“Semi-millenial rummage sale of ideas”

This image has been floating around social media this past week. The caption says it all.

Earlier this week, I was texting with a good friend about Lesslie Newbigin. We met our friend while we were resident chaplains for Baylor and he was an undergraduate student at Baylor. He participated in two trips that we led to Ghana, is now a student at Truett Seminary, and is slated to co-lead the trip to Ghana for Baylor Missions in May. We could not be more proud of him and are honored to have played a small part in his journey.

For one of his classes, Biblical and Theological Themes of Missions, he is currently reading a book called “The Open Secret” by Lesslie Newbigin. This book and Lesslie Newbigin’s life and writings were the most influential voice during my seminary journey. I received permission from my friend to share this portion of our text conversation:

Friend: “In BTT today, we had Newbigin’s conversation about election and liberation theology. My brain hurts haha”

Me: “It hurts but it is oh so good and worth it yeah?”

Friend: “So good! It just hurts me that these conversations aren’t happening. Especially his dialogue on the Eucharist being the table for all people, oppressed and oppressors, but we’re too quick to throw it in at the end of the service a few times a year just to maintain tradition in the by laws of the church.”

Me: “Agreed.”

Friend: “But the stuff on election just completely flipped the whole argument of election on its head with a new way of talking about it.”

Me: “Told you. Election not as privilege but as responsibility. And the Church is to exist for the sake of its non-members.”

Friend: “To be elect is a fearful responsibility. Now if only people would truly understand that and not think the church is for them.”

The dialogue in the cartoon captures the disconnect in the mission of God and the focus of far too many local churches perfectly: “Basically, we’re looking for an innovative pastor with fresh vision who will inspires us to remain exactly the same.”

 

This past week I led a study on a chapter out of Barbara Brown Taylor’s book “Learning to Walk in the Dark.” In this chapter she was talking about the dark night of the soul that individuals experience but said it can also occur in a community of people like a local church or the universal Church. In an extended excerpt she shares:

“While the dark night of the soul is usually understood to descend on one person at a time, there are clearly times when whole communities of people loose sight of the sun in ways that unnerve them. This seems to be what is happening to a lot of church people right now, especially those in denominations that are losing members at an alarming rate. While they experiment with new worship styles and set up Facebook pagers, most of them know that the problem runs deeper than that. The old ways of being Christian are not working anymore, not even for those who are old themselves. Something in the ways has died, or is dying — truly cause for great sorrow, even among those who know the time has come — and yet at the same time something is being born.”

She continues sharing: “Phyllis Tickle says that we are in the midst of a great rummage sale that the Christian church holds from time to time. Every age has its own accumulation to deal with, along with its own reasons for deciding what stays and what goes. [. . .] In Tickle’s terms, what many of us are taking part in, willingly or not, is Christianity’s ‘semi-millennial rummage sale of ideas.’ The last one was called the Protestant Reformation. No one knows what to call this one yet.”

She closes this section, sharing some thoughts inspired by Harvey Cox. “People have voted with their feet. Doctrines and creeds are no longer enough to keep faith alive. Instead, the faithful seek practical guidance and direct experience of the sacred. The new age we are living in is the Age of the Spirit, Cox says, already well under way in the global South. If this is a liberating moment for some people of faith, it is a moment of profound loss for others. Maybe you do not get one without the other, but age makes a difference.”

There is a narrative of fear being fostered in the political sphere and in our country right now. I would argue there is also a narrative of fear being fostered in local churches as well. Churches are afraid of change. It’s complicated but true. Whether it’s a pastoral search committee, influential church members, or even some of the pastors and church staff, self-preservation is too often the primary focus of the church, not the mission of God. Narratives are created and fostered to maintain the status quo.

My friends, this should not be so! I have a deep, deep love for the Church. I believe in the local church. That being said, I do not believe she is all that she should be. We get in the way with our own agendas. We are too busy with our stuff. And we are afraid of the great unknown.

The most often repeated phrase in Scripture is “do not be afraid.” Let us not be a Church who is held captive by fear. May we not inspire one another to remain exactly the same. Rather, may we be reminded that we have been called to be the Church. It is not a privilege but a responsibility. Our existence is not for ourselves or our own safety and preservation. We are to exist for the sake of the non-member as we follow the mission of God, God’s missionary spirit and movement in the world.