The Search for a Better Way

I’m reading a book right now that, quite honestly, is ticking me off.

I’ll withhold the title of it until I’m finished with it, then I’ll write you a nice scathing review. But it’s one that’s been going around and talked about, and one that a number of bloggers have already reviewed, about some things that traditional church does that have nothing to do with the Bible. Knowing what this blog is about, you’d think I’d be all over this one–and it does contain some useful information–but the overall tone of the book is just ruining the experience for me. It’s preachy and dogmatic, and even angry…and the authors’ solutions for what the church should really look like are, in my opinion, just as legalistic as the traditions I’m trying to get away from. Something inside me keeps saying, “Yes, we need to re-think this stuff…but nah, THIS isn’t the way to go about it.” What good is it to trade off one form of legalism for another?

So why am I telling you all this when I won’t even tell you what the book is? So you won’t go and buy it. 🙂 But seriously…for now, it’s just stirring some ideas in me that I want to process, and later on, I’ll probably review the book itself more thoroughly.

The basic premise of the book is to expose certain church traditions and practices that have no Biblical foundation (fair enough); but then it strives to show us what it looks like to go strictly “by the Book”–in other words, what IS the Biblical way to function as church.

But here’s the problem: the New Testament is good about showing us the principles that guided the early church, and should guide us as well…but it is actually very open-ended about the methods we may use to fulfill those principles. It tells us some things about how the early Christians met and what they did, but does NOT tell us specifically that we should do it exactly the same way, or HOW we should do it. This is one good example of how the Bible often raises more questions than it answers, and therefore has to be interpreted in order to apply it to our lives. I personally do not take the descriptions of what the early disciples did when they met together as a commandment to “do church” the same way. If we were to take that literally, we should wear tunics and sandals because they did; we should never ride in cars because they didn’t; we should develop a communal share-all-your-stuff lifestyle because they did (briefly); and so on. That might make us relevant to a 1st-century culture, but would render us totally obsolete in the twenty-first century, where we actually live.

My problem with institutional Christianity isn’t so much that there’s stuff it does that isn’t in the Bible–because the Bible, as I said, says very little about how we should do things. Just because you can’t find something in the Bible does not mean the Bible opposes it; it just means God is leaving it up to us to find the best way to implement His principles. No, my problem with institutional Christianity is primarily that it does not work well–especially in our culture. The “Christendom” established by Constantine in the 3rd century never really has done well for the church. It has been laden with problems, and bred corruption and abuse; and even with the reforms we have undergone, still in recent years traditional forms of Christianity have become almost completely archaic. God has never abandoned His church; but the institutional, governmental form we’ve had is holding us back from being all we can be. We are seeing fewer and fewer results from our efforts as far as reaching the world with Jesus’ love; and while most people still have a positive view of Jesus, those same people think very poorly of the church that claims to represent Him. And when you look far enough back and see that not even Jesus Himself did things the way we’re doing them–that’s when you need to take an honest look, admit that your system isn’t working well, and find a more excellent way. Not only a more excellent way to have meetings or “do church”, but a more excellent way to be a Christian–a more excellent way to follow Christ. Whatever that looks like in our day and time.

In that sense, I guess I’m a pragmatist. I am all for finding methods that work, methods that accomplish the purposes of God without violating the principles of God. Yes, I want to fulfill Scripture; but that does not mean I believe God expects a legalistic, neo-puritanical interpretation of what He intends. We Christians can be so anal sometimes about “doing it right” that we suck the joy right out of our own spiritual journey, let alone others’ journeys. When it comes to church, discipleship, our spiritual journey, and helping others with their journeys–I guess I think it ought to be less about “doing it right” and more about “doing it well.” Be faithful to the principles of Scripture–even non-negotiable with them–but be real about fleshing it out in our world, in our culture, in our time.

That’s what I think, anyway.