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A Parody of Ourselves
- 06/14/10
- 30
What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly saying, hooray for our side
It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
- From “For What It’s Worth” by Stephen Stills
Every so often I’ve contemplated what a Saturday Night Live type of variety program might look like if the topic was “Christendom.” There’s definitely enough material. One of the recurring skits would involve some Christians from the 1400’s about to be burned at the stake. They would be visited by contemporary Christians who would thank them for their sacrifice and tell them how such a great sacrifice gained later Christians ________. You could fill in the blank with all sorts of things. “Your sacrifice has helped give us a world in which our children can learn theology from talking vegetables. Your suffering will all seem worth it when a handsome Texan with a great smile can renovate a sports stadium and broadcast feel-good, gospel-free theology to all the world. Thank you for your noble sacrifice, brother.” Tyndale might have been willing to face the stake for the sake of the Bible, but would he have faced it for a Bible-zine for girls that looks and reads like Cosmo?
I’m a writer, not a comedian, so perhaps it’s not that funny. But the point is that real people died real deaths to pass to us a heritage of the gospel. They were serious, dead serious, and weren’t in the business of printing silly bumper stickers. We evangelicals have long done a remarkable job of trivializing that heritage. Maybe this is what happens when the danger of persecution passes and we enjoy a time of safety, a time of freedom. Or maybe this is what happens when we lose sight of the seriousness of the gospel and the countless sacrifices that made it available to us, when we begin to replace theology with something else, something less.
A friend of mine became the Senior Pastor of his church in 2003, when everyone and their grandmother was writing and talking about how to make church relevant and more attractive to postmoderns. My friend had read Rick Warren and Bill Hybels but found them unsatisfying. Then in the spring of 2004 he had the opportunity to attend a 9Marks conference. He had not heard of Mark Dever and knew nothing of 9Marks but it was close to home and it seemed to him like such an event might be helpful to his ministry. It ended up being far more than that. It was life-changing.
The 9Marks conference, as it has done with so many other pastors, drew him back to the heart of what the Bible says about church, ministry and the gospel. And as a new Senior Pastor (with 23 years already behind him as an associate in the same church), it gave him a clear and renewed sense of direction for the conduct of his ministry. It pulled him out of anything-works-pragmatism and steered him toward a gospel-centered, gospel-focused, gospel-infused ministry.
Through 9Marks he was introduced to the world of what has now come to be known as the Young, Restless and Reformed (or the New Calvinism depending on who you ask). He had been a Calvinist for most of his ministry, but he had found most Calvinists he met tended toward the grumpy, the provincial. This new movement joined people like him to a Presbyterian crowd and even a Charismatic crowd. It built something that was unique, at least in our day and something that was really and objectively delightful—a people united around theology, not methodology. The church rediscovered theology that in so many circles had long since lay dormant.
His story is not at all unusual; it’s representative, perhaps, of the stories of thousands of other pastors who have revolutionized their understanding of the church, of its function and message and importance. And for every older pastor who has joyfully adapted his ministry, many more young pastors have grown into just this kind of ministry through mentors or through seminaries. All indications are that the movement continues to grow, to gain strength, to gain a prominent voice in the church even if not far beyond. And I am genuinely thrilled to see theology supplanting pragmatism at the center of the church.
So maybe this is a good time to ask, what’s next? Will we remain faithful to the gospel and look for more ways to be faithful to it? Or will we get, well, goofy?
Back to the martyr’s skit. What will we bring these guys? What will we have to show Huss and Tyndale and Cranmer and so many others like them? No doubt there will be good things to bring to the places of their sacrifice—evidence that the gospel they worked for and in some cases died for was alive and well and being passed on to another generation. Much of the theology they mined from the Bible is alive today in the Young, Restless and Reformed. But I fear that along with the good, and maybe eventually overwhelming much of the good, we’d bring our clutter, our junk, our nonsense, our bobble-heads. And there is an increasingly large pile of it waiting to be sorted through.
