A Node in the Web of the Emerging Church

Theology Beyond Google

Posted Feb 25, 10:03 AM | 7 comments | by Amy Moffitt | Link

by Chad Holtz

This article is excerpted from two posts at Chad’s blog. You can read the full posts here and here.

This article is an attempt to address and respond to Philip Clayton’s article, Theology after Google. I recommend you read the article first. It’s a great article that has some convicting and challenging words for all of us in the church (pastor and lay alike). While I can agree with much of the sentiment found in the article, I disagree with some of the ways Philip (along with other leaders within the Emerging Church) articulates that sentiment.

Sentences in quotation marks are from Theology after Google:

“The church members like the old hymns and liturgies; they don’t like tattoos, rock music, or electronics.”

My gut reaction here is: What is wrong with the old hymns and liturgies? I have a tattoo, love rock music, and love electronics and yet I LOVE the old hymns and the liturgies! Why? I suppose because no one told me it was wrong to, for starters, and also because people I encountered along my journey taught me to appreciate the deep treasure trove of theology that is found in our old hymns as well as appreciate the communal spirit and bond that arises from a congregation reciting liturgies together – the individual being swept up in the faith of the many. I derive great pleasure in teaching my rural church why we do the things we do and watching their eyes being opened up for the first time as they recognize the significance of a song they have sung for decades or a creed they have recited from childhood.

To be assigned to a church that “loves the old hymns and liturgies” and is comprised mostly of members over 60 can be a great blessing to both pastor and parish if entered into with the right spirit – which above all means recognizing this is Christ’s Church, not mine or theirs, and God loves 60 year olds who sing Blessed Be The Tie That Binds every Sunday as much as God loves punk rockers. A pastor who drops a drum set in the older, rural church on his or her first Sunday has not only dishonored the story that this church has lived into long before the pastor arrived but has also destroyed any chance he or she may have had to lead them into a new story in the years ahead.

“Theology is not something you consume, but something you produce.”

Actually, I think it is fair to say that theology is both what we consume and produce as well as how we define ourselves. Theology gives us our identity.

We should be careful with our history so we don’t set up false dichotomies. It is not as if every Christian before the Google-Age were passive leaches merely consuming what was fed them from a book or pulpit. Just a cursory glance at the history of the Church from Acts forward reveals a lot of production by lay and clergy alike. In fact, speaking from my own Methodist history, most of the “doing” of God’s work was lay driven. They were not content to just sit in pews and be told what to believe but were pushing through the frontier eager to bring healing and hope to the suffering.

We also shouldn’t short-change “consumption” of theology– it’s vital. As St. Paul said, “how will they know if they do not hear?” We have the best story in the world to share but it is not learned through osmosis. We shouldn’t apologize for stating the huge need to educate our churches because switching stories (read: conversion) requires one to learn a new language and a new way of being in the world. We need trusted guides to help us see and these guides need to know the landscape, which includes our past, our present reality and the hope to which we are moving.

“Theology after Google is not centralized and localized. Likewise, the church cannot be localized in a single building. We find church wherever we find Jesus-followers that we link up with who are doing cool things. This point is huge. Denominational officials and many pastors have not even begun to conceive and wrestle with what it means to work for a church without a clear geographical location.”

I don’t think we can survive long with the world as our parish without some localized place where we can feel connected – grounded. One of our primal needs, as Genesis well reflects, is a need for land – a place to call “home.” This is not a bad thing, although like anything, home can become an idol. I can’t name a single pastor I know who thinks “church” is restricted to their geographical location or building or denomination. Certainly it is the case that many Christians in churches across America have gotten very cozy in their “home.” But this can be as true of the 12 folks meeting in a house church as it can be for a denomination. Rather than hope for the death of denominations we should be praying for revival.

“The new Christian leader is a host, not an authority who dispenses true teaching, wise words, and the sole path to salvation.”

I love the language of “host” and think it should be something we add to our vocabulary as church leaders. But if our model of leadership in the best of times models Jesus it seems odd to me that we would pit “host” against one who dispenses true teaching, wise words or the path to salvation. Jesus did all three and calls us to do the same. We are, after all, “ambassadors” of Christ (2 Cor. 5:20) and we have been given a mandate to go into the world and make disciples. I believe the Holy Spirit is raising up pastors and teachers and leaders today just as the Spirit was in the 1st century and before. While these roles within Christ’s body, the Church, do not make anyone greater than another (and to even think this way of oneself is to forget that the Lord we proclaim is the same one who washed the feet of his disciples) they are gifts from a God who brings order out of chaos.

