Sunday Afternoon Reflections: Mothers' Day and the Church as Our Mother

Early on in the history of the Church it has been said, “As God is our Father the Church is our Mother.”  This “doctrine” has been affirmed by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants alike.  Among this chorus, John Calvin also affirmed this doctrinal turn of phrase.  John Calvin titles chapter 1 of book 4 of “The Institutes of the Christian Religion” “The True Church . . . as Mother of All the Godly” (Battles’ Translation pg. 1011).  In the Henry Beveridge translation of Calvin’s “Institutes”, in the summary of the argument of Book 4 Chapter 1, we read:

“With her God has deposited whatever is necessary to faith and good order . . . The Church is our mother, inasmuch as God has committed to her the kind of office of brining us up in the faith” (pg. 2279).

Commenting on Ephesians 4:12, John Calvin writes:

“This is the universal rule, which extends equally to the highest and to the lowest.  The Church is the common mother of all the godly, which bears, nourishes, and brings up children to God, kings and peasants alike; and this is done by the ministry [of the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers]” (pg. 282).

So, how true is this phrase, “As God is our Father the Church is our mother”?  After all, just because a few famous people say something that doesn’t make it true – even if a mass majority of people claim a truth that doesn’t make it true.  And, Scripture doesn’t explicitly refer to the Church as our mother.  In fact, Israel, which prefigures the Church in the New Testament, receives its name from the patriarch Jacob whom God renamed Israel (Genesis 32:28).  Yet, there is one lone passage which paints a word picture of the Church as our mother.  Isaiah pictures Jerusalem as a mother nursing the Jewish people with consolation; and, as with Israel, Jerusalem prefigures the Church in the New Testament:

“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her; that you may be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious abundance.  For thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounce upon her knees.  As one who his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem” (66:10—13). 

(In Galatians 4, Paul – explicitly using allegory – depicts those who have faith in Jesus as children of Sarah.  This passage seems to be a stretch due to its explicitly allegorical nature, but a quick Google search will show that this passage is the preeminent Catholic and Easter Orthodox proof text for affirming that the Church is our mother) 

In Isaiah 66:10—13, God paints a word picture of Jerusalem as mother to the Jewish people without directly calling Jerusalem “mother”.  Given that the Church is defined as the gathering of God’s people in all times and in all places; and by extension, given that Israel and Jerusalem prefigure the Church in the New Testament: Isaiah 66:10—13 teaches that the Church is our mother.  This divinely inspired word picture makes beautiful sense.  When we are born again, we are born into the church.  As the children of God our faith is nurtured and cultivated in the church.  Spiritual food is prepared for us within the church.  When we read what the Bible has to say about godly motherhood, we see a lovely picture of what the Church is to be to those who believe in Jesus Christ. 

So then, mothers, on this Mothers’ Day, please realize what an honor God has granted you-all.  By living out your call to be godly mothers, you-all have the opportunity to exemplify what the Church is to be as it nurtures and nourishes us in the faith.

With everything written up to this point, attempting to brush a single Scripture passage aside, couldn’t someone still object to the wonderful phrase, “As God is our Father the Church is our mother”?  Couldn’t someone say that this phrase paints a picture of a spiritual-single-parent-God who is somehow deficient in his character or attributes so as to need to provide us with a mother in order compensate for his heavenly parenting deficiencies?

God does not need the Church in order to compensate for some sort of deficiency – God has no deficiencies.  God is neither male nor female, and while he explicitly has told us to refer to him in the masculine as Father, he still claims for himself those attributes we (in our limited earthly wisdom) have decided to call motherly attributes.  For example:

 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?  Even these may forget, yet I will no forget you” (Isaiah 49:15). 

I believe this is why, when speaking of himself, God mixes female imagery and the masculine singular pronoun in Isaiah 46:3—4:

“Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you.  I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.” 

In Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34 even Jesus refers to himself as a mother hen longing to gather the people of Jerusalem under his wing.  Jesus’ words recall Deuteronomy 32:10—12 in which God refers to himself as a mother eagle caring for Israel as little eaglets:

“He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.  Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them upon its pinions.  The LORD alone guided him, no foreign god was with him.”  (Although, one could argue that this text be taken to refer to either male or female eagle parents.)

Commenting on the phrase “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2b), the Dutch Annotated Bible commissioned by the Synod of Dort notes that this phrase pictures the Spirit as a mother bird sitting on her nest awaiting her young to hatch. 

And, in the one passage which clearly depicts the Church as a nursing mother (Isaiah 66:10—13), the passage concludes with God claiming for himself the motherly attributes which he had previously ascribed to Jerusalem:

“As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem” (v. 13)

So, how are we to make sense of this?  If the church is our mother, then why does God appear to claim the very same motherly attributes for himself?  The key is the prepositional phase “inasmuch as” in Beveridge’s words, “The Church is our mother, inasmuch as God has committed to her the kind of office of brining us up in the faith.”  In other words, the Church is our mother inasmuch as God has made her to be our spiritual mother.  James 1:17a says that, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.”  This includes the good and perfect gift of the Church as our mother.  Paradoxically, God the Father cares for us as a mother cares for her children by giving us the Church as our spiritual mother. 

Mothers, please don’t error in assuming that only fathers bear the image of the Heavenly Father in their fatherly role.  The Bible makes it deliberately clear and obvious that all people are created in the image of God – mothers and fathers alike.  So then, mothers, on this Mothers’ Day, appreciate that you-all have the opportunity to wonderfully reflect the image of God as you live out your calling as mother. 

Happy Mothers’ Day.

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Sunday Afternoon Reflections: Psalm 123 and Focused Worship

Every event has a focus.  And, everyone anticipating an event looks forward to something as the focus of their attention.  When I would go to the Iowa Sate Fair, I looked forward to the plethora of deep fired junk food.  When I went to the 4^th of July fire works show in Nashville, I was looking forward to the explosive grand finale.  When I go to a concert, there’s that one song I am looking forward to hearing.  When I go out to my favorite restaurants, I salivate as I look forward to my favorite dishes.  When I go to a ball game, I look forward to seeing my team whoop on the rivals.  When I go out to see the latest block buster movie, I look forward to rich cinematography.  We look forward to events. We long for meaningful experiences. 

OK, so what about the event of corporate worship?  Some of us look forward to good advice that will help us to manage our relationships; we want our families and friends to function in a way that gives us greater happiness.  Some of us look forward to dropping our kids off in a great kids’ program; we want our kids to turn out right in order to make us proud.  Some of us look forward to a soul stirring worship performance; we don’t want to be bored.  Some of us look forward hear some pleasant thoughts and good words; we want to know we are alright in order to feel better about ourselves. 

What are we to look forward to in worship?  What did the pilgrim in Psalm 123 look forward to as he anticipated worship?  The beginning of Psalm 123 gives us a direct answer:

“To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the Heavens!” (v. 1)

With everything we tend to look forward to as we approach worship, all pale in comparison to God.  Why would we look forward to a modicum of self-help advice when we could come face to face with truth of God?  Why would we settle for a spiritual baby sitter for our kids when they could be getting to know God?  Why would we put up with a so-so performance when we could be speaking directly to God?  Why would we accept simple platitudes designed to boost our self-esteem when we could hear the Word of God?  When we gather together for worship, we gather together for a grand corporate conversation with God.  Worship is a God-centered dialogue among God’s people.  We hear God’s call to worship.  We respond in praise and adoration to God.  God calls us to confession, and we offer our confession to God.  In return, we hear God’s words of assurance.  We respond with praise and thanksgiving – through song and tithing.  We ask God to help us understand his Word, and his Spirit helps us to understand the Word as it is preached.  We pray and ask God to help us to apply the Word to our lives.  God sends us out to love and serve him.  We sing praises to God in thanksgiving for the Word, and God sends us out with his benediction.  Worship is a God-centered dialogue. 

