| Challenges to Christianity |
| Monday, 11 June 2007 | |
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I'm not sure whether this is peculiar to American Christianity or not, but I seem to regularly hear Christians discuss challenges that face the church. These are virtually always discussions about external challenges such as secularism, atheism, or a particular Teletubby--oh wait, the latter was last year's news. Contrary to this sentiment, I have relatively little concern about external challenges. I believe the church can withstand anything that might be thrown at it. That said, with others, I do have serious concerns about challenges facing Christianity. But my concern has to do with internal, rather than external, pressures. In other words, I'm concerned about:
So:
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Comments (21)
 
1. yes. i think you have the verdict of history behind you.
2. the challenge i see around me is this notion that christianity is about me and my personal salvation, or my personal growth, my needs, my wants/desires for what worship looks like or how church is done. the rampant individualism that requires church to be done in a way that "fits me." 3. my hope is that we would grow up. also that we would begin to present a christianity that is honest about how hard it is to be a christian and that it isn't just youth group for grown ups. 1 report abuse
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June 11, 2007
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Mike,
The challenge I see around me too also has a lot to do with words like 'me', 'I', 'personal', etc. "Honesty". It's such a lonely word :- 2 report abuse
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June 11, 2007
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Broadly, you are right and it is not just a US pheonomenon. When the church fears, resents or envys the world, there is something wrong. In terms of the main mission, internal challenges are always the bigger problem.
But, too much obsession on internal challenges can become canibalistic; breaking down co-operation and trust (I'm from Sydney, remember  ). Here in Hong Kong, the biggest chalenge is the packaging and commercialisation of Christianity. For evangelicals, faith equals church on sunday, a home group and a charity to give to; evangelism equals Alpha and witness means filling the Stadium for some big event that gets zero media coverage. My biggest hopes for Christianity come back to blogging, the opening up of theological education and the deprofessionalisation of ministry. I do believe worldwide we are seeing some very hopeful trends. 3 report abuse
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June 11, 2007
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Well now...
1) I think that this is a false dichotomy. Both interior and exterior problems present challenges of a different type. To focus on one and lose the other creates weirdos. 2) Apathy. I can't put it any other way. 3) I have to go from critical to hopeful now? I'd say that my greatest hope is that the words "private" and "public" are eliminated from Christians' vocabulary. I think it might even be happening. 4 report abuse
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June 11, 2007
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F,
I'm fascinated to hear about the situation in Hong Kong. For some reason I would have expected things to have been different there somehow. I'm also interested to learn of your hopes. Any further thoughts about hope related to blogging? 5 report abuse
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June 11, 2007
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Matt Wiebe,
Agreed that they both create problems, but what's wrong with discerning whether one is *more* problematic? Apathy is a huge problem. And, cough cough, its an internal one  Private and public eliminated. Like the sound of that. Speaking of where you're from, I just had my first glass of Canadian wine. It was excellent, and I'm feeling just a tad more hopeful  6 report abuse
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June 11, 2007
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Yes, Canada makes some excellent wines. I recently had a merlot, of all things, by Inniskillin, and it was very, very good.
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June 11, 2007
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Lainie,
I had a Merlot as well, though I'm normally not into Merlot's a whole lot. I got it for a birthday present from my mother and sister in law who are visiting from Australia after traveling around Canada. Lots of beautiful pictures from there. Have to go one day. 8 report abuse
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June 11, 2007
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F,
I'd love to hear more about your desire for the opening of theological education and the deprofessionalization of ministry. If you'd care to share, of course. 9 report abuse
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June 11, 2007
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inside challenges are the greatest. but are they really from within? i'm beginning to see them in a spiritual sense as principalities and powers. so im wondering if they are without, yet we embrace them...
so my thoughts are... 1. consumerism 2. neglect of the needy 10 report abuse
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June 11, 2007
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John, the hope and blogging thing relates to the breadth and range of "subversive" voices. Folks thinking/doing outside the normal parameters of churchianity. Everytime I feel down about my experiences of church I find that few minutes surfing the blogosphere reminds me that I'm far from alone in concerns, experiences or desires.
Hope always requires a voice. Lainie - it's something I've blogged about a few times and I don't want to clog up John's bandwidth too much. BTW, Inniskillin make some amazing IceWines! 11 report abuse
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June 12, 2007
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Well, as for the apathy bit, I see much of that being shaped by external forces which constantly tell us that Christianity is a load of rubbish best kept to ourselves and that it has no bearing on our real lives which is to consume as much as possible before the death we pretend isn't going to happen. Nearly everything internal is simultaneously external, since we live and breathe in a cultural context.
There are, indeed, some decent Canadian wines, but I can't get over my love for nice Italian Chianti. 12 report abuse
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June 12, 2007
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Lately I've been reading again through a church history book, and so far I've reached Augustine of Hippo. This reading has reminded me of how the church came to define itself and its beliefs due to external opposition from pagans and internal pressure from dissenters. On the one hand I am glad that the church was made to think out its doctrine on the Trinity and the human/divine nature of Jesus, and I essentially agree with those ancient orthodox conclusions. On the other hand, I think it's regretable that the Pauline system of leadership was never widely accepted, and that the present day belief in apostolic succession found its origins in resistance to gnosticism.
How we react to both internal and external challenges defines us both as a whole and individually. Just this morning I was thinking about how hard it would be for many progressive thinkers to become Christians, as their only obvious options would be tepid mainline religion or right-wing pro-US evangelicalism. Of course I know there are more and better options, but they don't know that. 13 report abuse
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June 12, 2007
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Brad,
Good question in regard to where the source of challenges are coming from. I'll have to reflect on that one more. 14 report abuse
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June 12, 2007
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F,
Yeah, that gives me hope too with blogging. Thanks for the heads up with the wine 15 report abuse
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June 12, 2007
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Matt W,
Good point about internal/external connection because of culture. I like a good Italian Chianti too. But the glass of Canadian Merlot I had last night was the best Merlot I've had for a year or two. 16 report abuse
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June 12, 2007
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Adam G.,
Maybe I wouldn't have felt this way if I were living at the time, but I have an easier time giving Christians in the early centuries of the church more grace in regard to defining themselves in relation to opposition. After all, they experienced a lot of it. But for us to still be in this mode in 2007 is quite problematic. 17 report abuse
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June 12, 2007
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It's that same old thing of pointing the finger at someone or something else so we don't have to look too closely at ourselves.
When children at school single out one particular child for ridicule or whatever, it takes the attention away from themselves. Even those who sit out of the ridicule have a certain degree of feeling safer because they are not in the firing line and not under scrutiny. In some ways I think there is an element of maturity and security here. It's safe to point the finger outwards. It takes maturity to realise that when you have one finger pointing outwards there are four others pointing towards you and that a wise move would be to pay attention to those four fingers first. BB Mike 18 report abuse
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June 12, 2007
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I think internal and external challenges both deserve attention and I think the attention the apostles give to both in the Bible bear that out. But how well do we understand the challenges? Superficial diagnosis is rife.
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June 12, 2007
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Mike/Cern,
Agreed that it takes a lot more maturity to point the finger outwards than inwards. It seems like pointing outward is virtually innate though, so most of us probably work on fixing everyone else's problems so we don't have to deal with our own! 20 report abuse
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June 13, 2007
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Matt S,
Superficial diagnosis is certainly rife, as is pointing the finger at everyone but ourselves. My thinking is that we need to acknowledge the latter before we'll be able to get the former correct. 21 report abuse
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June 13, 2007
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