Transforming Theology: Intro to Reclaiming Church

These are some of the things that stood out to me as I read the intro of John B. Cobb Jr.'s Reclaiming Church:

Movements flourish when their members are passionately committed. Christianity has flourished when Christians have been convinced that their faith is of supreme importance to them individually and collectively and also to the world. These convictions call forth deep personal commitments and willingess to sacrifice.

Personally, I think that the passion in most times of the church flourishing was inspired by the commitment and willingness to sacrifice. The church seems to have flourished the most when it has been forced underground, when there is a need to sacrifice in order to be a part of the church. There's something about our comfortable lives and our comfortable churches that drains the passion from us. Perhaps it's simply too difficult to imagine sacrificing for anything, let alone our faith?

But today in the oldline churches, this is rare. ... More often the leadership holds it together out of institutional loyalty while losing most of those who have strong convictions and find that htey can act on these better somewhere else. Those who remain are the lukewarm.

Again, I've found this to be true. I see people pulling together to build homes for those who are homeless, provide food for the hungry, care for the sick, visit those in prison, clothe those who are naked... all completely outside of the church bubble. It seems to me that Jesus mentioned doing these very same things in Matthew 25, and yet the church would rather hear sermons on Matthew 25 than actually do any of these things. On the rare occasion that someone decides they should act on it, a collection is taken for a particular cause. I'm not knocking those who are willing to help pay for such efforts, but it seems to me that writing a check isn't a really transforming experience for most people. So the committed leave the church frustrated with the inaction, and they join efforts such as the ONE campaign, genocide prevention, programs that care for children or the homeless, AIDS prevention and assistance programs, building organizations. Those who have the strong convictions about their faith are finding places to minister and to "have church" outside the church and church organizations. In many cases, this leaves the church institution struggling to teach and motivate the lukewarm and the apathetic. No wonder our churches are dying a slow and painful death!

We inspire no passion. Need I say more? Except that I think we do inspire passion. We (as the insitutionalized church) inspire passion for the "club" mentality. We inspire passion for marketing and finding "better" ways to get people to join our club. We inspire passion for the status quo and making sure that no matter what happens in our culture or our community, we keep the church as a steady constant. We inspire passion for a routine and a comfortable rut. We inspire passion for a certain style of music or preaching. Unfortunately, none of these "inspired passions" have anything to do with mission, with searching for truth, with seeking God wholeheartedly, with faith in action.

The problem of the oldline churches is more commonly that expectations are too low...
Again, I've found this to be all too often true in my experiences. I expect the confirmation students to embark on a journey of self-discovery and God-discovery; I'm told that I just need to tell them what to believe and get it over with. I expect jr. high students to actually seek God in silence and various prayer practices; I'm told they aren't capable of being quiet and still. I expect the students to learn and discuss something during our youth group sessions; I'm told that I should just play games and do whatever it takes to get them through the door... I've had all these experiences with youth. Ironically, the youth have risen to the challenge. Though there are some struggles initially, they actually want the bar to be raised. It's the parents and the entrenched "church people" who complain the loudest and demand that expectations be lowered. Maybe I'm crazy, but I expect that people who seek God through a church should be challenged to actually seek God! I expect that they shouldn't just talk about it, but act on what they believe. I expect that hearts and souls and lives should be transformed through the process, and I expect that we should continue to become more and more like Christ - to each other and to the world outside our church bubble.

I think most people want to be challenged. I think most people want to belong to something that isn't easy, that costs them something. I think most people don't put much thought into their faith because we've made faith/church/theology too easy to be worth the effort.