“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”
-Sinclair Lewis, 1885-1951, American novelist and playwright, first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1930)
Archive for July, 2006
Tim Keller discusses what a missional church looks like. Please click the link to watch a very thought-provoking video.
You scored as Karl Barth. The daddy of 20th Century theology. You perceive liberal theology to be a disaster and so you insist that the revelation of Christ, not human experience, should be the starting point for all theology.
Which theologian are you? |
Well, as those of you who may on occasion visit this blog have noticed, I have been rather absent from the blogosphere this summer. I have found my absence refreshing as I am pouring out my thoughts and life on others this summer while working for Centrifuge. Fuge is almost over, in fact we only have two weeks left and then I will be home on July 31. From there, on August 5, I will be moving down to Bolivar for good and will forever say goodbye to Jacksonville, IL as my home and rather, “where I used to live.” It sounds eerily strange and exciting to be moving away as I prepare for married life in Bolivar, MO. Camp has been rewarding in its sum totality to a degree that at this moment I could not find the words to define it. I will give my final thoughts on my camp experience and what I learned when I get home. But please know, God has definitely revealed Himself.
Anyway, I will get on with the aforementioned intention of this post. I was walking to do my laundry this afternoon and casually thought about the effect that clothes, particulary “dress clothes” or “church clothes” have on our personal piety within the church and have the unfortunate ability to perpetuate an unconscious and built-in ecclesiology for its congregants. Alright, please stay with me. As any Southern Baptist would know, the expectation of the pastor to be in a suit is expected. I have heard such reasons for this expectation because “by our clothes, we are showing greater respect and honor to God “(thus the assumption that a physical appearance or act merits something on our behalf). So, an external expectation is already being put on the pastor before he even takes the pulpit. Out of curiousity, what would happen if a Southern Baptist Pastor got up to preach without a suit and say rather, jeans, a polo, and some New Balance 574’s. Would the congregation take him seriously or WOULD THEY GIVE MORE CARE TO HIS EXTERNAL APPEARANCE THAN THEY WOULD HIS INTERNAL STATE OR TO A CERTAIN DEGREE, DECREASE THEIR ATTENTIVENESS TO HIS SERMON BECAUSE HE WAS NOT SUBSCRIBING TO THEIR STANDARD. Alright, here is how our clothes perpetuate a bad ecclesiology. The modern church loves to point out the sins of commission that are apparent in everyday life, or in other words, sins that are visible. Sins such as alcoholism, homosexuality, child abuse, pedophilia. But the question remains, what about the internal sins of pride, hate, lust, jealousy, and ignorance that are not so obvious, but are obviously present. My point is this, we pay attention to the outside appearance while putting a lessened concerned on the quality of the inside. Nice clothes that “give honor to God” perpetuate an expectation of what’s on the outside. Or let me rephrase, church clothes continue the expectation to see what is most visibly detectable. Sins on the outside are much easier to see and thus judge. God does not judge on the outside, what is on the inside.
What I DID NOT SAY: I did not say that we should not wear nice clothes to church, but should only question our motives of why we wear them and evaluate our expectation of other people being like we are. Or does this go even further by assuming that uniformity is more important than unity in our churches.
My opinion: wear what you want as long as what you want to wear is not inappropiate or would cause someone else to stumble. But yes, I assume that someone reading will think, “but if we are not dressed in like manner, our attention will be taken off of the Lord and placed rather on the difference of dress within the body.” To this response I would reply that you have a weaker faith and need to be concerned less with clothes and more with God. I will be honest, I am against the notion that we must dress alike, but we must dress modestly and appropiately. I am heavily angered, saddened, and disenfranchised when I am told by my mother that her and her family did not attend chuch as often as they would like when she was growing up because they did not have the money for the necessary church dress clothes.
You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don’t think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.
What’s your theological worldview? |
