outside is better

Baptists and Sacraments Oh My!!!!

This last week has had me in a mad dash to complete a good bit of reading for a class next week.  The class is on the Sacraments and how in intersects with our faith.  The baptist in me (which is very, very, very small in the traditional sense) used to a double take when I heard the word, but in the last 5 or so years it has turned into part of my vocabulary.  While I am not comfortable ruminating on the sacraments as a baptist, two guys I respect did that this week, so I wanted to give you think links.  I know this is a rough patch for some folks...but check out these links and see what they have to say.

Your Mission: "Resacramentalize Evangelicism" by the Internet Monk.

Ordination and the Lord’s Table: PROVIDING SOME “SHAPE” FOR “THE THINGS TO COME” by David Fitch.

I also am going to be tackling this class with another baptist, good friend Drew Causey.  We may have to offer some thoughts here on the blog later this month.

The Post-Evangelical landscape of Vacation Bible School.

Anyone that grew up in church has memories of VBS.  My Dad was actually thrown out of VBS when he was a kid, and I am sure I was close.  For the last three years I have done VBS here in Nicholasville, and the past two have had me leading the music.  For those that don't know me, the thought of a 300lb man leading 6 yr olds in singing and motions is a sight to take in.  I also can do last years main song note for note (and move for move) still.  The things that I used to revolt against when I was in middle school have come back to haunt me.

For those of the "post-evangelical" persuasion, we all have lists of things that we wish churches would cancel.  My top three are listed below.
1. Sunday evening services
2. Handbell choirs
3. "Specials"

But I would want to get in the thunderdome with whoever would place VBS on this list.  Let me preface this by saying that I really don't look forward to doing it every year.  It pretty much takes up the whole week and really throws off my schedule.  I will have to field the inevitable comments from well-meaning old ladies regarding the literature, schedule, behavior of children and why we bought the generic goldfish crackers.

My church had 45 kids in it that would not have encountered church otherwise.  We were able to touch multiple families that have no connection to any church.  We saw some kids start a spiritual journey and parents turn to us because they knew they needed help. For those churches that exist around affluence, VBS may seem like a babysitting service, but if your church is surrounded by a population steeped in despair VBS is a great way to reach out.

Its not about walking kids through the Roman Road...but identifying your church has a place of care and a marker of the kingdom.  Take advantage of the people that you meet, and make sure to let the parents know who you are.  Establish relationships with anyone you can.  I am always amazed at how people attach themselves to churches just because someone made them feel special for a brief moment of time.

In a culture that is particularly forgotten about, the enroad is often through the kids in the neighborhood.  When we re-think VBS we learn a few things.

1.  Through games, songs, and quick lessons we start to teach children the Biblical Narrative that the entire world is apart of.

2.  We are able to shape Worldviews by teaching kids about places outside of the bubble they live in.  Often the lower-middle class doesn't drift outside of couple of hours.  I have kids in my church that rarely travel the 10 minutes to Lexington.  

3.  The church is instantly put in communication with more families that it may often deal with in several months. 

4.  I think many of the kids this week rarely saw a male role-model that was willing to interact with them.

So what do you think about VBS?

Youth Camp for losers and evangelical drop-outs

I generally hated youth camp when I was a teenager.  It was cheesy and really hard to find a place to sneak and catch a smoke.  But tomorrow I embark upon the last fortress of my Youth Ministry career.  I am taking 8 kids to a holiness camp meetings youth camp.  I am also serving as a counselor.  As much as a chastise the current evangelical system, I really think youth camp is an important event.  Especially for kids that don't have a "church outlet", a comfortable worshiping body, it is important for them to see corporate Christian behavior.  I am slowly beginning to really love youth ministry, but to do it with the kids that most churches try to run-off.  So after next week, expect at least a post regarding camp...and follow me on twitter (@chaddbrooks) to get updates.  This should be a good week, and my prayers are for my kids to grasp the reality of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit this week.  I would appreciate your prayers as well. 

They don't know the Bible...and it doesn't matter to me.

By the time most people get to the age where they can take control of their faith, many ministers and lay leaders assume that people will have a basic knowledge of Bible stories, characters and the general time-line of biblical activity.  But what does assuming do?….Yep thats right, you would just make an ass of yourself.

More and more, in my careers of youth and college ministry (as well as meeting adults who are coming to church for the first time) I am encountering people that have no idea of anything remotely resembling a biblical world-view, and it doesn’t bother me.

