Riding the Waves

Religious Waves

I’m told by surfers that the key to surfing is not riding the wave, but catching it. As a pastor for over 40 years I tried to catch and then ride every wave that came my way. There was, for one, the church growth movement in the early 80s. A guy named Lyle Schaller was the guru. He gave us a plethora of ideas to help us “grow” our churches.

“The single most important room in the building for visitors is the ladies’ restroom.” So he said, so at our first church, Sally and I waited until our inept custodian left the building on Saturday night. Then we went over and thoroughly cleaned the women’s bathroom. We did that every Saturday night for 12 years.

“When your worship space is 80% full then you have to either add another service or build a bigger worship center.” In time, we had three services on a Sunday morning. Two of these services were a little over 1/2 full and the third much less—but we were growing. We finally built a new worship space.

The Willow Creek Wave

By far, the biggest wave we all tried to catch was the Bill Hybels’ tsunami. Hybels’ mantra was excellence in everything. The Willow model was to be “seeker sensitive,” meaning that everything was geared toward the person who was “under” churched. In this scenario, the pastor was the CEO, the primary visionary, and the leader. The Willow culture featured professional song teams, powerful and funny dramas, and sermons on topics like marriage and money and parenting. The methodology of this approach to preaching was to pick a relevant theme, like sex, and then go to the Bible and find passages that supported your ideology around the subject. And it worked.

Purpose Driven Life Wave

Like many of my colleagues, I preached through Rick Warren’s super popular book, The Purpose Driven Life. And then later, I led my congregation through Warren’s follow up work—The Purpose Driven Church. It was helpful to many, I think. However, like all waves, it ran its course. And when it did, like every other church leader, I paddled out to catch the next one.

There was the “Wild at Heart” wave and the “Promise Keepers’” wave. These were among those waves intended to reach men. The big idea was to remind men that real men were designed to lead, both at home and in church. And of course, real women were made to follow. Add to this the presentation of Jesus as tough and strong, but somehow tender too. It was a tricky sale and many women didn’t buy it. As I look back, I understand why these women were skeptical. As it turns out the kind of man we promoted was more like Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry,” than the Reverend Fred Rogers’ “Mr Rogers.”

Waves I didn’t Catch

I didn’t try to catch the “church multiplication” wave—i.e. church planting. I never got into the whole “leadership” movement either. Willow Creek moved her emphasis onto leadership in a big way, but I never attended a single event. I worried that this was another “guy” thing. Looking back, I don’t think I was being completely fair, so I fret about what I might have missed.

So …

The haunting aspect of all this is the fact that we had all these waves and many more that we worked so hard to catch and ride, and now 40+ years later the church we piloted is a church deeply divided and in decline. Furthermore, the Christian brand has been tarnished to the extent that the majority of our neighbors view Christianity as more hurtful than helpful. How did that happen? What did I miss?

The ready answer is that I don’t know what I missed, maybe nothing. Perhaps this was going to happen no matter what we did. In talking with colleagues my age we’re all scratching our heads over this. We thought we were growing the church and that growing the church was good for the world. We tried to be relevant and practical. And we preached grace and love. I never once preached a sermon on Hell. There are those, of course, who think that might be the reason for the current state of the church—not enough brimstone!

And I admit that in many places the “church” is still growing, both at home and around the world. There is now, to my chagrin, the mega church MAGA Wave. It seems that the one demographic still doing church is the MAGA bunch. And church leaders are acutely aware of this wave. Here’s the hard reality; if you want to grow you have to double down on orthodoxy and either be quiet about Trumpism or jump on the train. Progressive churches can still survive, but a mega Progressive church is a rare find. The truth is that there is little or no market for a movement around justice, inclusion and reconciliation.

The Waves We Didn’t Catch

There were smaller waves that rose out of the religious sea, but these were not waves we tried to catch. The reason we let them wash on by was because moving on from the status quo had its limitations. You could challenge methodologies, but not theologies. We worked hard to grow our churches, but did not work at growing our theologies—the sciences of the study of God.

For example, we ignored the Jesus Seminar movement which was a group of about 50 critical biblical scholars and 100 laity founded in 1985 by Robert Funk. The Jesus Seminar treated the gospels as fallible historical artifacts, containing both authentic and inauthentic material. In retrospect, the above mentioned take on the Bible could have been transformative if we had given it any kind of hearing. But, of course, we did not.

Our Bible Problem

However, had we who were Christian leaders honestly entered into a conversation around the place of Scripture as “a” resource rather than “the” resource, it might have mattered. For one thing, had we positioned the Bible as one tool in a toolbox filled with wisdom sources, then we might have felt less trapped in positions that were so hurtful to so many—i.e. women and the LGBTQ community. And had this dialogue happened 100s of years ago then the Bible would not have been used to support slavery. Or Adolph Hitler. Or the Crusades and pogroms all over Europe, the slaughter of Native Americans as Manifest Destiny, the Divine right of Kings—ok, enough!

