Monday, April 21, 2014

Why I can't bring myself to do an altar call...

This past week, Sammy Rhodes had an article published that was a magic carpet ride of nostalgia for every church kid who started youth group between 1997 and 2005.  If you haven't seen the article yet, I encourage you to look at it, it will give you the feels (although I can't guarantee what set of feels it may be).

One element of growing up a church kid in the late 90s that he left out however was the obligatory altar call at the end of every retreat, music festival, mission trip, camp, and Superbowl party.  If you were like me, when you were in high school, the church calendar looked something like this:

At the end of August there would be a Back to School Youth Kickoff party where the plan of salvation was presented.  Then in the middle of October, at the Fall Retreat, the plan of salvation was presented again and I would be saved for the first time that year by raising my hand when everyone else had their eyes shut.  By the end of November, I had back-slidden to the point where at the FCA Retreat I would once again raise my hand while everyone kept their eyes shut for my salvation.  On New Years Eve, we would have our lock-in where once again I would hear the plan of salvation.  The first week of February I would hear the plan of salvation again, this time shown on the bigscreen by a pre-recorded NFL player during half-time (which of course is why no church kid saw the 'wardrobe malfunction' live).  By the end of March, I had been to the purity retreat, repented of youtubing the wardrobe malfunction, and once more asked Jesus to be my personal savior (we are up to 3 for those of you scoring at home).  In April we would go to Ichthus, where once again the plan of salvation was presented, and this time I, along with 10,000 of my closest friends raised my hand to be saved.  The summer brought a week at camp that culminated by praying at the altar and a mission trip where once again I could raise my hand while everyone else kept their eyes shut.

Looking back, I must have been saved and resaved at least 27 times before getting my driver's license. None of which resulted in transformation of my heart and mind.

In, The King Jesus Gospel, Scot McKnight talks about the way that 'salvation culture' has overcome 'gospel culture' in much of evangelicalism.  He argues that most evangelicals (and many mainliners as well) when questioned about the content of the Gospel jump straight to a plan of salvation (whether that be the 4 spiritual laws, the romans road, the bead bracelet, or some other tract).  For McKnight, the plan of salvation is a meager gospel, in large part because it fails to connect the life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus to the larger trajectory of the story of God.  For McKnight, a rendering of the Gospel that casts Jesus as savior without also casting him as Lord is no Gospel at all.

Tom Wright has claimed that when we distill the Gospel down to the plan of salvation, that we cease to be a Gospel community, we cease to be Evangelical, but instead we should be called soterians, the saved ones.  The difference being that as soterians we are justified, but there is little impetus for sanctification--there is little impetus for being transformed into the image of God.

And there in lies the rub.  God calls us to make disciples, who immersed in a Gospel culture, are transformed into the image of God, and while the plan of salvation (how we become justified) is part of this Gospel culture, it has no power when separated from the discipleship pathway (how we can become sanctified). So, no matter how much I want to, I can't bring myself to offer an empty gospel that justifies without the probability of sanctification.  And neither could Wesley.

As United Methodists, sometimes we imagine John Wesley as a larger than life, Superman-like character in the English religious landscape.  But the reality is that Wesley's work as a field preacher was dwarfed by that of George Whitfield.  Whitfield was the master evangelist, whose preaching brought at least 10 times as many Englishmen to saving faith than did Wesley's.  However, every person who came to faith under Wesley was immediately put in a [discipleship] class.  In other words, Wesley refused to offer justification without the expectation of sanctification, and now, almost 250 years later, the movement with the method is in mission in nearly every community around the globe, while Whitfield, even before his death, lamented that he had not been as committed to getting converts into classes.

Here is where I want some feedback.  I believe that the acknowledgement of justifying grace in one's life is important, but I don't believe that our usual ways of acknowledging justifying grace are working for making disciples.  How have you seen the moment of decision turned into the first step of the discipleship pathway?  How does the plan of salvation function in a Gospel culture?

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

What do we deserve by virtue of being human?

This morning I saw a new meme on Facebook that had been shared by a couple of my friends saying something to the effect of, "Those who receive government benefits should have to be tested for drugs, since I do to be able to work and be taxed for said benefits."  On the surface, this is a relatively reasonable argument.  It makes sense that if I want to collect a "public good," a certain level of responsibility with the resources I do have should be expected.  However, on closer inspection, this sentiment reveals a troubling assumption about poverty, responsibility, and the human condition.

Before I go any further, I should lay my cards on the table.  I believe that humans, by virtue of being human in society, are entitled to a certain necessities for human flourishing.  Beyond these necessities, we are entitled to nothing.  What exactly these necessities include is constantly changing (and are different from society to society), and is extremely difficult to nail down, however, the basic principle remains that there is a basket of goods and services that every human living in society should have access to by virtue of being human.

In the past, calamity was viewed as a fact of life.  In any society, some would be wealthy and many more would be impoverished, and no one ever blamed the poor for being poor, in fact, in many societies, these assumptions about the lack of class mobility were codified.  But at some point around the Industrial Revolution, Western society (most strongly in North America) began to assume that wealth was primarily the result of merit, and by extension, the poor were responsible for their being poor, without regard to the systems in place that perpetuate generational poverty or the psychological differences that contribute to poverty.

What we are saying when we require a person to be drug tested before receiving public goods is that they are wholly responsible for their poverty, which is patently false.  A child born to a single mother, who abused drugs and alcohol during her pregnancy, whose mother couldn't read and therefore couldn't read to the child, who moved twice a year clear through elementary school, whose only balanced meals came on Sunday at grandma's house and free lunches on school days, who went to failing schools the whole way through, and who was abused by all six of her mother's boyfriends, the fifth impregnating her at age 14 cannot be held accountable for her poverty anymore than a privately educated child with two parents, who was cared for every step of the way can be fully accountable for perpetuating wealth.

In light of this, in 2014, in Dayton, OH by virtue of being human, we should be entitled to:

temperature controlled shelter
12th grade or equivalent education
transportation to place of education/library
2000 whole food calories per day
light
clean drinking water
hygiene products
world's most efficient method of communication, research, and leisure (smart phone)
Basic preventative and emergency health care

My guess is that some of you would want to add or subtract from this list, please do in the comment section and we can dialogue about what are the necessities for human flourishing in Dayton, in 2014.

Also, if you have creative ideas about the vehicles by which these necessities would be best delivered contribute them to the discussion.

Finally, if you think my basic assumption about poverty and what humans deserve by virtue of being human feel free to make your objection and we can dialogue on that topic as well.