Hebrews 10:25 tells Christian people not to neglect the habit of meeting together in order to encourage one another in view of the Lord’s coming. The book of Acts records Christian people meeting together on resurrection day. And, most of us can speak of those many Sundays when meeting with God’s people for worship has helped us reboot, refocus and recommit to be God’s people.
In keeping with all this, it’s my habit as a pastor to encourage church going for the sake of the person themselves (to be fed and encouraged); for the sake of others (to encourage and serve them by our presence) and for the sake of unbelievers (to witness to the priority of God in our lives).
However there are times when not going to church may be appropriate.
… I think of Christian workers who are paid to go to church but then face the danger of a professional piety in which their relationship with God is subverted and subsumed by their ministry identity. Not going to church on occasions can help resurrect that personal identity in Christ.
… Likewise with Christian leaders who are always ‘on duty’ when at church and readily occupied with institutional clutter which clamours for attention and seems so important, but which shows itself to be ephemera when stepping back.
The examples could be multiplied. For example, the believer whose soul is bruised and battered by such things as conflict at church, disappointment at bad decisions, gaps between profession and practice by more senior believers etc. In these situations, going to church may compound a problem of seething anger or disappointment that is worsened by donning a mask to ‘play’ at church.
In such situations, a ‘fast’ from church may be appropriate in order to devote ourselves to the Lord in word and prayer. These can be times of remarkable spiritual refreshment as we see him face to face unmediated by churchly clutter. This, of course, should be only for a season lest we breach Scripture by losing the habit of meeting together and retreat to ourselves with the attendant dangers of a private and introspective piety.
And so I’ll admit to times when I could have gone to church but chose not to. These have not necessarily been Godless times, but times of rebuilding and reinforcing my direct link with God and identity as a Christian person as opposed to my persona as a pastor. And likewise there have been times when I have encouraged / affirmed others in their choice not to go to church for a season.
So let us indeed encourage and keep the habit of meeting together with fellow believers. But let us stop it becoming idolatry by sometimes breaking the habit in order to meet with the Lord.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
A note to a friend about both / and spirituality
Why is spirituality tricky?
There's a big bunch of material whose basic strategy is to withdraw folks from this realm into the presence of God for a time with the expectation that this then charges us up to return to the world (which may be seen as a hostile and godless place). At first glance that may sound good, but taken to extremes, this is an essentially escapist spirituality.
You are smart enough to see the basic flaw. Experiential spirituality that becomes escapist easily trends towards a dualism in which creational reality is seen as evil or unimportant. Some spiritualities fall right into that nasty little hole and essentially deny the outside world. Of course, that will be to varying degrees and there are times in which withdrawal to seek God is totally apt and has great Biblical precedent (think of Jesus ducking off for a night of prayer away from everyone and everything). And there are some people for whom withdrawal into experiential spirituality is a natural disposition. That’s fine, but there’s a need to nudge such folk back to a ‘both / and’ relationship with God in which we both withdraw and engage.
(And, of course, there are others of us who need to be nudged away from our primarily objective spirituality and encouraged into the experiential and relational element.)
A better way is generally to cultivate a grounded and world spirituality in which our relationship with God arises from, is conducted within, and is directed to the everyday world in which we are called to live. This is the spirituality of an ‘engager’ who takes the created world seriously as the place where we must relate to God. Indeed, we may ask if it’s worth holding a faith that does not push us to meet and be with God in the creational greys in which we live and move and have our being.
But you are also smart enough to know that all this is another one of the both/ands with which the Christian faith is littered. A purely worldly spirituality needs the complement of experiential relationship with God and a purely experiential spirituality needs the complement of worldly groundedness. Thus Jesus occasionally withdrew, but then he returned to engage with his father’s world and will.
Whatever the mix, its good to apply this test: does this spiritual resource or practice help me know and know about God more closely through prayerfulness and the Scripture, be more Christ-like in an everyday sense, and does it equip me to engage with the world in active discipleship and service?
There's a big bunch of material whose basic strategy is to withdraw folks from this realm into the presence of God for a time with the expectation that this then charges us up to return to the world (which may be seen as a hostile and godless place). At first glance that may sound good, but taken to extremes, this is an essentially escapist spirituality.
You are smart enough to see the basic flaw. Experiential spirituality that becomes escapist easily trends towards a dualism in which creational reality is seen as evil or unimportant. Some spiritualities fall right into that nasty little hole and essentially deny the outside world. Of course, that will be to varying degrees and there are times in which withdrawal to seek God is totally apt and has great Biblical precedent (think of Jesus ducking off for a night of prayer away from everyone and everything). And there are some people for whom withdrawal into experiential spirituality is a natural disposition. That’s fine, but there’s a need to nudge such folk back to a ‘both / and’ relationship with God in which we both withdraw and engage.
(And, of course, there are others of us who need to be nudged away from our primarily objective spirituality and encouraged into the experiential and relational element.)
A better way is generally to cultivate a grounded and world spirituality in which our relationship with God arises from, is conducted within, and is directed to the everyday world in which we are called to live. This is the spirituality of an ‘engager’ who takes the created world seriously as the place where we must relate to God. Indeed, we may ask if it’s worth holding a faith that does not push us to meet and be with God in the creational greys in which we live and move and have our being.
But you are also smart enough to know that all this is another one of the both/ands with which the Christian faith is littered. A purely worldly spirituality needs the complement of experiential relationship with God and a purely experiential spirituality needs the complement of worldly groundedness. Thus Jesus occasionally withdrew, but then he returned to engage with his father’s world and will.
Whatever the mix, its good to apply this test: does this spiritual resource or practice help me know and know about God more closely through prayerfulness and the Scripture, be more Christ-like in an everyday sense, and does it equip me to engage with the world in active discipleship and service?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)