Spiritual Nomads

I recently had a conversation with a woman who seems to have been bouncing around the Body. She started out Lutheran, then attended several popular charistmatic churches in our area, then sojourned among the Baptists, then then Presbyterians, and now is hanging out with us. Why does this happen? She became upset with doctrine at some places, upset with divine laughter and "slaying in the spirit" at another place, at dispensational dismissal of the charismatic gifts  at another place, upset with the pastor at another place, and at lack of fellowship at another.

I wonder how long she'll sojourn with us?

Every tradition has its distinctive doctrine. Christian sub-groups foster their identity through the cultivation of distinctive doctrine. Not only do they have a distinctive take on this doctrine, but they also place a distinctive emphasis on it. The unique gift that each group offers the church universal is its distinct doctrinal emphasis. Yet, the temptation of each tradition is to turn their distinctive doctrine into a trump card that subjects every other Christian doctrine to its service. The challenge for each tradition is to offer their gift to others while at the same time reformulating their doctrine in light of the whole Christian faith.

 --John L. Drury

That is part of the challenge of each tradition. It is the challenge for each Christian to decide what part of the garden they will plant their seed, and stay there long enough for their plant to bear fruit.

QUOTE: My name is Kevin and I'm a Kataphatic

There are spiritual personalities, just like there are psychological personalities. Barbara Mujica of Georgetown University writes, "Apophatic or 'negative' spirituality stresses interiority, 'imageless-ness,' and 'wordlessness.' Kataphatic, or 'postive' spirituality is image-driven and uses analogies to speak of God."  Postmodernists tend to be apophatic; stressing difference, how God is "not like" things. This has caused great alarm from Reformed quarters. I think there is a place for both: it's not an either/or.  However,  my natural temperment is kataphatic. Kevin, I think you've got a point there!

"Yes, yes, a thousand times yes; we do see through a glass dimly; we do not fully understand; we don't know God as God knows Himself; our words can't capture the essence of God. God is greater than we can conceive- but what about the 1,189 chapters in the Bible? Don't they tell us lots of things about God that we are supposed to do more with than doubt and not understand? Aren't the Scriptures written so that we might believe and be sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see and even proclaim this faith to others?"


 -- Kevin DeYoung,  Why We're Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be  (p. 123-124)

 

"I Am an Introvert and Jesus Loves Me"

Euangelion comes out of the closet and writes, "I have a post-Christmas confession. I am an introvert and Jesus still loves me. It feels so liberating to say that I am an introvert and a Christian....I'm saying all this because in 2010 one of the first books that I intend to read is Adam McHugh, Introverts in the Church: Finding our Place in an Extroverted Culture."

I'll have to follow suite.

McHugh writes, "for some churches, spirituality is equated with sociability." It's not been easy for many INTJ's, ISFP's etc to feel at home among most Evangelicals and Pentecostals. After all, (at least until recently, when music usurped the word) Evangelicals placed the sermon at the center of Sunday morning worship. A sermon delivered by an extrovert is almost always more entertaining and engaging than a sermon delivered by an introvert, because it flows more "naturally." Evangelism was all about Witnessing (at least in the old days), and it required a wide smile, ability to chat about the Game, deliver a smooth summary of What Jesus Has Done for Me and an invitation for Him to Do It for You Too. The Hail-Fellow-Well-Met personality is too often taken as the necessary and sufficient grounds for Christian maturity, not suprisingly because that sort of temperment is so successful in the marketplace, to which many evangelicals aspire.

It often hasn't been any easier for Pentecostals to be introverts. Introverts prefer quiet contemplation--alone-- but that can be misinterpreted as a lack of Spirit. Surely, if someone is filled with the Spirit she will move easily among all kinds of people and be gregarious! Surely, if someone is filled with the Spirit, he will not be self-conscious about displaying Spirit!

Introverts aren't able to be as "friendly" and "polished" or "unrestrained" because they have to force themselves to present themselves to the outside world. This "hesitation" can then be misinterpreted as aloofness, or pride, or a lack of love: all certainly missing the mark spiritually.

It will be interesting to see if, in light of the current recession and skepticism about markets in the general culture, introversion becomes more acceptable in these churches.

Spiritual Personalities: Cornerstone, 6/10/07

So I finally got to do Corinne Ware's spirituality inventory with the Cornerstone class yesterday. I thought it would provide a good way to wrap up our yearlong study of great OT characters. http://www.fullerseminarybookstore.com/search_results.php?id_author=15061 I took great pains to point out that it is not the Gospel, just a tool for helping us understand some of the things we've been reading and studying and experiencing.

Initial defensiveness from M. and L, (M. came in late and missed my caveat; L is in his down cycle) but the kids seemed to respond. I made a masking tape cross through the middle of the room, and numbered the quadrants. The kids took the inventory, then I invited them to stand in the quadrant in which they had the most hits. Not suprisingly, most fell into #2; Joanna, Will, Aaron were in #1, and Kaylee stood alone in #3. No one stood in #4.

I asked them to recall all the different OT characters we've studied this year, and give an example of one for each quadrant. "Moses!" for #1. "David!" for #2. "Daniel!" for #3. "Joseph!" for #4. (Joseph? Hmmn. I would have said Samson...) Then I asked them to consider Jesus, who stands at the still point of the cross, spanning all quadrants and inviting us all into a deeper knowledge/love of Him. In so doing we will draw closer to one another.

Finally, we stood in our quadrants and held hands, making a circle, and thanked God for giving us our different personalities and gifts, and for allowing us to enter into the Story He has been telling, from OT through NT through the history of the church to this very moment to eternity. It was my small effort to remind the kids that Christian life is not just a matter of their individual experience, or even their experience in the VCC youth group, their experience at CHIC, their experience as 21st century Gen-X American Protestants--muchless their experience of Velvet Elvis.

Then it was time for worship. Steve gave a great sermon on creation ex nihilo:

"God takes nothing and fills it with something. He takes death and turns it into life. He can fill the nothingness in your life and in mine. God changed the world’s nothing into something. And when through our sin the nothing snuck back into His creation, when our lives and our relationships and our hearts got holes in them, God came to us. He came into the world Himself to feel our emptiness. He filled peoples’ stomachs and healed their bodies. Then He let us hang Him up on a Cross and make holes in Him. He took all those holes, all that emptiness, and filled it with grace. As Philippians 2:7 says, Jesus Christ emptied Himself, made Himself nothing, so that we, so that His world could be something again.

God calls you by name and raises you out of nothing into someone. His grace is there for you. If you feel like your heart is empty, then it’s ready for God. If you feel like you’ve got nothing to offer, then He has something for you. In Jesus the power and grace that made a universe out of nothing are ready to make something out of you."

I can't wait to see how Jesus is going to resurrect us. Maranatha.