a couple years now. I had roasted some of this Kenyan bean before, but I think I overcooked it. This batch was much better.

The book is called Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt & Certainty in Christian Discipleship by Lesslie Newbigin. If you know me, you’ve heard me talk about Michael Polanyi, the 20^th century scientist and philosopher whose work was the subject of my thesis. Newbigin’s book is a great quick reference for the application of Polanyi’s thought to the Christian life, and I highly recommend it. It’s only 105 pages and is written in a very accessible style. I read the whole thing this morning.
If you’re curious about how Christian thought fits (or doesn’t fit, as Newbigin shows) into classical, modern, or post-modern ideas about knowledge, you should read this book. If you’re one of those young evangelicals that is disenchanted with the hyper-rationalistic hyper-individualistic concepts of Christianity, you should read this book. If you want to figure out whether truth is objective or subjective, you should read this book. If you want to know what is really wrong with fundamentalism or with liberalism (and you won’t find it in what they say about each other), you should read this book.
Here’s a quote to give you the flavor:

“The human person is not a mind attached to a body but a single psychosomatic being. The implication of this, of course, is that the gospel does not become public truth for a society by being propogated as a theory or as a worldview and certainly not as a religion. It can become public truth only insofar as it is embodied in a society (the church) which is both “abiding in” Christ and engaged in the life of the world.”

A few weeks back, my friend Jon (who also introduced me to home roasted coffee) wrote an interesting piece for his blog about a recent trend among young evangelicals in which many are departing to more liturgical versions of Church, especially various Eastern forms (by the way, I think the Emergent Church is sort of a wimpy American-consumer version of the same trend). It’s all a sort of pre-modern postmodernism. If we all read Polanyi (or Newbigin’s short version of Polanyi), this trend would evaporate.

By the way, I FINISHED my thesis last week, and after a very helpful proofread from my English professor friend Bob, it has now been shipped to the seminary! I wish I had read Newbigin’s book at the beginning of the process. It is chock full of pithy Polanyian language.