A friend recently told me “Slap the word Reformed on anything and I’ll buy it.” He was joking, thankfully, but he makes a point. We baptize products, people, musical styles, ministries, stores with the word Reformed to initiate them into our camp, to say that they are now part of the in-crowd. Slap the label Reformed on it and we suddenly do develop a new interest in it.
We have our Reformed celebrities. When John MacArthur speaks there is an immediate dissection of his words to see if he is tacitly critiquing someone or something. Mark Dever calls paedobaptism a sin and the headlines blare. When John Piper sneezes, the blogosphere is abuzz. Taken in isolation these may not mean very much at all. Taken together they start to sound like a Reformed edition of People magazine. Are we about the gospel here? Or are we about the people, the leaders, the voices? Want to hear some gossip about why a famous pastor took a sabbatical? Check the back pages of Reformed People.
I’ve got nothing against Edwards t-shirts or Luther bobble-heads or Calvin rally towels. Put it all together, though, throw it all into a box or lay it all out in a bookstore table, and it starts to come into focus. We’re always in danger of becoming a parody of ourselves, a deformed version of the very movements we have come out of. We could so easily become as much about the stuff as the theology, as much about the swag as the doctrine. If it happened to them it could happen to us, right?
I love the word Reformed; it has a long and noble heritage. And yet somehow it seems that Reformed has transitioned from a kind of theological short-hand, a useful way of describing a lot of theology in just one word, and has instead become an identity, a flag which I run up a flagpole as a means of self-identification. Reformed used to be a terse and convenient short-hand to express “I believe in the doctrines of grace, I believe in God’s total sovereignty, I adhere to certain creeds and confessions, and so on.” In one word we could summarize an entire theological position. Today, though, I fear that it is associated far more with names and personalities than theology. Reformed means “I listen to this pastor, I read these books, I go to these conferences.” But my theology may be vastly different from the Reformed guy beside me. It is an identity, not a theology, a connection to a group, not a belief. It’s a pass card, credentials allowing admittance into a community, an experience. And as such it generates swag, it generates junk, it generates all of that stuff like talking vegetables, Bible superheroes and Bible-zines.
We will need to work hard to prevent Reformed from becoming a mere fad. Fads come and fads go and usually they go on for just a bit too long. By the time they disappear we are glad to see them go since they’ve long since outlived their usefulness or their enjoyment. Rickrolling was funny for three days but lasted for six months; WWJD made a few people think over the course of a few weeks but stuck around for years. But both were fads and both eventually died an inevitable death. No one shed a tear for either one. We need to be all about the gospel lest we become yet another passing fad, a puff of smoke in the wind.
Up the street a little way sits a small Baptist Church that must subscribe to a newsletter for the world’s worst church sign slogans—things like like “Become an Organ Donor—Give Your Heart to Jesus.” Quality stuff. I drive by there often and, while fighting to keep my car from running it down “by accident,” I wonder if anyone takes them seriously. How could they? It’s a sharp display of the way the Gospel can be trivialized. “Prayer—Wireless Access to God with No Roaming Fee.”
I know that kind of nonsense has been going on for decades. But are we next? Could this Reformed movement become a parody of itself? I hope and pray that it’s not but I can’t deny that it’s beginning to show some hints that it could become that way. Sure it’s fun and inspiring even, but am I the only one who is starting to feel that if we aren’t careful we will just become “a thousand people in the street, singing songs and carrying signs, mostly saying, Hooray for our side.” I think it’s time that we paused to consider whether we’re all about the gospel, all about what the Bible commands us to believe, or if we’re increasingly becoming about who we are. The difference between the two is immeasurable.
It certainly wouldn’t hurt us to stop, hey, what’s that sound, and everybody look what’s going down.
*****
Thanks to my friend Peter Bogert for help with writing this one…
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (30)
Tim,Thank you for a fitting post for what is going down, unfortunately. But if God be true, then He will make known the folly of all that does not serve Him in the end.
I can’t help but think of how our advertising/marketing age has corrupted the Church, taught us how to brand and sell just about anything. It’s a prostitution of the silliest sort, but a prostitution, nonetheless.
May God have mercy and help us who see these things, that we would uphold the truth in righteousness by treating the things of God in all holiness.
