It seems that lately I have been in a strange frame of mind, especially regarding my spiritual practice with regard to community worship. In other words, I seem to be having issues about how "church" is done. This probably has shown up strongest on my blog in last night's post.
It is interesting to me that this is happening when I am beginning to regularly lead worship again for the first time in over a year.
Today, on my daily bike ride along the bay, it occurred to me that there are three "either/or" oxymoronic settings in my spiritual journey that most likely can and ought to be transformed into "both/and" points of constructive departure for further journeying. Over the next three nights, I am going to blog about each of them in turn. Tonight, I would like to very briefly introduce you to them.
Here they are:
CHARISMATIC / MAINLINE
I became a Christian during my teen years in the Pentecostal Holiness Church and was heavily influenced by people like Keith Green. I experienced Baptism in the Holy Spirit and have spoken in tongues and fallen out in the Spirit. To this day, I tend to proof text in my sermons and teaching more than many ministers I collaborate with.
Currently, I am a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA), about as far away from my Pentecostal roots as anyone could get. I am including the PC(USA) in the Mainline category of denominations, even though "Mainline" is perhaps a misnomer these days. Perhaps "Sideline" is a better term nowadays, with the decreasing numbers and influence of the Mainline denominations.
Can these two "space/time" locations blend into a unified point of departure in my life, theology, and ministry?
EMERGENT / MAINLINE
My second crossroad with potential for "both/and" resolution is my situation of straddling the Emergent/Mainline fault line. I consider myself to be very much into emergence while still serving in many situations that can best be described as classic, traditional, mainline denominational settings.
I am constantly trying to figure out how to serve traditional church settings while studying emergent texts and learning from other emergent Christians online. Sadly, this often leads to frustration.
Frustration that, for the most part, sits silently within my heart and mind, giving me strange dreams and "Guerrilla Christian" thoughts.
More on that in a couple nights.
EVANGELICAL MANDATE / SOCIAL GOSPEL
One of the first papers I wrote in seminary was a contrast/comparison paper of J. Gresham Machen and Gustavo Gutiérrez. I wanted to examine the controversy between the fundamentalist concept of salvation as "fire insurance" and the radical outlook of Latin American Liberation Theology.
I am troubled by the apparent situation in which conservative churches tend toward salvation as an essentially otherworldly experience, while progressive churches view Kingdom Living as a present moment social justice movement.
Can these two views be two sides of the same coin?
Anyway, these are the three areas of "conflict" I have struggled with theologically and practically over the past number of years.
Please feel free to comment.
See you tomorrow evening.
Be blessed.
I too hear you on the either/or and both/and of all three of these. I grew up conservative evangelical, flirted with charismatic and found a home with mainline churches (any of them, really, but Presbyterian mostly). I hear your struggle. And Keith Green challenged me and led me in worship so many times!
ReplyDeleteOh, and I'm consistently woo'd by emergent theology - back to simplicity and going out into the world where people are. Which seems like a way to reconcile the third tension. Except I'm not satisfied with that - too much on evangelism and not enough on social responsibility and Kingdom living in this world. SIGH. The tensions don't cease!
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