The Christian leader is certainly a host but also a guide and his or her authority is not and should not be simply tied to their title or degree but to the extent that he or she is living out the story proclaimed.

“But what exactly do I believe? What must I say, and what should I not say (and do)? This quest is more open-ended. It’s filled with uncertainties and indecisions, and it’s constantly evolving. That quest just is theology. It’s everything I think about and do. It’s reading the New York Times headlines online each morning when I awake. It’s the philosophy text that I teach in a classroom or the intriguing idea about christology that I talk about with friends over a beer. It’s our attempts to be involved in authentic forms of ministry and Christian community, and the questions we ask about whether those attempts are really faithful and how to make them better. It’s that recurring question, “What should I do with my life?”

One thing missing here is Scripture. The work of doing theology certainly includes the profound to the mundane of life but it most certainly cannot exist apart from its root. As Christians we confess a belief in revealed religion. We are not simply spouting off novel “ideas” about Christology but offering informed, prayerful, Spirit-led reflections on what it means to be addressed by this God and how to best live out that address. The New York Times does not tell me how to think about God. However, Scripture gives me a lens through which I can read the Times, thus adding flavor to a meal already given us by our Host.

Chad Holtz is a disciple of Jesus, a husband, a daddy of 4 (soon to be 5!), a pastor, a student of all and a friend to many. He is working on his MDiv at Duke Divinity School and blogs at chadholtz.net.

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Welcome to the Reader's Forum

1Jonathan Elliot 02/26/2010 05:58 AM

I think people raised within some form of churchianity would enjoy hymns sometimes. For someone raised outside a conventional church, church seems ALIEN. no matter how we do it

Even the hyper-technological rock-band-playing hipster megachurches just seem so banal and fake.

I’m not sure what I’d suggest to replace. Them. For me, it’s something small and “real”, probably with no worship music – which I personally hate.

PS: Your image ‘prove you’re human’ things are REALLY hard to read. And I’m human, honest!

2Chad Holtz 02/26/2010 06:12 PM

Jonathan,

Thanks for your comment. While the selection of what music to play or not play will certainly vary from place to place, my point was simply to say that sweeping generalizations just don’t work. We don’t like them when they are made of us and we shouldn’t make them of others (i.e assuming that people with tattoos don’t like hymns).

But you raise an interesting point with your word “ALIEN.” Stanley Hauerwas affectionately calls us Christians ‘resident aliens.” The Psalmist wonders how we can sing the songs of Zion on a “strange land.” Jesus calls us to be in the world but not of it and Paul says we are not citizens of this world but of another.

In a real sense, Christians, and the Churches we inhabit, are aliens! Perhaps this is an identity we ought to consider embracing a bit more rather than shunning? Here is how I see that working:

People today, more than any time in history, are looking for a place to stand – a place to find identity and identify with. We are also more spiritual than ever before or at least seeking things of a spiritual dimension. I believe when people walk into a church they want to experience something other-worldly, something ancient, something that transcends the mundane of this world and yet points to the immanent God (the God who is “with us”).

With this in mind I believe worship leaders have a huge task: How do we ensure that our worship transports people into the throne room of God? How do we embrace our identity as “resident aliens”?

Hymns may not be the answer. But before we dismiss something just because it appears to be “alien” to an outsider, I suggest we consider teaching the outsider these “strange song of Zion” we sing in a strange land, teach them why we sing them and what they mean, and invite them to join something radically different from the stories they are sold every other day of the week.

peace.

3Patrick Green 02/26/2010 09:46 PM

Chad,

I really have little to add to this except for an appreciation of your perspective. I found it refreshing. I used to be a pastor in the 90’s and quit. Around 2006 I felt the need to return and ever since it has not been business as usual. As I explore and enter into these waters of the conversation and rethinking community, discipleship, and so much more, one of the biggest personal challenges for me is my role as the pastor/host/etc. De-constructing aspects of the role and breaking away from the CEO mentality is simple, but after you de-construct, you need to build something and working through what my role in our community is a refreshing and sometimes frustrating learn as you go process. Some of your perspectives added some food for thought to my questions. Thank you for your insights and perspective.