Every once in a while “we” have to get re-centered…be it with our faith or our attitude. My “message” yesterday was Phil. 2:5-7, where Paul says we are to be “imitators of Christ”. This goes for preachers as well. I have personally met Bill Hybels…he is a good man and I enjoy his sermons, and - whenever my wife and I are in Illinois visiting family and can go - we do not find Willow Creeks services to be hollow…we find them engaged and inspiring, even as a Pastor myself. Sure they are the far end of the spectrum from many churches, mine especially. Multimedia to the hilt. Pro-quality music and skits. Sure. But I look for God’s presence…and I find it. I also enjoy Hybels “everyday real” style of writing on pertinent subjects…some 20 books later, which is not trivial (Where does he find the time?). My wife - in fact - help start Willow Creek (Bill Hybels was her youth group pastor way back when). The style of service is exactly the same they used then, only more refined and over the top. Amazing how a humble beginning expands…but they have not lost their roots. It is a wonderful story and a wonderful church that everyday strives to meet the needs of believers and “seekers” alike. To that end WCCC uses whatever means it can in this modern era to meet the challenge of getting the Gospel “out there”. It isn’t fluff. I liken each church similar to a boat…only as good as the Captain steering it. My rural church is not, nor can not, operate the same as WCCC, or a host of other churches in my area…it operates to meet the need of its community, in this case, ranch rural, which is heavily traditional, but not so much that a little zing isn’t welcomed. We mix it up from time to time, and folks enjoy it. What IS the same is the Gospel, and that is the foundation, as it should be. However, one Pastor’s approach to preaching the Gospel will never be like another…disagreements abound as to who is “right”. But isn’t the point here to make the Gospel known to the congregation? Bring people to Christ? Help them find their way to God? The movie Joshua is a clear example of this. Traditional versus Modern. The bottom line is Christ…no matter how you get there. Rick Warren may be popular and considered fluff by some, but like Norm Abram who was denegrated by “traditionalists” for using “power tools” (Gasp!?) in his New Yankee Workshop projects (a point by them which fails his other more traditional technique teachings), they were wrong. Here’s the rub and “Why” they were wrong: Norm got tens of thousands of people interested in woodworking, even if his style wasn’t “pure”, as some would say. From his work an entire industry bloomed. Tool manufacturers love it. People re-entered their basement shops to make stuff for their friends and families. They got quiet and centered and focused on a project…a good thing in this hectic world we live in. No TV…Dad’s in the shop. No X-Box…Billy’s in the garage making something. Much needed I think. To that end I doubt God or Jesus would judge Norm poorly for that….quite the opposite. I also doubt God would judge the thousands who have come to know Christ through Willow Creek’s approach as “wrong”. But other Pastor’s do. Why? That said, we should take stock in our individual faith walk each day, then adjust when God prompts. It is a journey.
Thanks for this post Tim. Best thing I’ve seen on the cult of personality in our circles, so far.
Some how the ” Norm Abrams” in the seeker-frendly churches do have their impact and we will learn one day who made it to heaven in these popular churches. “I rejoice that Christ is preached, whether in pretense or truth. . .”
But we need faith rooted in biblical creeds and in history. Huss, Tyndale and Cranmer would surely be shocked at what goes on. Tim, your skit could have them close the door on some of these churches, thinking it was only entertainment of some sort, and then run to find a place of worship, perhaps a small church where they could be still and meditate.
Well, someone (Augustine, Luther, opinions differ) once said, and it’s often quoted: “The Church is a whore, but she’s my mother.” Brilliant!
I think on the whole I agree with your post. I think it shows a healthy introspection. I do, naturally, have a few thoughts.
- So what’s wrong with talking vegetables? What, you’d rather go back to flannel board?
- It’s all well and good to rally around correct theology. Just remember, most of the poor slobs getting barbecued at the stake we’re on the receiving end of a theological rallying.
- The gospels are chock full of uptight guys with robes on, and divinity degrees, who had all their theology right. Funny how Jesus seemed to prefer hanging with the poor working-class stiffs and two-bit prostitutes who couldn’t even spell Penal Substitution, much less tell you what it meant (I’ll bet after a few hours with Jesus they had a pretty good grasp on Irresistible Grace though).
