Our first five months of church planting in Lancaster City have been incredible. The Spirit has brought together a group of people who are like-minded but staunchly individual. No, individualism is not a bad thing! In fact, I think it is often reduced to a sad position somewhere close to the receiving end of a desperate reaction resulting from a failure in authentic inter-personal community. Yes, community still works in settings wherein different ideas, concepts, and beliefs exist. In other words, community and diversity play well together, if leaders choose to celebrate the larger aspects of life that unite. We are doing this in the city. Why? Because the Kingdom Jesus pointed towards is a community of individuals. The individual aspect of this radical way of being community should never be sacrificed for the sake of “being community.” In fact, when this happens, the community becomes something other than the one pointed to by Jesus.
We also have boundaries. The aforementioned community characteristic (individual diversity + dedicated like-mindedness = community) is only as viable as the ethos of the community itself. This communal ethos is a direct byproduct of a diverse group of individuals working together to find that place that represents something much larger than themselves around which they can authentically unite. This ethos requires conversation and development. It also requires care once it is located and agreed upon by individuals. All of this requires real boundaries. An ethos lacking boundaries is not an ethos at all! Identity is immutably rooted in ethos and vice-versa. Things like this require conversation, development, nurture, care, and time.
One thing is certain: our postmodern, incarnational, organic, and missional context requires us to wait until a community actually develops and actually begins to converse before we raise our community’s ethos flag. After all, how can a church planter identify and make solidly concrete a community’s ethos before there is even a community? This sort of church planting may have worked well 50 years ago, but these are different times. It should also be noted that in this immediate context a community ethos may just end up being built upon the idea of permanent communal evolution. Honest dedication to context, incarnational ministry, and organic church planting requires - demands - continual flexibility. So, we must be willing to bend, but not break.
That said, I would be remiss to not mention the connection all of this has to history and historical events in the 2000+ years of Christianity. None of the aforementioned communal characteristics of church in our postmodern world have developed in a vacuum. We are not clever enough to build anything “all on our own.” Thinking so smacks of the sort of arrogance that actually has the potential to separate one from the larger Body of Christ. The Body of Christ - the Church - is a virtual lesson in flexibility and cultural navigation. It has endured empires, world wars, cataclysmic disasters, and too many charlatans draped in shepherd’s clothing to even count. Yet, it remains. It will continue to remain too. Those who try in vain to separate themselves from this rich history by reducing and branding Christianity as mere “religion” that should be discarded for simply “following Jesus” only embrace our current cultural penchant for the generic.
My incarnational journey in the city has led me to many, many people who seem to celebrate this generic “I follow Jesus not religion” mentality. It is a product born directly from our society’s dedication to generic and history-starved culture. Christianity is a religion, folks. As such, it is accompanied by 2000+ years of narrative history that we would be better off recognizing. In fact, I’ll say it this bluntly: it would not even be possible for you to proclaim that you “follow Jesus, not religion” if the religion itself wasn’t born and developed through 2000+ years of history. What do you stand upon, as you announce your disregard for the religion? Anything? Is it a substantial foundation or is it a mere matter of opinion? If you have discarded the religious aspect of the faith, to “follow Jesus,” you have subsequently discarded the substantial for opinion. Scientologists have a firmer foundation and history than you. Hyperbole? Perhaps. It may just be true, however, if a continuously developing historical-narrative has anything at all to do with faith.
Think about the religious and historically-religious aspects of our Christian faith and ask yourself if they can be discarded for the sake of “following Jesus.” Also, ask yourself what your faith would look like if these things never existed.
1. Jesus of Nazareth was a dedicated and observant Jew. Judaism is a religion, is it not? Yes, Jesus subversively worked to reform his religion, but he never discarded it. Check the Gospels and Paul.
2. The Bible is a product of a religious movement. We would not even have the Scriptures if not for the Church’s initiatives.
3. The Early Church Fathers shaped and nurtured the faith we now embrace. Did they get everything right? No! Did they make mistakes? Yes! So do we! I hope future generations don’t follow our example and discard us as they work to make our faith their own in their context.
4. I can’t imagine trying to plant the church we envision without knowledge of the radical wing of the 16th Century reformation. The Anabaptism I hold dear is a direct result of the reformation.
5. Christianity exists on this planet as a world religion. Would it have grown so if everyone declared themselves to be autonomous “followers of Jesus?” Hardly! It takes more than a bit of organization to bloom into a world religion that actively transforms lives globally. Would you seriously discard all of this in the name of “simply following Jesus?”
These five points represent a quick and cursory glance back into the deep and rich history that is the Christian religion. There are plenty more, but these will suffice. These five points are rooted in the religious and historically religious aspects of the Christian faith. To be generic is to discard all of this history. A generic expression of Christianity results in a generic story. A generic story has no past and consequently has no future. Christianity is a religion characterized by an evolving narrative-history. The story of the faith is still being written by generations present and generations yet to come. Separating the faith from this history is tantamount to separating oneself from the larger story. It is a reckless act rooted in the generic of our times.
Those who celebrate this generic expression of Christianity are not purifying the faith of religion, they are simply making the religion generic.
So, you follow Jesus and not religion? So what?
The past five months have taught me much about incarnational ministry, church planting, and community ethos. These five months have also shown me just how much of our society’s profane (read: common) culture has trickled into the Body of Christ. We celebrate the generic. We want little history in our faith. We are cutting our ties to historic denominational distinctives in the name of generic church growth. We say things like, “I follow Jesus, not religion!” It’s not cutting edge folks; it’s sad.
Our burgeoning community in the city is dedicated to the historical-narrative of the Christian religion. No, we don’t celebrate everything in our faith’s past or present. There is plenty for which we need mourn and repent. Yes, we change and rearrange the peripherals. This does not mean, however, that we cut all ties. No! We own our faith’s history and we also take responsibility to live it authentically and change necessary things within and in concert with the very real boundaries erected by the Body of Christ’s developed and developing overarching ethos. Individualism is a good thing, but not at the expense of the community which - like it or not - extends well beyond our own zip-codes.
The identity of the Body of Christ is not generic. Let’s not reduce it to the generic by stripping it of its history by pretending it is not a religion. The Kingdom of God is bigger than me and you.
2 Comments
Your message is wonderfully written and much needed. The Church is created by God and is meant to be a vital part of our walk with Christ. There is nothing wrong with para-christian organizations, except when they try and replace the Church. In addition, when individuals start removing themselves from the Church because they want to just ‘follow Jesus’ they are missing the point of community, fellowship, the body of Christ, leadership, training, etc. The Church doesn’t always get it right, but the value of the Church and the concept is not only solid it is Biblical.
When people talk about Christianity and try and remove the context of the Church or Religion, they are missing the point - the Church isn’t about a building, or a set of guidelines the people running the building set out - it is about the people. In Ephesians 2:19-22, we see very clearly that God is building a temple and He is using us as the building blocks.
Absolutely. I would much rather be part of the group who studies, critiques, and owns their Christian history - warts and all - so that they may then become somewhat self-aware and actively work together to change those things that need to be changed and celebrate the things that deserve celebration.
For example, I personally think what has become known as Christendom is riddled with social and spiritual detriment. Instead of completely abandoning my religion and its history in some sort of misguided, knee-jerk attempt to separate myself from such detriment, I would rather work together with in concert with the Body of Christ, people, and the Spirit to redeem the history scarred by things like this. It doesn’t help anything or anybody to cop-out and blame it all on the idea of religion, tradition, or discipline. Furthermore, proudly saying, “I follow Jesus, not religion” is just plain silly.
Thanks for your comment! I dig your Church Growth site too! It’s in my feed reader now!