A New Kind of Christian
From the Series—Generations
April 30, 2003This evotional begins a new series of evotionals titled Generations.
This week our family took a mini-trip to Amish country in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. If you’ve ever visited Amish country you know that it’s almost like walking through a wormhole. The Amish dress the same way, farm the same way, and live the same way they have for the past three hundred years. When you juxtapose Amish culture against American culture it’s like a time warp! We live in a culture that is changing so much so fast that it’s tough to keep up.
A Sunday edition of the New York Times contains more reading material than the average 17th century person would encounter in a lifetime! The World Future Society predicts that by 2020, human knowledge will double every seventy-three days! This is going to date me, but I actually remember going to the local library armed with 3 x 5 cards to do a research paper. My kids have millions of online libraries at their fingertips with the click of a mouse! Anne Hind says, “Internet age kids are crossing oceans and continents before they can cross the street.”
My kids were born into a totally different world than I was. In The Post-Capitalist Society, Peter Drucker says, “Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation. Within a few short decades, society rearranges itself. Fifty years later, there is a new world. And the people born then cannot even imagine the world in which their grandparents lived and into which their parents were born. We are currently living through just such a transition.”
In I Chronicles 12, Israel is at a turning point in its history. Saul’s kingdom is about to fall as the Israelites rally around David. I Chronicles 12:22 says, “Day after day men came to help David, until he had a great army, like the army of God.” Then the next fifteen verses describe the different tribes that rally around David. They basically tell us what each tribe brings to the table.
The men of Simeon were “warriors ready for battle.” The men of Ephraim were “brave warriors.” The men of Zebulun were “experienced soldiers prepared for battle.” The men of Rueben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh were “armed with every type of weapon.” Every tribe is described in terms of physical prowess or battle readiness except for the tribe of Issachar. I Chronicles 12:32 says the tribe of Issachar “ understood the times and knew what Israel should do.”
When I was in Bible College I remember hearing a pretty common catchphrase around campus. A lot of professors and preachers said we need to carry a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. In other words, we need to be students of Scripture and students of culture . Ironically, I don’t remember seeing a single newspaper on campus in four years!
Generations
According to Acts 17:26 , your birthday and birthplace are anything but accidental. They are part of God’s pre-determined plan for your life. Acts 17:26 says, “From one man God made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”
You were born when you were born and you were born where you were born by divine design. You are part of a generation--and it is your generational responsibility to understand the times so that you can serve God’s purposes in your generation.
If you were to look through my file cabinets you’d find a drawer filled with newspapers dated September 26, 1995; July 13, 1997; and February 6, 2002. Those are the birthdays of our three children. I bought as many newspapers as I could get my hands on because someday I want them to be able to sit down and read about everything that happened on the day they were born. As a parent, I want to do anything I can to help my kids put their lives in context. I think that is one of my responsibilities as a parent. And I think that is one of my responsibilities as a pastor. I want to help people put their lives in context.
Warren Bennis and Bob Thomas have written an insightful book on leadership titled Geeks & Geezers. You can’t read the book without realizing how much historical context affects everything about who we are. Bennis and Thomas say, “The era into which we are born has a profound impact on our lives, although we are rarely aware of it day to day.”
Incarnationists
I think irrelevance—our inability to incarnate truth because we don’t understand the times --has done more damage to the cause of Christ than any other single factor in the history of Christianity. At least persecution and heresy have some redemptive value. They almost always have a purifying effect on lifestyle and doctrine . But irrelevance renders us powerless and speechless.
In his book Mustard Seed versus McWorld , Tom Sine says, “I am convinced that the first call of the gospel is not proclamation. The first call of the gospel is incarnation.”
The word “incarnation” means “to make comprehensible.” Incarnation is about understanding the times--the language and the culture --so that we can communicate truth in comprehensible terms.