- “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you get your theology straight and teach others to do the same”. Oops, I don’t think that’s quite right.
Please understand that if my attempts at humor or sarcasm seem a little barbed, I am pointing the barbs at myself as much as anyone else. I’ve spent a great deal of time wrestling with theology, time that I now realize could have been better spent doing what Jesus actually did: going around doing good things and showering healing love on all who were oppressed by the devil.
Even Paul, the great theologian, seemed to develop his theology as a way to make points about practically living the Christlike life. “Because of…”. “Since then…”. “Therefore…”. and so forth.
Excellent thoughts. I would go a step further and suggest that too many of us see being “Reformed” as an end in and of itself. Being Reformed has become a club for many of us, something to beat other, less enlightened Christians over the head with and something to divide ourselves from our brothers and sisters. A theology that should cause humility all too ften comes with a sneer.
Being Reformed is not the goal. If we see Reformed theology as anything other than a means to be more faithful to Christ, we have lost what it means to be Reformed in the first place regardless of how many conferences we attend or how many books of Calvin we read.
The discussion of this lack of understanding our heritage came up the other day in my Church. I was blunt , perhaps too much so , but my point was so many youth and for that matter , most pew sitters , have no idea the blood and sacrifice that went on to get our Bible , our freedom etc.. I do not think Hybels or Warren are too blame but listen to their sermons and compare the content to Edwards,Luther,Calvin,Spurgeon ,Lloyd-Jones or for that matter Sproul,Beggs,White etc… call it what you will but I call it fluff. . We are a Willow/Saddleback want to be with our coffee and relaxed conversations at my home Church. Not my cup of tea but its the best of a troubling situation in my area.I wonder where this generation will be when the sword of persecution is over there necks ? Let my son who is 20 answer that from his conversations he has had with his age group , fleeing out the back with the mantra , your truth is your truth man , its all good.This new movement has encouraged me but I hope as well we can stay away from the trinkets . But I will defend my right to wear my 5 Solas’s t-shirt and drink coffee out of my Calvin mug at church . Hey they are great conversion pieces.
Great points, Arthur. From the perspective of one who has been “reformed” since before it was trendy, I pray that we continue to focus on the truth of the theology we profess - in a way that keeps our focus Christ-centered and appropriately off of ourselves. If this Truth that we love doesn’t lead us to humility before God and a desire for His glory and His will and purpose, what will?
Tim, this is the best reason yet for everyone to read biographies of reformers, saints, missionaries, giants of the faith, both contemporary and not so contemporary. They help us to see the seriousness, and the joy, of a life given to God. Maybe a little will rub off.
Great post. I saw my own sinful tendencies to follow mere men in this. I have recently been thinking about the huge waves of publicity surrounding Piper’s (and others’) so-called sneezes and you gave words to the seeds of consternation I was beginning to feel about the situation. They are just men. Faithful men, to be sure, but not the Cornerstone, the pure unadulterated Truth. Let us be found in Christ, and let the word Reformed represent His gospel, not a theological “in crowd.” Thanks.
Your skit about the martyrs could also be taken a bit further back in history, to the crucifixion.
Christ has died on the cross and suffered the wrath of God - the forsakeness that is the darkness of hell - for our sakes. What shall we bring before Him, much less Tyndale or others?
And yet, this is exactly what Christ and the martyrs died for - an imperfect, problem filled Church, which is no more or less imperfect or problem filled than it was in their day (it may have had different problems, but it had problems). They died because they knew that this imperfect church would be made perfect. They died because they had hope, found in Christ’s resurrection - the hope of a new heaven and a new earth.
Shepherd from the Knight Blog
Talking Vegetables are entertaining, but in the end they are moralistic and devoid of Gospel. And while we’ve had plenty of that over the years as teaching tools for our children (long before vegetables came along), I’d be glad to go back to the flannelboard. My wife can hold 6th graders’ attention for 15-20 minutes or more with simple picture cards because of the way she tells the story.