How many times have you heard a belief come out of someone's mouth that absolutely blew you away?  I remember being taught “where black people come from” as a child, with the teacher using the story of Noah and his sons seeing him naked and drunk.  You have to admit, the more conservative side of evangelicalism has a knack for teaching people some pretty wild stuff and claiming it is in the bible, or interpretations that lack any amount of substance.

When I first started teaching multiple bible studies a week for my church, I was pulling my hair out, because I was finding it impossible to teach anything without having to do at least 30min of back story.  The solution was close at hand, because I spent over a year working in a ministry that practices a more narrative form of communication in bible study.  These methods worked to a point, but I was still dealing with 14 year olds whose main scriptural influence was specials on the History Channel.  The only frustrating part was that I was worried that my non-orthodox methods of bible study were going to get me in trouble.

Fast-forwarding almost 2 years later and I have settled into a pretty good groove.  One night a week is a more low-key study, with as much back and forth dialogue as I can muster.  The last few months we have been talking about Israel and their desire for a king.  This way we are doing some serious back story regarding King David, which always factored in whenever I didn’t have the time to explain it.  We just finished a year going through the gospel of Mark on Sunday mornings.  This was more in-depth and slower, and allowed me to hit key points regarding gospel, the kingdom of God and the person of Christ.  We just started looking at the entire NT, going through the basic points of a book each week.
So why do I enjoy this?  I think it is allowing me to teach these kids (and adults at times) a way of reading the bible and interacting with it that goes far beyond the traditional evangelical view of the “quiet time”.  Another small group is going through Daniel chapter by chapter this summer, and I am teaching them some really basic methods of inductive Bible study. 

The Biblical Story is one that shapes the church to its very core, and is so much more than an instructional manual.  Teaching in this way, I end up with folks that know how to read and think more than them just hearing bible stories and learning moral lessons.

More and more the church is going to have to learn to operate in this manner, and dealing with people that don’t know or understand the Bible.  For to long we have taken for granted the idea that everyone knows Bible stories and heard them as a child and then when they grow up we teach them about what to do and not to do.  I think that we have lost our story to a point, and it is inside the classic actions of the church that we will recover the characteristics of the Church.  I am not one that believes good doctrine will fix everything, but I do believe that a group of people that are steeped in the teachings of Christ and in the traditions of His Church will dramatically impact anyone they come into contact with.

What has to be learned by the American Church...not just evangelicals

I have been in the process of writing my follow up to my last post regarding communal doctrine.  I want to make sure it is really sweet, but in the process I came up with this list, which I am imagining to be a work in progess.  Feel free to push back or add to this.

What has to be learned by the American Church:

Fundamentalists:

• Issues regarding authority need be re-thought.  You simply make claims about biblical issues that just can't be substantiated with the History of Judeo-Christian tradition. (Read Craig D. Allert;s "A high view of scripture?")
• Speaking of traditon, it should be recognized more.  How do you think Christianity was transmitted pre-text? D. H. Williams is a great starting place.
• Proper Trinitarian Thoughts, an emphasis on all three members and teaching on how they properly interact with one another.

Traditional/Liturgical

• The difference between issues of justice and evangelism needs to be fleshed out.  While the justice piece has been important in the Mainline Protestant churches,  it is not thought of as an evangelical practice with kingdom/gospel dimensions.
• The Holy Spirit and His place within the sphere of worship.  It is evident in the words of your liturgies, but it needs to be put in practice.
• Cultural adaptation needs to happen, this means that things change in order to keep things refreshed.  This won't destroy the richness that is a positive trait, but will allow it to continue to be what it has always been, but in a way that translates to the non or de-churched.

Again, these are just working lists.  I want to think about an Evangelical list and a Pentecostal/Charismatic list.  I really see these not as destructive, but as ways that the church can hopefully grow in the 21st century.  For those that minister in "Non-Sexy" churches, and are searching for re-vitalization, I think these are points that have to be thought of.  The more people I meet on the street that consider themselves "religious" have no denominational or traditional loyalty, they just want to see a Church that functions like Jesus lived.

Scrambling for a word

Got called tonight that I "might" have to preach.  "Might" means probably after I heard my pastors schedule tomorrow morning at the airport.

After scrambling to decided a topic, I played sermon roulette by deciding I will either preach from the lectionary or something from 1 Peter that I had researched in class last semester.  Wouldn't you know that the New Testament reading for tomorrow in the lectionary is from 1 Peter.

