I had a shocking moment this morning when I was listening to an interview my friend Drew Marshall did on his show this past weekend. He brought Tim Challies and Spencer Burke into the same conversation.
Now, to be honest, I’d never heard of Tim Challies – but he and I will both be doing presentations at next fall’s “8th Letter Conference”. Apparently, he is one of the top bloggers in the arena of faith and lives just down the road from me in Oakvile, ON. He is described as conservative/Calvinist/Reformed.
Spencer Burke I had heard of. He’s connected with theOOZE.com and linked in with us for our synchroblog last year. Spencer was described by Drew as liberal/emergent/non-orthodox.
As the interview progressed the two different paradigms became clear. Challies put knowing and then defending the truth revealed in Scripture front and centre. For him, this meant the necessary separation at times from those who were not adhering to that revealed truth. For Burke, fellowship and creating a space in which to hear one another and learn from one another across diversity in interpretation, doctrine etc. was an essential outworking of being in the Body of Christ.
Now some of you will laugh at this, but it became very clear to me as I listened to this interview that people would align me with Spencer Burke – and therefore potentially with a liberal/emergent/non-orthodox label. And that means other people, perhaps people like Tim Challies, would describe me as dangerous.
I guess it was so shocking for me because I grew up and my faith was formed in communities that would describe themselves as Calvinist and Reformed. For most of my life I would have fairly easily fit the conservative label – at least when it came to my positions on particular issues.
Truth is, I don’t want to be seen as dangerous and I don’t want to be pigeon-holed by labels. I love the church. I love the people around me – people Christ came, died and was raised to restore to full, intimate relationship with himself, the Father and the Holy Spirit. And for me, that includes all people. It includes people in the Body of Christ with whom I may have very different ideas and priorities. It includes people outside of the church – in whom I fully expect to experience the presence of God. It includes people who like me and people who don’t.
Andy Crouch tweeted this morning “if you cannot tolerate unpopularity, you’re probably not a leader”. Though I can’t say I relish being disliked, I hope that isn’t the feeling in the pit of my stomach right now. I hope that this feeling – having just posted “the Witness of Hospitality” – has everything to do with the cost of loving God and loving people and having it potentially labeled dangerous by fellow Christians who love the same Jesus I do.
In these moments, when my stomach does flip-flops and I have to face my own fears, I tell myself to look at Jesus, the lover of my soul, who was perceived to be so dangerous to systems of religious truth – that they killed him.
<> I offer that we are ambassadors of Christ. We speak His policies. Even my own heart is against some things that the King of my country has told me to speak.
But that is because my heart is not filled with a faith in a Father that allows delivery to a Pilate, or the hope of an eternal life so strong that I count this life as dung, or the love of mercy so much that I will even bless my enemies.
‘Blessed is the man that has set his heart on pilgrimage.’
My heart is not yet fully set, I am afraid.
May the Lord give you greater strength and insight. You are in my prayers. Please continue to pray for me.
Much love in Christ always and unconditionally; Caryn
I don’t envy you, Wendy. I’m a small town guy, so I merely get small town hate when I air my views. You on the other hand, are starting to attract more and more people, and more and more prominent voices within Christendom. Yes, that means you’ll be branded “dangerous” and even perhaps the whimsically tossed and ever-more-cliche-with-each-passing-day label of “heretic” (*music plays: dun dun DUN!*)! Oh my! And yes, it will hurt. But it sounds like you’re putting your faith in the right place to handle it 🙂
When I think of evangelical/ reformed church honestly I cringe inside simply because of perhaps the reputation of that particular denomination and yet I attend an evangelical church. Go figure! I attend an Evangelical church who has stepped outside of it’s evangelical routes a bit with regards to their response to the issue of homosexuality. Their response being a little more on the middle ground then over to one extreme and welcoming Gays and Lesbians into fellowship. It’s difficult to find that kind of church. It is also difficult to find a church community where diversity is one of their core values.
Many Christians prefer a cookie cutter form of Christianity. When things are not all that neat and tidy or cut and dry and things cannot be explained completely with black and white terms a lot of people become uncomfortable.
Life and faith isn’t always cut and dry and it isn’t as black and white as many would like it to be. Our experience and faith pilgrimage is more grey then it is black and white. And well, it’s inevitable that we’ll encounter people who will have a different perspective and belief and not just regarding the issue of homosexuality but other areas in the Christian experience. For example, the Apostolic / Prophetic movement and the 5 fold ministry of the church. And others have issues with speaking in tongues and manifestations and what not. People are uncomfortable when it comes to signs and wonder, and miracle healings and such.
Mind you, I can experience criticism from some people I know when I say that my faith journey is not about getting God to make me straight. I’m not focused on becoming straight but rather focused on my relationship with Jesus Christ with the understanding that my race, my gender, my sexuality is all apart of who I am secondary to my primary source of identification which is in Christ and Christ alone. I don’t discredit the testimony of change from some people but I’ll never devalue any persons faith journey including my own especially if my personal journey towards wholeness in Christ never includes the removal of same gender attraction.
People may never understand that a persons journey towards wholeness in Christ will look different from person to person. Sometimes what appears to be safe and guarded is not always beneficial but rather becomes a hindrance in a persons life. Sometimes what’s best is to walk a little closer to what appears to be dangerous. I have found greater healing in my life when I have walked in places that left me feeling vulnerable and open to being hurt. It was the journey of learning to walk in the not-so-safe places that have made my pilgrimage in faith as rich as it is today.
People will only extend the grace that they have received themselves and will only be capable of loving to the depth that they have been loved.
Anyways … my prayer is for the church, for all of us that we may continue to grow and learn how to love, honor, and respect the other especially when there arises conflict.
I think the key to spiritual formation is that we are always being ‘formed.’ I don’t think any of us need to use the word ‘shocked’ to consider where we’ve come from theologically or doctrinally. What’s more shocking is when people write their doctrines in stone and never consider other possibilities.
On another topic altogether, since you’re a Drew Marshall listener, I’d be interested in your take on his April 24 interview with Tim Wolfe.