We did not have to agree with all of the Jesus Seminar’s conclusions, including and especially as concerned the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Their methodology was more than a bit arbitrary for most of us. But be mindful of this: None of the Seminar members were putting a gun to our heads. What they were doing, and it seems in good faith, was raising legitimate questions around the accuracy and therefore the authority of the Bible. And for the most part, we demonized them.

The Sacrificial System

Over 2000 years ago, the Jewish faith tradition moved away from the sacrificial system as their primary lens through which to view a relationship with God. When the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, the Jewish rabbis immediately adopted a new system and fresh ways to practice their faith. Without necessarily denouncing the past importance of the Temple and of animal sacrifice, they knew they didn’t need it to have a vibrant relationship with their God. After all, they had prophets in their midst.

“Judaism survives because Judaism adapts,” declares Isaiah Gafni, professor at Hebrew University. One of the strengths of Judaism is it’s emphasis on influencing the world for God rather than converting the world to Judaism. Judaism does not have a strong push to “grow” in numbers, but rather in its visibility in culture as a positive force. And who can deny the impact that Jewish people have had over the past 2000 years? It’s incredible! (The abuses of the State of Israel excepted.)

Our Blood-Thirsty God

Christianity clings to the ancient idea of God needing a blood sacrifice in order to be in “right” relationship with humanity. And we even crossed the biblical line by declaring that the necessary sacrifice was a human being—i.e. Jesus. Let’s face it, we are entrenched, even trapped, within a barbaric system that presents God as some kind of mafia don who will only be satisfied with a transaction literally written in blood. We’ve become masters at spinning this awful notion into something making God somehow look good. But the curtain on this view of Good Friday is being pulled back and we see for ourselves that this theory survives only because Christian leaders like myself continue to pull the levers to sustain it.

One pastor told me, “Marlin, this is what we have to sell. Without it we have nothing.”

“What? Really? Nothing? What about the Sermon on the Mount, the parables, the letters written later by early followers wrestling with the Jesus story? We have the Psalms, the laments, the creation story and so much more. Even with an evolved view of Good Friday, we still have the person of Jesus, the single most influential life ever lived.”

But, he concluded: “Christianity offers eternal life for those who believe that Jesus died for our sins. That’s our thing!”

People Aren’t Buying

Okay, but here’s my thing: Not everyone is buying what we are selling and for good reason. What kind of God is this who deals in violence and bloodshed? I know this is selling in places all over the world, but it is no longer a best seller here in our own country. And frankly, I’m not sure that exporting the United State’s brand of Christianity is in the world’s long range best interest.

The white Christian demographic in this country owns more guns than any other group. And far too many Christian leaders, both pastors and politicians, consistently dehumanize and even mock persons in the LGBTQ community. Again, far too many Christians continue to deny the reality of climate change, hold suppressive views on women’s leadership skills, consistently vote for politicians peddling Christian nationalism and white supremacy, and somehow make icons out of the most outrageously autocratic and narcissistic leaders in the world—i.e. Victor Orbán of Hungry, and of course, Donald Trump here at home.

And Yet—I Still Love You!

I know that the idea of Jesus needing to die in order for humanity to be okay with God is a great comfort to many people. And I also know that Christianity is having a positive impact in places around the world. And because this is true, and for what it’s worth: I still love you! However, for my own faith journey, I do not accept orthodoxy’s view of the cross as some kind of payment for my sin. I believe that God, at the core of being, is both creative and gracious. My experiences in life and my understanding of the Bible tell me that God is present and active in the world. And furthermore, that Jesus represented God’s character better than any other in human history. My desire is to join God in the activity that God both initiates and supports.

And what does God care about most? God cares about those who are the least able to care for themselves. And, of course, I believe God asks me to do the same. My faith in God propels me to do good works every day, to look out for the weak and frail, and to join in the worthwhile struggles against injustice wherever it exists.

And to those who say, “Well Marlin if that’s where you’re at then you are no longer a Christian.” I say, “Stay in your lane!”

All Hands On Deck!

We are at a crossroad in public and religious life. Never in my lifetime have I been this convicted of the need for good, decent people to step up, speak up and stand up for the oppressed. Unlike the men in the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 8) today’s Christian community in the United States is not dropping their stones and fading away, but is proudly throwing them—and at the most vulnerable people in our society. I believe God asks me to be a stone-catcher. And I’ve always been good at catching things.