Unlike more authoritarian church traditions, evangelicalism is a subversive (rather than overt) collectivism – almost like “Lord of the Flies”. You are told what to believe, how to think, what events to attend, what books to read, what music to listen to in order to be a “good” Christian. But collectivism does not create courageous faith (Tillich), no matter in what form it appears.

One can claim to be protestant without embodying the protestant spirit. Someone was talking about the need for the protestant spirit and constant renewal on EWTN radio today. Churches don’t teach their parishoners how to think, nor do they stand aside to let God confront its members with a personal encounter. Instead, the church does it all: Just watch this DVD; pray this prayer; attend this meeting; check this box; pull this voting lever. We have let (or forced) the church to become the mediator of our relationship with God. That is wrong.

We need to question. We need to challenge old ideas (and the “new” ones). We need to let people struggle with God. That’s what protestant spirit is all about. It’s a much harder road than just doing or thinking what one is told.

And lets face it, young people are just at the beginning of figuring out their convictions, or learning wrong ideals they’ll have to turn from later in life as they learn the hard way.

Anyone for BBQ?

Reminds me of a college Communications course I took– one of the texts was entitled “The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control”. After getting beat up by authority figures in church most of my adult life, I find myself reflexively gravitating towards the “agitation” end of the spectrum. As you said, though, the path of wisdom is to “Test Yourself and Question Authority by The Truth of God as Seen In Jesus.” Not to automatically reject the assertions of the “control” group, but to give them a fair hearing in the light of scripture. And not to automatically assume the validity of your own opinions/beliefs/values either, but to test them the same way. I’m still struggling with this. I’m starting to thing it’s my life work, to struggle with this…

It does often seem a one-sided relationship, though– sometimes one could wish that those in authority would engage in the same sort of exercise. Sadly, in my experience, that seldom happens. (It’s not in their own self-interest, usually!). I could go on and on but probably shouldn’t, so I’ll bail out over these uncertain waters, hoping that my seat cushion really does float…

[I find that my inflated ego makes a lousy life raft!]

Anyone for BBQ?

The camps which hold to either of these polarizing views need to hear the prophetic voice of gospel. That parable of the mustard seed keeps coming back to me. Just because the seed becomes a tree, which continues to grow and expand, doesn’t mean that it will ever cease being a mustard tree. We can’t keep the gospel-seed safe from harm by leaving it in the package. It must grow and fill the earth.

I think iMonk and others have said it on several occassions: grace is dangerous stuff. No one is more afraid of it than Christians.

But in my experience, the people (including myself) who embrace an attitude of distrust in all authority tend to end up questioning EVERYTHING that doesn’t sit right with them right off the bat. So my question is, how do you strike the balance between having a hermeneutic of suspicion but also a willingness to trust and follow God AND His teachers and preachers here?

That might be more of a question that’s best answered in the course of a conversation, but whatever thoughts you might have would be helpful.

I plan on passing this post on to those I know in youth ministry!

Very true, Michael – very true.

And I think it is consistent with this definition of integrity (from Wikipedia):

“One can describe a person as having integrity to the extent that everything that that person does derives from the same core set of values. While those values may change, their consistency with each other and with the person’s actions determine the person’s degree of integrity.”

So, the person may change and still have integrity. On the contrary, he will loose his integrity if he holds on to actions which are inconsistent with his values (that may have changed).

It has the side effect of not letting anything new get in there… including things that have nothing to do with one’s beliefs.