Does it have to be "either/or?"
Blogger Jason Stellman posted this morning:
"Evangelicals love Christ the Head, but they're ambivalent about his Body, the Church (except when seen as a place where individuals can gather to encounter God in the same room)."
"Reformed spirituality, on the other hand, cannot abide such decapitation. It is in the Church's ministry of Word and Sacrament that the believer finds the grace that he needs to continue trudging through this wilderness on his way to glory."
"For my own part, all the quiet time in the world cannot replace the faithfully preached Gospel, the bread and the cup, and the communion of saints each Lord's Day."
While I think Stellman's derogatory stereotype of Evangelical worship is certainly not universally true, I agree that quiet time cannot replace the elements of reformed worship that Stellman names. But I don't see why it has to be an either/or situation. Jean Calvin spoke about "mystical union with Christ," the way each believer is called into the ministry and life of the trinity as a result of Christ's incarnation. By taking our very flesh into the Godhead in the ascension, our flesh serves as an invitation to participate in this mystical union. Each us us is called to participate in the ministry of Christ.
Certainly, we can't just go off and have our separate "God experience" without any regard to corporate worship with the rest of the body of Christ. And I certainly affirm the fact that for those of us who are reformed, our chief mode of revelation is in the Word preached in the context of community as we worship together. But that doesn't mean that we check our spirituality at the door after worship.
Calvin, Luther, Bucer, Zwingli and other reformers would certainly call us to a rigorous life of prayer and devotion outside of the context of worship but always informed by it.
Call me crazy, but I think a lively personal relationship with God and participation in the community of faith fed by worship and fellowship and preaching and Eucharist are not imcompatible.
"Evangelicals love Christ the Head, but they're ambivalent about his Body, the Church (except when seen as a place where individuals can gather to encounter God in the same room)."
"Reformed spirituality, on the other hand, cannot abide such decapitation. It is in the Church's ministry of Word and Sacrament that the believer finds the grace that he needs to continue trudging through this wilderness on his way to glory."
"For my own part, all the quiet time in the world cannot replace the faithfully preached Gospel, the bread and the cup, and the communion of saints each Lord's Day."
While I think Stellman's derogatory stereotype of Evangelical worship is certainly not universally true, I agree that quiet time cannot replace the elements of reformed worship that Stellman names. But I don't see why it has to be an either/or situation. Jean Calvin spoke about "mystical union with Christ," the way each believer is called into the ministry and life of the trinity as a result of Christ's incarnation. By taking our very flesh into the Godhead in the ascension, our flesh serves as an invitation to participate in this mystical union. Each us us is called to participate in the ministry of Christ.
Certainly, we can't just go off and have our separate "God experience" without any regard to corporate worship with the rest of the body of Christ. And I certainly affirm the fact that for those of us who are reformed, our chief mode of revelation is in the Word preached in the context of community as we worship together. But that doesn't mean that we check our spirituality at the door after worship.
Calvin, Luther, Bucer, Zwingli and other reformers would certainly call us to a rigorous life of prayer and devotion outside of the context of worship but always informed by it.
Call me crazy, but I think a lively personal relationship with God and participation in the community of faith fed by worship and fellowship and preaching and Eucharist are not imcompatible.
posted by Frank at 12:16 PM
2 Comments:
For my part, having only attended evangelical Baptist churches my entire life, this is certainly the choice forced upon us by our church leaders. I agree that a relationship plus body of Christ celbrating sacraments and communing together are equally important--but this is not the case in any evangelical church I have ever attended. A personal relationship/experience takes on far more importance in these churches than the mystery of the collective body worshipping together.
It's sad that so many churchgoers are forced to make a choice between an isolated personal spirituality and a more integrated understanding of communion done in an environment devoid of passion and personal involvement. Would that we could all get excited about worshiping together as the body of Christ.
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