One of our core values is irrelevance is irreverence. We believe God is absolutely relevant, but we render him irrelevant when we fail to incarnate the truth into a language and culture that people can understand.
Here is the fundamental mistake we make: we expect people to learn our language and culture instead of translating truth into their language and culture. The primary reason we don’t do incarnation is because it’s hard work. It’s easier to ask people to come to us than it is to go to them. It’s easier to ask people to learn our language than it is to learn theirs. It’s easier to ask people to accept our culture than it is to enter their culture. But our first calling is incarnation.
Constants
Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever .” One of our most fundamental needs as human beings is constants-- things we can count on no matter what.
One of my constants growing up was Alexandria, Minnesota. Our family vacationed there every summer until I was eighteen years-old. My life changed dramatically over those years. But Alexandria stayed the same. Driving down Main Street was like driving back in time to the 1950’s. Nothing seemed to change. I knew we’d get pastries from Braun’s bakery, buy fishing licenses at Ace hardware, and eat at Traveler’s Inn. I knew Ollie, a twenty-foot Viking statue, would be there to welcome us each year. Even the cabins where we stayed never changed. I think indoor plumbing was the last upgrade they made. It was the same, year in and year out. And it was that sameness that I looked forward to. It was a constant in my life.
More important than the places are the people who serve as constants. One God-ordained role for parents is to serve as constants for our kids. We’re there through thick and thin. We’re there when our kids are born, we watch them take their first step, we help them get on the bus for the first day of kindergarten, we’re faithful fans at sporting events and recitals, and eventually we give them away when they get married.
We need constants and the ultimate constant is Christ . Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Christ never changes.
But Christianity is changing all the time! It is always reinventing itself in every generation and every culture. And that is a good thing. It’s the greatest testimony to the omni-relevance of the gospel. It is relevant to everyone, everyplace, everytime!
A New Kind of Christian
A few years ago, Brian McLaren wrote a somewhat controversial book titled A New Kind of Christian. The basic premise of the book is that what it means to be a “Christian” is changing all the time. The book is about a fictional pastor named Dan and his confidant named Neo. Dan is at one of those intersections of life where he sees two alternatives: continue practicing and promoting a version of Christianity that he had reservations about or bail ministry. Then a third alternative presents itself: learn to be a new kind of Christian.
McLaren says “If we have a new world, we will need a new church. Not a new Spirit, but a new spirituality. Not a new Christ, but a new Christian.”
That doesn’t mean we turn our back on previous generations of Christians. It simply means we don’t settle for empty tradition. One of the greatest dangers every generation faces is learning how and forgetting why. When you learn how and forget why you’re going through the motions. We need to rediscover ancient rituals by rediscovering why the ancients did what they did.
One popular prayer posture is folded hands. Ever wondered why? Sacred Origins of Profound Things traces the practice back to the ninth century and the shackling of prisoner’s hands. Folded hands symbolized submission. Some religious historians trace the posture all the way back to the Roman era where folded hands was a symbol of surrender synonymous with a white flag. When you know the why behind the what it can actually infuse that prayer posture with incredible meaning. If you don’t know the why behind the what it’s meaningless.
Version 2003
I was one of AOL’s first subscribers nearly a decade ago. But I’m not using the same version of AOL I was them. It has some of the same features, but I’ve downloaded all of their upgrades and updates. I’m currently using Version 8.0. In the same sense, Christianity keeps coming out with new versions . And it ought to. Every generation ought to upgrade and update the version of Christianity that previous generations practiced.
Brian McLaren says, “Doesn’t the religious community see that the world is changing? Doesn’t it have anything fresh and incisive to say? Isn’t it asking any new questions? Has it nothing to offer other than stock formulas? Is there no Saint Francis or Soren Kierkegaard or C.S. Lewis in the house with some fresh ideas and energy? Has the ‘good news’ been reduced to the ‘good same-old same-old’?”
Every generation needs to respond to the generational challenge: understand the times and incarnate the truth.