Book Review :: Elaine Heath :: The Mystic Way of Evangelism

This fall I had the opportunity to travel to Fayetteville, AR with Molly.  She attended a conference while I worked on my thesis project.  Molly had a tremendous week, while I made (slow) progress on a short preliminary document that took me all semester to complete.  One of the first sessions Molly attended featured Elaine A. Heath, who is the McCreless Assistant Professor of Evangelism at Perkins School of Theology, SMU.  Molly was excited about what she had heard, and believed much of the presentation would have resonated with me.  Dr. Heath had recently published a book which contained some of the insights she shared at the conference entitled The Mystic Way of Evangelism: A Contemplative Vision for Christian Outreach.  The next week I ordered the book from Amazon.com.  When someone speaks to me with enthusiasm about a book, an author, or an idea, I’m usually quick to pounce.  In this case I’m glad I did.

Heath’s title is telling and reveals the nature of her project, which to some may appear enigmatic.  What does the life of the mystic have to do with the life of the evangelist?  Can the deep, inner, contemplative life yield fruit for sharing the gospel and bringing people to Christian faith?  For Heath the answer is a resounding yes.  After recounting her first exposure to Christian evangelism Heath astutely observes, “there is a striking absence in most contemporary discussions of evangelism of the wisdom of the great spiritual giants…to shape and lead our understanding of the theory and practice of evangelism.”

Heath structures her book by utilizing the threefold contemplative path: purgation, illumination, and union.  First, Heath claims that the church in American is experiencing “a dark night of the soul” and proceeds to describe the “dryness and fruitlessness” experienced by many churches, the “flailing, the striving, and the…loss of desire” present in the life of some leaders, and the emergence of a deep and holy longing for God which brings with it a new day.  Heath describes the current malaise present in the church of today as a time of refinement and preparation for what God might bring about tomorrow.  Heath states, “the church in America is in transition, with Christendom fading into memory and the religious accretions of the world, the flesh, and the devil, increasingly apparent for what they are…We are ready for a different way to think about our vocation as the church.  It is time for us to discover a contemplative vision for evangelism.”

In part 2 (Illumination) Heath examines five major themes of the contemplative life and exalts two major examples per theme to bring life to her argument.  Heath discusses the experience of God’s love (Julian of Norwich and Hans Ur von Balthasar), holiness exhibited in lives reflective of eucharist (Phoebe Palmer and Father Arseny), the discovery of home/identity in God (Thomas R. Kelly and Henri Nouwen), the church’s collective need to confess her sins (Julia Foote and Mechthild of Magdeburg), and the healing of the earth (St. Bonaventure and John Woolman).  Each chapter utilizes these biographical examples well, allowing the content of each individual’s life inform the contemplative life of the church today.  Heath also helps us remember both women and men who can be heralded as saints and followed as examples.

In part 3 (Union) Heath utilizes the fictional account of Sam, a divorcee and parent of a teenage daughter, who comes in contact with a church embodying the contemplative life Heath is proposing.  Heath’s chapter titles, “A Hermeneutic of Love,” “Giving Ourselves Away,” “Homing Prayer,” “New Tongues of Fire,” and “Your Will Be Done on Earth” are in themselves revealing, and each chapter tells how Sam learns of God’s nature, the Christian life of service, prayer, the presence of the Holy Spirit, and what the Christian life has to do with the here and now.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to church leaders and mature Christians interested in evangelism.  Heath’s approach is uncommon.  She goes beyond a way of packaging and presenting the Christian faith and instead calls the church to become holy, believing that the very life of the community has the power to draw and witness to the truth of the gospel.  Her argument acknowledges that the good news about Jesus does indeed have content, but couples the importance of the message with the integrity of the life the church leads.   Her emphasis on holiness and purity of character as primary is what I find so refreshing and increasingly vital for the church as she seeks to find her way.

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Book Plug :: Kenneth E. Bailey’s Jacob & the Prodigal

I like to read.  Last week I finished Kenneth E. Bailey’s Jacob & the Prodigal: How Jesus Retold Israel’s Story.  I enjoyed it thoroughly.

If you are a Christian you’ve probably heard “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” preached hundreds of time.  In all likelihood you’ve come to know the story well.  The comfort which comes with familiarity can at times yield dullness, as can be the case with texts we hear frequently.  This is why Kenneth Bailey’s work is so grand.  He invites you to think of this passage in fresh ways.

While I don’t plan to write an extensive review which traces the lines of Bailey’s argument, I do want to invite others to read this book and consider Luke 15 anew.  Bailey is right to examine this text as a complete unit, not only treating Jesus’ familiar story of the wayward younger son, his older brother, and the father who seeks them both, but also including the parable of the lost sheep and lost coin as important for Jesus’ theology.  The parable of the lost sheep is examined comparatively in light of Psalm 23, Jeremiah 23:1-8, Ezekiel 34:1-31.  The parable of the two sons is read in comparison with the Saga of Jacob found in Genesis 27-35.

