Revolution
As a follow-up to reading Pagan Christianity I started to read Revolution by George Barna, but I found my heart just wasn't in it and I put it aside for now. Revolution is quite a different book from P.C. Barna is a researcher, which should be right up my ally as I love research and hope to be in that line of work one day myself. But it didn't capture me.
Revolution talks about the current changes that are becoming apparent in the church. It looks at the characteristics of the revolution, and the characteristics of the "revolutionaries" who are making change happen.
Whether Barna meant for this to be a subtle "if this doesn't describe you, you'd better get with the program" or if it was my own hypersensitivity to guilt-inducing modes of teaching that made me read this into the text, I'm not sure. But it was difficult after awhile to hear about these changes without sensing an implication that my life does not meet some standard of performance.
So I stopped reading and started praying. Over the next day I felt like I could let go of the standard, for a few reasons. First of all, I've been trying to walk the way Jesus wants for as long as I can remember. Although I'm not perfect and never will be, I don't think it's far off the mark to say that years of practice actually helps me get quite a few things right, and that some ways of God-living have become almost as natural as breathing. Sometimes living the way God wants us to might feel like striving, but it probably doesnt' always feel that way, so I don't need to feel like I'm not pleasing God because I'm not finding things completely difficult.
Second, I don't think my task is so much to go around and look for ways to please God as it is to respond to the issues that come into my life. As I pondered that a bit more, I felt pushed to respond better to a few things, such as call friends who have been on my mind lately who might be struggling, and to pray regularly for the needs of the families and kids I serve at work. Again, that doesn't seem dramatic enough to earn the title "revolutionary" but if so, I don't think I want the title.
Third, the people Barna describes are passionate. I don't feel passionate about my God-life at this point in time. Confused, but still determined, but not passionate. I know from experience that trying to drum up passion produces hype and not much else. So I can't buy too much into the Revolution concepts (as I understand them) without losing out on being true to myself.
Looking forward to feedback on this post, especially if you've read Revolution.
Revolution talks about the current changes that are becoming apparent in the church. It looks at the characteristics of the revolution, and the characteristics of the "revolutionaries" who are making change happen.
Whether Barna meant for this to be a subtle "if this doesn't describe you, you'd better get with the program" or if it was my own hypersensitivity to guilt-inducing modes of teaching that made me read this into the text, I'm not sure. But it was difficult after awhile to hear about these changes without sensing an implication that my life does not meet some standard of performance.
So I stopped reading and started praying. Over the next day I felt like I could let go of the standard, for a few reasons. First of all, I've been trying to walk the way Jesus wants for as long as I can remember. Although I'm not perfect and never will be, I don't think it's far off the mark to say that years of practice actually helps me get quite a few things right, and that some ways of God-living have become almost as natural as breathing. Sometimes living the way God wants us to might feel like striving, but it probably doesnt' always feel that way, so I don't need to feel like I'm not pleasing God because I'm not finding things completely difficult.
Second, I don't think my task is so much to go around and look for ways to please God as it is to respond to the issues that come into my life. As I pondered that a bit more, I felt pushed to respond better to a few things, such as call friends who have been on my mind lately who might be struggling, and to pray regularly for the needs of the families and kids I serve at work. Again, that doesn't seem dramatic enough to earn the title "revolutionary" but if so, I don't think I want the title.
Third, the people Barna describes are passionate. I don't feel passionate about my God-life at this point in time. Confused, but still determined, but not passionate. I know from experience that trying to drum up passion produces hype and not much else. So I can't buy too much into the Revolution concepts (as I understand them) without losing out on being true to myself.
Looking forward to feedback on this post, especially if you've read Revolution.
posted by Jude | 8:42 PM
1 Comments:
Your journey makes me think SO much. Thanks! It's good for me. Can you expand on this thought a little more? "So I can't buy too much into the Revolution concepts (as I understand them) without losing out on being true to myself." What do you mean? What does being true to yourself look like for you?
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