If I may synopsize my post…if a bunch of friends start out on a drive to get from their place to another town or city there may be ten routes they can take. Doesn’t mean the one route that is the shortest or most direct is the ONLY one that can be taken and the other nine are wrong. Eventually, all the friends will get there, just not at the same time. But they will get there. I agree with Dan…Jesus hung out with those who were the lost crowd. If I may add… he adjusted his approach to meet them where they were in order to reach them and elevate their understanding of His teachings. When he spoke to thousands he tailored what he said to meet those masses. I enjoy reading about DL Moody…his style would be considered radical by todays standards. Upon meeting someone for the first time - and in his style of wearing his profound faith on his sleeve - would ask them point blank, “Are you a Christian?”. If not he would then ask, “Why not?”. Try that today. No equivocation allowed. Moody would be proud. So would Hybels.
See, and that’s the problem with sarcasm or attempts at humor. I inevitably end up saying something I think is clever or that would be agreed upon by everyone and sure enough someone shows me how narrow minded I am. If someone is telling good stories with flannel board and it’s getting across the message then by all means let’s have all of it we can get.
To the other point, Jesus did tell a lot of stories that seem quite moralistic. Of course, taken as a whole with His life and teachings we know that moralistic stories alone won’t get us very far.
I don’t know what the talking vegetables are up to these days, but several years ago when my daughter was young I thought they were a pretty good deal.
Hi Tim,
Thank you for hitting this point, right out of the park, so to speak…
I fear the gravity of this is greater than people realize. For instance, we know of a young man who is openly and deeply into paganism, and one photo on his facebook page just rends the heart. He was proudly sporting a photo of a church sign reading “I kissed a girl and I liked it, then I went to hell.”
Attacking, literally right up front, with Westboro-esque condemnation is no way to share God’s mercy, no way to relate to the brokenness that we too once had without Him. Conviction is a subtle work of the Spirit, and chastisement between brethren is helpful, but this approach does not reach the ones it is aimed at, and it’s a far cry from Jonah’s city-wide calling to repentance in order to avoid literal destruction.
More commonly, if we become proud of our wit (however dry) and let one “clever” phrase bulldoze over any one child’s hope of recognizing God’s gift of grace, we are guilty of driving them further away. You’ve got your platform, please do all you can to drive this point home… it’s getting bad.
I think that someone is right when he can consistently and genuinely remain at the position where Reformed/Calvinist is SHORTHAND for interpreting the Bible correctly.
Otherwise, we are followers of Paul, Apollos, Peter, John, whatever. There are two types of John-Mac-ites and Piper-ites etc…1.The ones who earn the label because they have attached to the Bible Heros instead of their Bible Preaching.2. The ones who have been (normally in the pejorative) tagged as such because their devotion to proper, clear and devoted proclamation of the Word has led them to such prominent preachers.
How we pray for these modern heroes of the faith and their flocks and listeners is that they would never, never fall for their own fame or lofty position. They must, to remain faithful (and not tarnish the Reformed sort of label), be humble and steadfastly faithful to preach the Word for the glory of God, never for their own notoriety.
Should a teacher find in himself the hint of pride-of-position lurking in the background of his ministry, that is the alarm for him to take serious time out (lengthy as needed) to go before the Lord and those to whom he is accountable — Wife, Co-pastors, Elders — and deal with this.
As far as Talking Vegetables: They’re far safer for the souls of our children than Talking Sponges. Unless you’re talking about Talking Emergents, which I would consider equivalent to vegetables.
Great post! We American Christians have a way of trivializing everything. I also wonder what these martyrs would think of all the Roman Catholic “wanna-be-ism” via the emerging/emergent church? With so many Protestants of every color and stripe wanting to be more Roman Catholic these days, it makes me wonder why I even left the Roman Catholic church years ago. I was floored recently when I went into a Pentecostal church and they were celebrating Lent. I left the service, as I don’t want to go back to that. Ex-Catholics in attendance were testifying about how much Lent meant to them as Catholics!!! Why did they leave? What’s going on? As Christians and Americans, so many of us today have broken faith with those who have gone before and gave their lives — both Christian martyrs and American patriots. Sad. Frightening, really.