That may all sound well and good, but, all too often, when we gather together, we approach God inappropriately.  We look to God, but only as a cosmic genii in a bottle.  We approach God, but we do so with all our bargaining chips in hand as if we are approaching some heavenly negotiator.  We have all come to God in worship with good intentions only to find ourselves focusing on our own long laundry list of wants (and sometimes a few legitimate needs).  To offer a parodied caricature, at times, we can come to God like this:

“Ye, God, thanks for all you do.  You’re great and all.  So, by the way, while we’re talking, could you help me with my home refinance so that I get that 3.98% rate?  And, you know my son; could you help him to fit in at school?  I’d love for him to get in with a great group of friends who could boost his self-esteem.  And, could you bless my folks with an awesome anniversary trip to Hawaii?  I’d also sure love to do well on my presentation tomorrow – a great presentation would help to advance my career.  Then, I might get a raise and be able to buy that ski boat I have wanted for years. . .” 

Well, verse 2 of Psalm 123 sets us in our proper place preventing us from assuming that we can approach God as equals (or, more true to our nature, preventing us from assuming that we can approach God as his superior). 

“Behold, as the eyes of servants look tot eh hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD God, till he has mercy upon us.” (v. 2)

When we gather together in worship, we are servants addressing the sovereign King of the universe.  We don’t look upon our own lives with the self-centered expectation that God will address us and our requests. 

So, what do servants look to from their king?  At least four things: 1) the king’s word, 2) the king’s provision, 3) the king’s protection, and 4) the king’s honor/reputation.  First, a king issues commands, gives orders, makes covenant promises, offers commendations, gives advice, shares wisdom, makes judgments, and gives blessings.  And, good servants don’t just listen to the words of their king; good servants are moved to action by the words of their king.  So too we look forward to hearing God’s Word and living out God’s Word.  Second, especially in more ancient times, servants are completely dependent upon their king for their daily sustenance.  So too we look forward to our daily bread for the hand our Heavenly Father.  Third, (picturing the epic battle scenes from the Lord of the Rings) a king provides shelter for his subjects who posses no castle of their own.  King Jesus provides himself as a refuge from sin, death, and the Devil.  Fourth, a good king’s name and reputation rests upon his servants as they serve in his kingdom.  So too Jesus Christ gives us his righteousness and grants us the honor of bearing his name as we serve in his kingdom. 

But, there are a couple of problems.  First, serving a king puts a person at odds with all other authorities and rulers.  This was definitely true of the Jewish pilgrims singing this prayer on their way to Jerusalem.  In biblical Palestine there would have been all sorts of people from non-Jewish tribes who despised the Jewish people and their worship.  Ancient pilgrims singing Psalm 123 would have been in danger of being harassed on their way to Jerusalem for worship.  So the Psalmist prays the concluding two verses of Psalm 123:

“Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough contempt.  Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.” (vv. 3&4)

But, this prayer raises a second problem, why would God have mercy up us?  If we take an honest assessment of our lives, we realize that we are worse than wretched servants in God’s kingdom – we are treasonous rebels in God’s kingdom (Romans 5:10).  We pay God lip service and then we worship other things with our lives.  Our jobs become our hope and salvation in uncertain economic times.  We pay homage to a royal court of entertainments that offer us a refuge so we can escape from the grind of daily life.  People lord over our lives as we eagerly seek to please them like we’d become a court jester.  We dishonor God by claiming to serve him while at the same time we serve all sorts of false gods. 

So, what hope is there?  When we are condemned by those who scoff at us and hold up our sin before God, what are we to say?  As we have said before, there is no hope in the Psalms apart from Christ.  Jesus is the fulfillment of the Psalms.  Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” And Romans 5:6—10 says,

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even die – but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.  For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

When you approach worship you will be scorned.  You will be scorn yourself as you dredge up old sins, shame, and guilt.  Those around you will scorn you by implication, minimalization, depreciation, and marginalization.  The Devil will scorn you with lies and accusation.  These three will scorn you by holding your sins against you and then calling your value into question. 