-Patrick

4Chad Holtz 02/27/2010 10:04 PM

Patrick,
Thanks for your feedback, I am glad it blessed you.

I agree that one of the toughest challenges in the church is the entrenched mediocrity so often found. Much of that stems from a pastor as CEO mentality. I have found that teaching an Ephesians 4 model of the church to a congregation can open avenues of new discovery (or healthy reminders) that the pastor is not there to be the “minister.” All of us are.

grace and peace.

5dlw 03/02/2010 02:49 AM

Aye, the pastor is not there to be a minister, and yet (s)he tends to want to be employed full-time with benefits and what-not…

This and church buildings inevitably tends to foster economics-driven church politics that arrest the advancement of the kingship of God.

6Anne Shepard 03/02/2010 03:09 PM

Thank you for this enlightening article! I am a 78-year-old church member who has learned in later years that we are ALL ministers. As for music, as music director.organist for my small UMC, I love all the hymns, old and contemporary.There is wonderful theology in them which offers opportunities to praise and worship our Creator.
Thank you again!
Blessings,
Anne

7Rachel 03/13/2010 02:40 PM

When I read the “Theology After Google” article it resonated with me a lot. I am currently a Peace Corps volunteer serving in Namibia so I am a bit disconnected from church, but while I love my church back home and think it is more relevant than most, I have not been able to stifle a strong feeling that things need to change considerably. Modern, hip, postmodern churches may have spiced things up a little – maybe they have a rock band, dim lights and a smashing preacher with tattoos – but all in all it’s still a cookie cutter church, just a different shape. The bottom line is our culture has gone through some major shifts in communication of which the church has not recognized and adapted to.

In the age of google, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, I think we need to call for a drastic change in how we do church and communicate the gospel message. Additionally, the current postmodern and emerging era similarly call for even more sweeping changes as well. The emerging generation is calling the church not just to speak about faith and the gospel but to actually live it out. I have a vision for a whole new church that is not localized and does not even necessarily have a vocational pastor. A church that utilizes the new technology to discuss, learn together, journey together; a church that gathers in small groups to do theology together and share faith journeys and not simply listen to a one way dialogue in a low lit auditorium. Furthermore, a church that has the sole function of gathering to LIVE out their faith rather than gathering exclusively at the local “christian club” (aka: church).

While I also completely value and appreciate the old hymns and liturgies and see them for their great doctrinal value, the bottom line is they do not necessarily reach everyone in the same way. Why can’t we allow some churches to remain in the old, traditional style of doing church to meet the needs of people who are reached by that tradition, but support and encourage new churches to develop as well to meet the needs of a different kind of people?

What if instead of meeting on Sunday mornings listening to a pastor “preach to the choir” at the local “Christian club” (aka: church building), some “churches” met in small localized groups to actually go out into their community and live out the mission of the church – to love people in the name of Jesus Christ and to bring the peace, forgiveness, justice and restoration of the Kingdom of God? What if Christians spent their time acting out what they believe in their community, rather than just hanging out together in a somewhat exclusive club? What if Christians spent their time doing the things they say they believe during the time they gather together, rather than just talking about it? What would happen in our communities if we put the energy and focus that we spend on a Sunday morning production, on serving our community and working directly at helping the pain, brokenness, injustices and poverty we encounter? I believe we would see massive changes in our community – not only in terms of restoration, peace, forgiveness, improvement of poverty standards and social justice issues, but also in terms of our community’s experience and faith in a loving God who actually does exist and care about our needs. I think we would see Christians of all ages engaged in the Church community, invigorated to serve the Lord, united in a very real and tangible way. I think you would see postmodern and emerging Christians not shying away from Church, but rallying around a church that was relevant and genuine in living out the mission of Christ and acting as the hands and feet of Jesus. I think we would not only hear but see the proclamation of the gospel message resonating and active in our cities and towns. This is proclamation for our day and age, and it is a message that this world needs desperately to see and hear.

www.theologicallobe.blogspot.com