Silence from the church

Mother Teresa, humble, servant, selfless. One of the crowd of witnesses calling us to reckless abandon



Ten years ago, there was much furor over the changing culture, the need to "plant" relevant churches that are Biblical, yet engage the culture in a manner that if can be heard and understood. Recently the conversation has shifted from such discussions, and begun to chat about "holistic Gospel" - a good thing to discuss for sure.

What concerns me is that the majority of the church seems to have moved past the conversation about engaging the culture, past creating new communities better postured to engage a culture that finds the church and what it says, or at least how it says it, as irrelevant. It seems "business as usual". It's back to building bigger buildings, creating more celebrity leaders, and publishing more books that are about "us".

In the conversation regarding holistic Gospel, I am encouraged in the discussion of the entire Gospel - fresh, new, needed! Yet, some how almost all the discussion is by people who don't live it, don't know the taste of it, the cost of it, the sacrifice, the simple white space needed to practice that. One cannot read "Oliver Twist" and understand being a homeless teen, can you? Yet, people are writing theology, good as it is, yet without one ounce of understanding that theology from any experience, any mud on the boots, any credibility of knowing it first hand. Therefore, these supposed Christian book publishing company darlings, talk about that which they have no earthly idea. They pontificate about that which they have never tasted. They are counterfeit.

One cannot espouse holistic Gospel when you don't as an organic, natural, continuous, normal rhythm of life, know your neighbors, sacrifice your resources (time, money, energies) for others to the extent that it costs, hurts, causes you to alter how you live your life. Living for others requires time, your emotional energy and entangles you with their lives over a long journey together. It's not a trip to the soup kitchen. As great as that is, as noble a cause as it is, and needed as it is-it is not the defining reality of holistic Gospel.

It's messy, day by day boring normal life entangled with the people right there in our lives today. One cannot live a materialistic, consumer, pietistic church groupy life when you know others to the extent that you are humbly dependent upon them and you give yourself away in love to, for and with them.




William and Catherine Booth, founders of the Salvation Army, moved to action when the status quo dismissed them. Heroes of the faith!






So, as we talk holistic Gospel, may we do so with the proof of calloused hands and knees, tired at the end of our days and weeks, volitionally compelled to live simpler that others live better, giving the gift of love in action and serving others face to face, eye to eye. May we be compelled to listen that we might actually answer questions being asked - not proclaiming in ways that alienate, are not understood, and come to understand and know before we speak. We'll speak more wisely, more humbly, more softly, and with more tact. We'll actually say less, yet say more; and see God's name made renown and people thirsty to know this personal God who is a shepherd, with a yoke easy and not burdensome.