So, what are you to do?  Take your sins and throw then in the face of your accusers and claim Christ as the one who has saved you from those very sins.  If you hear a little insidious voice saying, “You thing you’re the kind of person God wants worshiping him, aren’t you the same scum who . . . ?”  Respond by saying, “Yes; I am that person, and Christ died to pay the price of those sins!”  There is no accusation that overpower the saving work of Christ.

 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

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Joe Satriani, "God Is Crying", Holy Week, and the Attributes of God

Recently, I have been listening to Joe Satriani’s latest album “Black Swans and Worm Hole Wizards”.  Over this Holy Week, I have been particularly drawn to track 11 “God Is Crying”:

http://www.myspace.com/joesatriani/music/albums/black-swans-and-wormhole-wizards-16732530 
(Above is the link to the album “Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards” on Satriani’s MySpace page.  Scroll down to track 11 and click on the play icon.  If you do not have a MySpace membership you can only listen to about three songs in their entirety; if you have a MySpace membership you have unlimited access to listen to whole albums that are posted on an artist’s page)

For those of you who may not know much about Joe Satriani (a.k.a. Satch, the Professor, the Extremist), he is a rock and roll guitar virtuoso, innovator, and technical genius.  He has released 13 studio albums, sold over 10 million albums, and he has had 15 Grammy nominations (he has the 2^nd most Grammy nominations without a win, after Brian McKnight).  He is a guitar player’s guitar player. (Most of the content of this paragraph was taken from Wikipedia.)

Through Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday – looking forward to Easter – among other things pertaining to the atonement, I have been reflecting on God’s sorrow over human sin, Jesus weeping at Lazarus’ tomb (John 11:1—43, esp. v. 35), and Jesus weeping over Jerusalem (Luke 19:28—44, esp. v. 41).  And, so, I have been listening to “God Is Crying” by Joe Satriani.  By Satch’s own admission on a Facebook video podcast, this song “is not what you would expect given the title “God Is Crying””, which you may have gathered for yourself by listening to the song on his MySpace page.  You may have expected to hear a slow, moody, lilting, haunting melody line, or you may have expected to hear a series of scale runs, some with a smooth descending legato, and others with punctuated staccato evoking the image of streaming or falling tears.  Instead, as Satch describes it, “God Is Crying” is an “intense” and “explosive” song with a “heavy groove.”  In an A flat minor key with 4/4 drive, the song is powerful and aggressive.  And, I would also describe the song as being a bit angry.  Overtop of the drive, Satch lays down a soaring melody line with heavy use of a wha peddle (made famous by the Dunlop Cry Baby Wha peddle). This is what makes this song so interesting to me during Holy Week: the song seems to depict God’s crying, weeping, sorrowful tears mixed with intense power and anger. 

Now, it’s not that Satch isn’t capable of playing a slow song with a dark, somber, smooth tone (he is known for being able to play such songs alongside blazing fast technical masterpieces).  Two examples of Satch’s slow, easy, moody, haunting, and lilting melodies come to mind from his last album “Super Colossal”:

First, “The Meaning of Love” (track # 8)

Second, “A Love Eternal” (track # 12)
http://www.myspace.com/joesatriani/music/albums/super-colossal-8120159
(Actually, the song “Slow and Easy” from the album “Engines of Creation” came to mind first, but I couldn’t find a link to an online sample.)

As to those songs filled with legato and staccato scale runs that fall like tears, two songs come to mind:

First, “Made of Tears” from the album “Super Colossal” (track # 9)

http://www.myspace.com/joesatriani/music/albums/super-colossal-8120159

Second, “Wind in the Trees” from the album “Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards” (track # 10 – as you listen to this track try to picture a willow tree being moved by the wind.)

http://www.myspace.com/joesatriani/music/albums/black-swans-and-wormhole-wizards-16732530

In the March 9, 2011 issue of Guitar World Magazine Satch was asked about the song “God Is Crying”; these are his comments:

I was thinking about God – the concept of God actually.  Where is he?  Why do we need him? . . . But I started to think, what would happen if God came down to earth?  Not just as a spirit, but really came down here physically and walked around and took a look at what we’ve done to the world.  And, all I could think was, he would cry.