In the last few weeks I have been convicted that I haven't been devotionaly reading scripture that much.  Some of you might remember my "mighty goal" from earlier this year, but that went over about as well as a wet fart in a spacesuit.  I tumbled about a frustration I have had with class this semester, especially since I didn't get my independent study on Revelation.  But in my reading for leadership yesterday I came upon a text that urges those who feel "bored" to use extra time to study something that they don't normally have the time for.  My semester is freed up, so I am going to try to start working on some more cumulative thoughts about the ethics of Christian community and worship.  My paper title that I was going to write this semester was "The Christian journey towards escatalogical fulfillment in the Hymnic passages of John's Apocalypse", and I think I am going to start working on it.  It sounds long winded and boring, but I really think it is a message that people need to hear.

My sermon tomorrow is pointing towards a devotion ethic of goodness and christian community in 1 Peter and it makes me happy to start seeing lines being connected.  It has been an answer to prayer.

So think about me tomorrow morning as I may (or may not) be taking on a task that could scare my tiny Baptist congregation.

Take a jump down this road.

I have written around here regarding Revelation and Apocalyptic writing before. Cafe Apocalypsis has been a site that I have enjoyed reading before (and has never descended into Fundamentalist nut-jobbery).  I was really happy with the 3 posts that showed up in my reader this evening.  On a related note, it seems as though I won't be able to do my independent study on the worship passages in Revelation this semester.  I may work through some of the material anyway.

Are you worried? I'm not...

The amount of Christians that are going nuts and practicing Bible math these last few weeks is starting to get a little out of hand.  Forget donkeys and elephants-hold fast to the lamb.  Reading this a few times a day will keep everything in perspective.

Matthew 6

Giving to the Needy

1 "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' in front of others, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

    2 "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,  4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Prayer

5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.  8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

    9 "This, then, is how you should pray:
       " 'Our Father in heaven,
       hallowed be your name,

    10 your kingdom come,
       your will be done,
       on earth as it is in heaven.

    11 Give us today our daily bread.

    12 And forgive us our debts,
       as we also have forgiven our debtors.

    13 And lead us not into temptation, ^[a]
       but deliver us from the evil one. ^[b]'

    14 For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Fasting

16 "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,  18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Treasures in Heaven

19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

    22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, ^[c] your whole body will be full of light.  23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, ^[d] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

    24 "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Do Not Worry

25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life ^[e]?

    28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Being missional in central ky: part of the missional synchroblog

Rick over at The Blind Begger called for a Missional Synchroblog earlier in June.  Today there are around 50 of us blogging on what missional means.  Rick (and others) felt that the word had been co-opted, and was really starting to loose its distinction.  I could just Wiki the definition and point you to it (well...ok...I will), but I think that missional will take on different forms in relation to locality. 

As a campus minster, we talked about missional vs. attractional at every staff meeting.  What that meant for us was not having giant events all the time, and instead trying to immerse ourselves on campus.  What this looked like was many different small groups on campus, several opportunities weekly to give away food and soda/water and many other ways to let the campus know that we were there for them.  When we did have an event, we usually had tons of people that would never come around a "Christian" event.  I love looking around on Facebook and seeing what some of my old students are now doing to reach the campus.  We didn't try to drag people over to our building with the lure of free food and a fire and damnation devotional during the eating.  We were extremely intentional about building relationships and in turn we saw many people turn to God for the first time and many others become comfortable around Christians for the first time.

Since starting Asbury, I haven't had the time to think about these sort of things.  Most of my blogging revolves around various topics surrounding Christian worship.  But I do work at a small church and recently I have started thinking about being a missional community of faith again.  You see, I work at a church that has a small membership mainly made of people 75 and up.  Our church is surrounded by a neighborhood full of people with substance abuse issues, hang-ups with the Church and children of various paternal history.  We can't have a gospel sing and expect for the neighborhood to show up and we can't go knock on their doors and tell them they are going to hell.  The quest that the staff have been talking about is how to reckon these two vastly different cultural groups in the name of Jesus Christ.  This is going to mean changes on part of the church.  Missional is not a generational lifestyle.  The church at its root level is a missional organization.  If we look in the gospels we see Christ meeting needs as He was "saving" people.  Drawing others into the deeply relational and loving arms of Jesus is the transition from tent meetings and talks of fire and brimstone. 

