Rite of Passage
It feels an awful lot like that organizational spirituality has entered twilight hour and for the large part entered it without the solar power of the sun to bring a guaranteed dawn. This limbo or no man’s land has forced many people to the ground of their spiritual understanding, both the ones on a journey to God and the ones with God, suffocating from the loss of dawn’s light cresting the countryside and confused at what they should or shouldn’t believe. And it has even sent some wandering into the loneliness known as the dark night with no flash light or cute incandescent glow-stick to guide them. Where does that leave us?
One of the hallmarks of a church that I was privileged to serve in was this phrase “what about church for the rest of us?” At first it seems an awful lot like a cute glib designed to be the contemporary answer for critiquing the way others do the business of church but this group simply entitled “the rest of us” seems to be growing exponentially.
I have become powerfully aware that there exists this threshold that spirituality must mature beyond and that the group of people aware of this change is eternally large. Coincidentally something about the timing of this shift in spirituality sparked a memory to an article I read about “Hitting the 500-year wall”. And, yes, we have left the blood smear of our insides all over another wall. Here’s the original article . The first question is what will the other side of the wall look like for us, the second is will we be willing to accept what we see and thirdly, who will be those among that will be the roid taking, Bic head shaven, muscle monster army veteran yelling obscenities at us to climb over that wall when we don’t like what we see?
Here’s a look at the timeline.
Notes:
* AM
(Anno Mundi – in the year of the world – counting from Biblical creation of the world)
* BCE
(Before the Common, Christian or Current era)
One of the hallmarks of a church that I was privileged to serve in was this phrase “what about church for the rest of us?” At first it seems an awful lot like a cute glib designed to be the contemporary answer for critiquing the way others do the business of church but this group simply entitled “the rest of us” seems to be growing exponentially.
I have become powerfully aware that there exists this threshold that spirituality must mature beyond and that the group of people aware of this change is eternally large. Coincidentally something about the timing of this shift in spirituality sparked a memory to an article I read about “Hitting the 500-year wall”. And, yes, we have left the blood smear of our insides all over another wall. Here’s the original article . The first question is what will the other side of the wall look like for us, the second is will we be willing to accept what we see and thirdly, who will be those among that will be the roid taking, Bic head shaven, muscle monster army veteran yelling obscenities at us to climb over that wall when we don’t like what we see?
Here’s a look at the timeline.
Notes:
* AM
(Anno Mundi – in the year of the world – counting from Biblical creation of the world)
* BCE
(Before the Common, Christian or Current era)
So… its been 500 years? What will be become of our precious little Sunday circuses’, our prayerful manipulation of the prophetic voice and laying on of hands, the merchandised Christian Jesus action-figure, the false promises we made from the pulpit, the emotional and spiritual abuse we caused, the failure to hand-out the grace we so easily accepted, and our deep pockets filled with everyone else’s money?
What’s over our wall? Or are you too afraid to sneak a peak?
*heart*
DSW
posted by DSW at
1:33 AM
2 Comments:
i think you're being over-critical here.
you're writing, in this case, sounds pretensious, as if you've come to see yourself as having arrived "beyond the wall", so-to-speak.
you may not like "organizational spirituality", but the spirituality you speak of is organized as well. just organized differently.
i think there is a need to call people out of a consumer christianity and call them (us) to actually follow Christ where he is (in other words, calling us to actually give a shit about anyone other than ourselves). and i realize that in western christianity, christianity has been butchered. however, you seem to paint all "organized" gatherings with the same brush when you say, "What will be become of our precious little Sunday circuses’, our prayerful manipulation of the prophetic voice and laying on of hands, the merchandised Christian Jesus action-figure, the false promises we made from the pulpit, the emotional and spiritual abuse we caused, the failure to hand-out the grace we so easily accepted, and our deep pockets filled with everyone else’s money?" i know it's like that in a lot of circles, but not all.
but maybe i misunderstood what you're saying here.
peace.
jt
jonathanturtle.wordpress.com
By
jonathanturtle, at 2:28 PM
The post wasn't a "hate" rant against organiational spirituality. It was supposed to be much more of a view from the past so we can go the future.
And I dont think I've arrived, in fact the reason I wrote the post is because Im very very concerned over where I am going and where we are going as the body. Im just trying to learn from our history, you know that book which we embrace as infallible.
Ive heard the idea that we shouldnt be overtly critical because not all circles are in the box of criticism that we paint when we dialogue about it. However when I describe some of the facets that Im criticizing its because I have been and continue to be a part of them. My truest criticisms come from the things I've done wherein that little voice in the back of my head was going "oh shit, oh shit, oh shit".
And in all honesty we need to be criticized - severely. The church at large is in massive decline. This is the first year that world statistics reveal that Islam is now the world's largest religion. We're seeing the disease of divorce rip apart the church as well as homosexuality, fornication, slander, theft, lies, deceit etc become more and more prevalent.
We're being hunted by the media and we're afraid to be critical of ourselves. I mean come on man, honestly, we're failing pretty righteously here.
I believe my statement stands "what will become of our precious little sunday circuses'..." because if things keep going the way they are... there wont be anyone there on sundays anyway.
*heart*
DSW
By
DSW, at 5:45 PM
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