In a heightened way, from Advent and Christmas through Lent and Easter, Christians are confronted with the reality that God, through the Second Person of the Trinity – Jesus Christ, came to earth and took on the form of a man – he took on the form of a lowly humble servant (Phil. 2: 5—10).  And, Jesus wept (John 11:35).  He didn’t just weep over what we had done to the world (though this surely is part of what causes God sorrow).  He wept over us and our corrupt sinful nature, which causes us to commit sin and defile God’s precious creation.  Surely the way we twist and distort culture causes God sorrow; surely the way we pollute and abuse nature causes God sorrow; surely our broken homes and our chuck full prisons cause God sorrow; surely wars and poverty cause God sorrow.  Yet, it’s the sinful heart of man caused Jesus Christ to weep. 

Here’s the good news, God didn’t just weep and wring his hands in the far distant recesses of heaven; he did something about our sinful predicament.  (This is where I think Satriani is intuitively on to something in his song “God Is Crying”.)  When God did something about our sinful existence, his sorrow over sinful mankind was joined with his omnipotent power.  When God redeemed us from our sin, his love and mercy stood side by side with his just wrath. 

In a Facebook video podcast, Satch said, “It [the songs juxtaposed title and heavy grove] makes sense when you think about it.”  Well, I thought about it, and it does make perfect sense.  The genocidal slaughter of 800,000 in Rwanda causes me to weep, while at the same time it gave rise to appropriate anger at the perpetrators of such atrocities.  As human beings we all experience such a mix of emotions on a regular basis.  Now, amplify that instance of Rwandan atrocity by the whole of human history; and, then, try to imagine viewing that sum total of human history from God’s perfect perspective.  (An impossible exercise, yet a valuable exercise in the hermeneutic of “how much more then does God . . .”) 

Is there some way of making sense of a God who is at the same time sorrowful, wrathful, loving, merciful, compassionate, angry, omnipotent, holy, and just?  The key to this question is the doctrine of the simplicity of God.  This is not simplicity in the sense of a simple back woods country bumpkin.  By the simplicity of God we mean that God is one and his attributes are united in a simple whole.  God is not a conglomeration of attributes that are linked together like so many Legos.  God’s attributes are inextricably united in the oneness of God’s being.  Where one of his attributes is, there all his other attributes are.  And, the cross is the best place to see the beautiful commingling of God’s attributes.  In his love, compassion, and mercy God sent his Son Jesus Christ to die to save sinners.  God’s holiness and justice is maintained when Jesus Christ died to pay the price of our sin.  The right wrath of God against human sin is satisfied upon the cross.  God exercises his omnipotent power by vanquishing sin, death and Satan through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

So, what about Satch’s musings and questions about God?  God did come into our midst as a man, and he did cry.  But, he did so much more than weep over the human condition: he did something about the human condition; He sent his Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins.

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Book Review: "The Next Christians: The Good News about the End of Christian America, How a New Generation Is Restoring the Faith." By Gabe Lyons, Doubleday, NY, 2010

“The Next Christians” is a provocative read that is sure to push buttons while providing positive theoretical and practical content that will help the reader develop a richer more deliberate concept of Christian ministry (no matter the level of involvement in ministry or Church background).  For that I gave the book four stars.  I almost gave the book three stars because of an apparent weak “historical memory” and an apparent hyperbolic overstatement of the “The Next Christians” unique place in history. 