Good thoughts. I know I have the problem of trying to impress with my Reformed knowledge, though, I am mostly who I am in real life,-a grateful sinner saved by grace alone-, most of the time. I guess I need to continue and pray and seek the Lord for His power and love, so that I’m not worried about what others think so much, and so won’t try to impress. This is what makes me too bold, or too timid I think.
Thanks for the post.
“Paranoia strikes deepInto your life it will creepIt starts when you’re always afraidYou step out of line, the man come and take you away”
Love this blog, I believe we that must learn with proper instruction, time and dedication to interpret God’s Living Word properly. I found a really cool “Hermeneutics Quiz” from Building Church Leaders that is a great way to see where you stand on your views.http://pastorleoacosta.wordpress.com/page/2/
These are great thoughts, Tim.
As I look at what became of the ‘fundamentalist’ movement, I see the same thing happening with the current ‘reformed’ movement. It seems that if one starts out as a reactionary movement one eventually becomes like what they’re reacting against, though different.
For a start I think that because you are blogging on this subject probably shows that the ‘Reformed’ movement is already on the slippery slope of becoming just that - a movement. It’s happened in the past and it wil happen again. I have been involved with teaching the doctrines of grace to many (overseas) who followed a different gospel (ie an Arminian ‘version’) and it was straight forward to do sound Bible exegesis and what happens - men, women and children now understand the true gospel (as would someone who was raised in a ‘Reformed Church). But the thing is they didn’t apply a label Reformed….
The label “Young, Restless and Reformed” sounds more like a TV soap opera ….. yuk!
Paul,
I knew a Pastor with a similar technique. He’d ask pretty much everybody, “Are you a Christian?” If the answer was “no,” he’d declare: “Well, you ought to be!”
As for the legacy of the martyrs, perhaps it goes without saying that their sacrifices were not for the smarmy legions listed in this post. They were for that pastor I just described; for the ten Boom family; for the Grahams’ ministries, for the pastor down the street who faithfully gives the gospel to his little church of 40 every Sunday; for Elisabeth Elliott and her beloved Jim and his fellow laborers; for the elderly lady who gets carried up into my church in her wheelchair each Sunday; for the folks who carry her.
That’s the legacy, not the McSmarmyPants “ministries.”
Regarding the Veggie Tales stuff, here is an article that says what I’d want to say…only better.
Veggie Ethics: What “America’s Favorite Vegetables” Have to Say About Evangelicalism
http://www.westmont.edu/~work/articles/veggie.html
By nature the Reformed take themselves too seriously to ever let themselves be trivialized (I know, because I iz one….)
I’ll know that you have succumbed when I hear that you are going on a “christian” cruise. The only facsimile in the bible recounts a rocky cruise across the Sea of Galilee. I think the buffet consisted of mouldy barley loaves and dessicated fish.
John Challies
“Are we about the gospel here? Or are we about the people, the leaders, the voices?” My question exactly!
“We could so easily become as much about the stuff as the theology, as much about the swag as the doctrine. If it happened to them it could happen to us, right?” In a sense, it already has! Thanks for the post; and no, you’re not the only one who is alarmed and concerned!
Surely John and Barbara Challies have not forgotten about Paul’s exotic cruises around the Mediterranean, including a fun excursion at beautiful Cauda (Acts 27)! Such a cruise every Christian should endeavor to repeat.
Marie,
I like this Pastor already…to boldly ask without equivocation if one “is a Chrsitian, and why not?” Our country church has about 20 or so on any given service, which constitutes a good portion of folks for miles. When this number became known to Bill Hybels during a short chat I had with him during one of their conferences years ago, he looked me square in the eye and said, “Those 20 are no less important or in need of God’s grace than our twenty-thousand.” An unexpected and humble comment I thought.
Tim,
As usual a profound subject and a well written post! Thanks!
There’s only one thing I can say: http://www.persecution.net/
In Christ,
Dan H.
Uh, and did you think you were going to find Biblical truth in a Pentecostal church???If that’s the case, I think Lent should be the least of your concerns.