A Call To Re-Formation

Recently I have spent a bit of time reading a blog entitled "One None Gets Some." Refer to my blog of January 10, 2013 entitled, "To None Of The Above." The writer, Corinna Nicolaou, says that she belongs to a growing segment of society that checks the "None of the Above" box when asked their religious affiliation.

Her blog documents her quest to visit each of the religious institutions in her yellow pages. As someone who has not grown up attending a church, synagogue, temple or mosque, she has decided to check them all out to find out what the heck is going on in there.

I find her courage, honesty and spirit of adventure to be inspiring and also instructive. As someone who grew up in church, I have forgotten what some of our practices look like from the outside.

It is kind of like my own house. The stack of filing that needs to be done is moved to an out-of-the-way corner and then forgotten until I have time to file. The little bit of chipped paint is relegated to "I'll paint over that this summer." The light that is burned out is ignored "until I can get to it." When I walk into my own home, I mentally edit out the clutter and see only a neat and orderly room. But if I bring a guest into my home, they take it ALL in, messy pile and all. Their impression is raw and unedited. "Wow. Mark is a bit of a slob."

When Corinna recently visited a church, she reacted to a rigid double-predestination Calvinism and an exclusionary communion practice (and a hint that Calvin justified slavery?). Hundreds of years of doctrinal reasoning and theological argumentation have gone into forming so many practices in our churches that we may not see the obstacle they can create for visitors. Dare I say it, even a stumbling block?

Now this has gotten me to thinking about the very nature of Corinna's search. She is checking out the institutions that have grown up as a result of trying to hold on to a vibrant faith. But over time, many of our practices have become so ossified that they are merely a caricature of the vibrant faith-filled realities that were present at their birth. In my blog entitled, "The Cut Flower Syndrome" (Nov. 30, 2012), I attempted to describe this phenomenon using a socio-political metaphor. Flowers that are cut and placed in a vase may retain their beauty for a while, but since they are no longer connected to their roots, they are destined to wither and die. Churches that are not vibrantly connected to Jesus may still retain the semblance of Christian life, but they are destined to wither and die.

And so I get back to Corinna's search. I begin to feel saddened at the prospect that she will visit a number of churches and never really hear the good news that "Jesus is the good news." That is, in Him, God Himself has arrived to bridge the gap and has made a relationship with God totally accessible. And when we turn from going our own way and place our trust and confidence and hope in Him, we enter into a new kind of life, eternal life. Not just in the future, but brought into the now in the person of Jesus.

Even worse, I am afraid she will not experience the Presence of God that can touch hearts and transform lives. She is conducting a consumer-reports exercise--kind of like rating restaurants. Oh, that she would begin to seek for God Himself. Jesus came to reveal the very heart of God to those who were shut out by the religious institutions of their day. May she encounter Him as well.

As a pastor who loves the Church, I speak with affection to my fellow pastors. May we ourselves turn from just trying to keep the veneer of Christian virtue alive and renew a vibrant relationship with the One who gives life and gives meaning to all the rest of our religious activity. Jesus is the root. Let's become so obsessed with knowing Him and experiencing His Presence that all else fades in comparison.

The Reformation is not something that just happened once in history. It is something that must continually happen. Let us be renewing our spiritual lives in Jesus as we allow Him to reform our churches.