In Part I of “The Next Christians” Lyons describes the undeniable cultural shifts that have lead to what is now commonly referred to as “Post-Christian America” (ch. 1& 2).  From there, Lyons outlines six “parodies” of how Christians tend to respond to culture (ch. 3).  His six “parodies” somewhat resemble H. Richard Niebuhr’s five categories of how Christians engage culture in his seminal work “Christ and Culture”.  Those Niebuhr categorizes as “Christ against Culture” and “Christ in Paradox with Culture” Lyons seems to divide into three groups: 1) Insiders, 2) Culture Warriors, and 3) Evangelizers.  Those Niebuhr categorizes as “Christ above Culture” and “Christ of Culture” loosely resemble Lyons’ two classifications dubbed 1) Blenders and 2) Philanthropists.  And, those Niebuhr categorizes as “Christ the Transformer of Culture” Lyons calls Restorers.  It is the Restorers whom Lyons champions through the rest of the book.  In chapter four, Lyons asserts that the Restorers have rediscovered the full and complete plot line of the Gospel – a Gospel with four major movements: a) creation, b) fall, c) redemption, d) glorification/consummation.  Lyons contrasts this full orbed Gospel understanding with a “truncated gospel” that begins with the fall in order to press home the urgency of redemption, all the while forgetting to frame Gods redemptive plan in terms of creation and re-creation.  Here Lyons calls for Christians to embrace a Gospel that looks forward to all things being made new as opposed to a “truncated gospel” that promises some sort of “eternal-life-escape-boat” from this doomed and sinking world.   A full orbed understanding of the Gospel (creation, fall, redemption, consummation) is what Lyons believes drives Restorers toward a more fruitful application of the Gospel (word and deed) to the whole of life.  (A Reformed or Presbyterian reader will cheer the next Christians at this point since a creation, fall, redemption, consummation understanding of the Gospel has always been a central component of Reformed theology – even if this component has been neglected from time to time.  In this section it is easy to see why Os Guinness, Chuck Colson, and Tim Keller have all praised this book.)

How is it that the Restorers are gaining meaningful traction living out their faith in the midst of our current cultural context?  Lyons lays out six ways in which the Restorers are bearing fruit in the post-Christian American cultural context:

1)      They are “Provoked, not Offended” (ch. 5)

2)      They are “Creators, not Critics” (ch. 6)

3)      They are “Called, not Employed” (ch. 7)

4)      They are “Grounded, not Distracted” (ch. 8)

5)      They are “In Community, not Alone” (ch. 9)

6)      They are “Countercultural, not ‘Relevant’” (ch. 10)

(I read this book soon after reading Tullian Tchividjian’s book “Unfashionable”, and I was very intrigued at how Tchividjian’s six characteristics of transformational cultural engagement compliment  Lyons six characteristics of transformational cultural engagement.  I will keep these two books together in my study on a shelf dedicated to Christianity and culture.)

Each one of these chapters is filled with compelling case studies and real-life examples of Christians who are effectively living out the Christian faith in the midst of places and contexts that many Christians have given up for lost.  A small group, discipleship group, Sunday school class, leadership team, or congregation that deliberately works through this book will surely come up with several ways in which they can penetrate their surrounding culture and transform it for the good of the Kingdom of God.  I would like to see small clutches of pastors meeting together to discuss the book and its practical applications.  Then, after working through the book, in turn, it would be neat to see those pastors work through this book with people in their churches who are eager to see the Kingdom of God permeate every arena of culture more fully. 

In the final section (“Part III: A New Era”) and final chapter of the book (“The Next Big Shift”), using the thesis that the Christian Church passes through a time of major transition every 500 years, with a hopeful positive outlook Lyons offers a motivational call to action. 