God is in Himself the most perfect example of community, and our job is to make His church resemble that loving relationship.

edit:

The read that I have enjoyed the most over this synchroblog is on David Fitch's blog.  David is the author of "The Great Giveaway", which I read last year and highly recommend.  See David's post on why the Mega-Church can't be missional.

__________

The rest of the synchroblogs:

Alan Hirsch Alan Knox Andrew Jones Barb Peters Bill Kinnon Brad Brisco Brad Grinnen Brad Sargent Brother Maynard Bryan Riley Chad Brooks Chris Wignall Cobus Van Wyngaard Dave DeVries David Best David Fitch David Wierzbicki DoSi Doug Jones Duncan McFadzean Erika Haub Grace Jamie Arpin-Ricci Jeff McQuilkin John Smulo Jonathan Brink JR Rozko Kathy Escobar Len Hjalmarson Makeesha Fisher Malcolm Lanham Mark Berry Mark Petersen Mark Priddy Michael Crane Michael Stewart Nick Loyd Patrick Oden Peggy Brown Phil Wyman Richard Pool Rick Meigs Rob Robinson Ron Cole Scott Marshall Sonja Andrews Stephen Shields Steve Hayes Tim Thompson Thom Turner

A Review of "Evangelicals and Tradition" by D.H. Williams

Ecumenicism among younger evangelicals is on the rise, as those who grew up in “seeker-sensitive” congregations grow dissatisfied with the lack of historicity in their various denominations and worship settings.  In conversation, I usually recount that my own personal discovery of patristic writings heavily influenced my own personal faith. 

At the head of the field of evangelical thinkers making entry into the problem of connecting evangelicalism with patristic thought is D.H.Williams.  His book “Evangelicals and Tradition: The Formative Influence of the Early Church” offers answers to the many questions that “free-churchers” often have when faced with the introduction of a more classic stream of Christianity. 

The basis of the book lies in grappling the touch questions involving the role of tradition in the church.  We will look at three of the over-arching themes in the book-tradition in regard to practice, scripture in relation to tradition and the issue of the Protestant theology of justification in regard to patristic views.

The Great Tradition is the idea that through ecclesial tradition, certain tenets of the faith are maintained and continually re-taught.  Many Protestants argue that this places tradition in level with Scripture and goes against Sola Scriptura.  What Williams goes to show us is that tradition works hand in hand with Christian practice from the beginning.  At the beginning of the Christian Church, before the time of the scripture, tradition is what kept the standards of orthodoxy.  In Romans, we learn the value of learning the faith by hearing (10:17), and the faith of Christ was transmitted orally before the scripture was completed and canonized.  It was this rule of tradition that allowed the early Christians to decide what was normative of Christianity and was outside of the bounds of orthodoxy.  Ultimately, tradition functions as the memory of the Church, a living and shared memory functioning as the preservation of the work of God in the life of Christ.

Sola Scriptura is a Protestant doctrine that is held in the highest regard in most free churches (and Protestantism in general).  What Williams shows us is that the patristic writers also had a very high view of scripture, but would not go to the lengths that contemporary theologians have in regard to the placement of scripture and tradition.  Tradition was what tested canonical functionality.  If a writing did not measure up to the tradition of the Church, it was deemed to not be apostolic and was not regarded as a part of Holy Writ.  Tradition was never appealed to apart from scripture and scripture functioned as the anchor and the language of worship (tradition) served the role of interpreter.  This interplay allows the correct preservation and action of revelation, preserving the divine character of God and how He acts towards humanity.

In the last section of the book, Williams deals with justification.  This is a "sacred cow" to many Protestants, that use the word very highly, but more often than not cannot actually articulate what it means.  The pre-reformation church most likely understood the theological idea of justification, but not in the language and terms of 16th century Protestantism.  Justification (in our terms) was just not an issue for the early Church.  There was full awareness of what Christ had done for them in salvation.

D.H. Williams has yet again added to his corpus of books for the evangelical with a bent towards classic, consensual theology.  The overall task of showing Protestants that there is a wealth of knowledge in Church history seems to be a stated goal in his writing, but I think he also shows how necessary classic devotional is in order for the faith to continue to remain orthodox while staying relevant.  For anyone that is trying to grapple with the move towards a more generic faith inside of evangelicalism, Williams would serve as a good read to direct you to the wealth of Patristic thought.  Williams writing is academic, and to enjoy it there is am understated level of knowledge in regard to church history, but “Evangelicals and Tradition” would serve as a great primer to anyone interested.

Related Posts:
Why I am comfortable with Tradition