With these positives, I have one negative critique and one caution about the use of “The Next Christians”.  First, it seemed to me that Lyons has a bit of a weak “historical memory”.  Lyons does say that the next Christians who are engaged in the work of restoration “are relearning . . . rediscovering the depth and breath of the most critical, orthodox teaching of our faith – the Gospel message” (pg. 50; see also pg. 192).  And Lyons does say, “The people of God will continue forward as they’ve been doing for two millennia so long as we keep the foundations of our faith grounded in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is of first importance” (pg. 189).  And, Lyons even acknowledges that “The perspective they [the next Christians] exhibit is not a new Christian idea; it’s actually quite old” (pg. 48).  Yet, in a slightly inconsistent way, Lyons claims that “Restorers exhibit the mind-set, humility and commitment that seem destined to rejuvenate the momentum of the faith. They have a peculiar way of thinking, being, and doing that is radically different from previous generations” (pg. 47).  This last statement comes off like a teenager exiting a movie theater exclaiming, “Harry Potter movies are the best movies ever!”  It is true that every generation and age has unique contextual differences; nevertheless, good, solid, sound, vibrant, beautiful Christianity is timeless and consistent.  Faithful and fruitful Christians don’t look to create or to be something new, they are always returning to the ancient paths that have been laid our for them once and for all (Jeremiah 6:16).  Lyons' work is not so ground breaking, after all, H. Richard Niebuhr addressed similar issues 50 years ago.  Abraham Kuyper (the Father of Transformationalism) modeled this over 100 years ago.  As Lyons recognizes, 200 years ago William Wilberforce, John Newton, and the relatively small Clapham Circle community restored an entire nation’s moral standing.  The people Lyons describes as Restorers, in many ways, are not all that new or unique; each and every generation has had restorative or transformational Christians (without exception).  I can think of a multitude of senior-citizens in the sunset years of their life who fit Gabe Lyon’s description of “The Next Christians.” It just so happens that in this current age, the Restorers or Transformers are becoming more visible as they gain significant ground and produce noticeably sweet fruit within their cultural context.  Are we witnessing a refining process that is drawing out a purer solid Christianity while burning away the dross of superficial Christianity that has flourished in recent years?  I will grant Lyons this, if Restorative or Transformational Christians would have been more common in the past century, then we would not have so much superficial Christianity today and a deterioration of Christianity’s standing in the culture at large. 

Along these lines, I would like to see a subsequent edition of this book with a chapter dealing with the reality that the best of Christians will still be despised by the culture even when they live the faith extremely well.  During this read, I wanted to hear Lyons address the difference between Christians creating un-due or inappropriate offence and the inevitable offence that the Christian Gospel will always create (c.f. the relationship between I Cor. 1:23 & II Cor. 6:3).  After all, the majority of Christians around the world suffer derision, rejection, and persecution within their cultural context despite their best efforts to live out the faith.

As to the caution, one could read this book and turn being a Restorer into a form of Phariseeism.  This book needs to be read with a heart of grace toward non-Christians and toward Christians with whom you may disagree (i.e. those Lyons rightly negatively classifies as Insiders, Culture Warriors, Evangelizers, Blenders, and Philanthropists).  Please avoid the temptation of defining what it means to be a Restorer too narrowly.  A narrow understanding of what it means to be a Restorer, could lead someone to become wrongly disappointed with those whom you may perceive not to be transformational enough. 

OK, with those pointed critiques, I benefited deeply from reading this book.  I benefited because it caused me to wrestle and struggle with the finer points of how I approach living the Christian life – a few times, I woke in the middle of the night to jot down thoughts that were rattling around in my head on account of this book.  There are points in this book that will surgically cut each and every reader (this is a great quality in any book that seeks to lead people to improve in the Christian life).  You will think long and hard about what it means to live out your faith in this day and age.  This book offers hope and a positive outlook for the future of the Church along with concrete practical approaches that will help groups of Christians confidently live out their faith with an expectant eye to the future. 

(I received this book free for the purposes of review from Mulnomah/Waterbrook Books.)

Sunday Afternon Reflections Will Be Postponed 1 Week

Due to schedule issues and prior commitments, Sunday Afternoon Reflections will be postponed one week.  We will pick up our reflections on the Psalms of Ascent next week with Psalm 123.  I look forward to your comments and feedback as I attempt to develop this into something more substantial.  Other postings will be forthcoming this week, including a review of Gabe Lyons' book "The Next Christians."  Have a blessed Sabbath Day.

In Christ's Care,

Tim Van Lant