If you are looking for fresh insight on this parable or plan to preach this text, I recommend that you pick up this book and read.  It is good, and left me with a deeper faith and greater love for God.

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Universal Declaration of Human Rights

I’ve learned a lot about this document in the past couple of years, and this a good video.  You can read the Declaration of Rights here.

While I think such a Declaration is important and helps rally politic leaders worldwide I can’t help but wonder, What common story must underly any effort to establish these rights?  What do Christians have to say about such a document?

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David F. Wells and Some Video Venue Thoughts

David F. Wells is the Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.  Wells sounded an alarm for the evangelical world with the publication of No Place for Truth? in 1993.  This work was followed by God in the Wasteland, Losing our Virtue, and Above All Earthly Pow’rs.  Wells’ fifth volume, published this year, The Courage to Be Protestant, re-presents much of what was argued in his previous four installments.  I can’t say that I have always enjoyed reading Wells, but I believe his arguments cannot be ignored.  His work has been criticized as being overly negative and giving little constructive help.  In his defense, sometimes we need critics to sound the alarm on issues that they themselves cannot solve, rather than dismiss them.  I have read all five of these books in the past 2 years.

In The Courage to Be Protestant, Wells has harsh words regarding image management as expressed in the evangelical world, directing his critique specifically at megachurches of the seeker-sensitive variety.  Wells claims television (and I’ll add other manifestations such as live-streaming, video-venue, etc.) “dissolves the link…between character and personality.”  I attend a large church, and am part of a second campus that utilizes video-venue for ministry, so matters of personality (or image) and character confront me daily.

With my context in view, Wells hits me quite hard by saying that the dissolution between character and personality has,  ”carried over into some of our marketing megachurches and more generally into how churches look at their pastors…the pastor is preeminently a personality on the big screen up front, a performer, who seems close to everyone in the church but in fact is quite remote in most cases.”  As the pastor becomes mediated through video his or her character is placed at a distance.  It becomes difficult, if not impossible, to measure the truth of what one is saying against the life of the leader.  Representing in part the conundrum this creates, we remember newsman Daniel Schorr’s remark, “Sincerity: if you can fake it, you’ve got it made.”  

For a number of years now I have had questions about large churches.  I grew up as part of a large church.  I attend a large church.  I believe that the pastor of our church has integrity and know that he remains connected with his people, though he cannot extend pastoral care to everyone.  The utilization of live-streaming technology and video is expanding our church’s influence and widening the number of people who are listening to our pastor’s sermons.  There are some positives which come through such technologies, but there are some dangers as well.

As the church contemplates ways to open access to their ministries, using technologies which project images and thus create an image, I wonder how the use of such technologies force reflection on the church’s doctrine of the incarnation.  I also wonder how such technologies privatize faith.  Even with some steep advantages, such as creating a technology which can be utilized by shut-ins, I can’t help but wonder how these new technologies will shape our communities, and if it will, in the end, be for the best.

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Does Character Count? Or Does Image Inordinately Rule the Day?

Recently my bus driving responsibilities in DeSoto have taken me near a local elementary school marquee proclaiming, “Character Counts at Starside.”  I am a fan of virtue and am interested in character development, and thus, I appreciate this slogan.  Regarding our ability to become virtuous people apart from narratives and communities that form us to be such, we’ll save that question for another day.

In the world of Christianity, I’m far more acquainted with discussions of image than I am of character. As the church is confronted with the realities of declining membership numbers, the exodus of the young, and negative accusations launched toward Christians,  Church leaders are searching for a new path.  We do not want to die.  We want young people to remain in our midst, lead our churches, and do great things for Christ.  And sometimes we want to be liked, though our desire to be so may potentially steer us toward untruthful compromise.

When we are faced with challenges, how do we respond?  Too often efforts to stem the tide of decline or unpopularity seem to center upon technique.  We talk of “doing church” rather than prayerfully seeking what it means to “be” the church.  We are startled when studies reveal that Christianity has an “image problem,” and respond by exploring how the “church” might better present herself, or market herself, in order to change public perception.  Some critics call for an extreme makeover (sometimes so radical as to raze the house completely and start from scratch), others reach back for a purer pre-Constantinian, pre-Hellenized, pre-dualistic, primitive form of Christian worship and practice that was lost yet (hypothetically) is recoverable.  Sometimes these efforts address the core.  At other times it seems that we attempt to slap a new coat of paint on a house which has a solid foundation (Christ) but rotting interior and exterior woodwork.  

The church is in need of craftswomen and craftsmen who possess tools sharpened by the best of our theology and tradition and who can perceptively and reflectively address those areas in our structure which need renovation and renewal.  We need to restore integrity, not initiate a makeover.  In order to do so we need people who possess both the skill and wisdom to address who we are and how our being is expressed faithfully and truthfully.  Such leaders will only arise through prayer.

I long to hear more church leaders ask the question, “What is the church?” long before they ask, “How are we perceived and what can we do?”  In other words, are we more consumed with developing our character, or managing our image?

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Spend Less. Give More.

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Giving.

Back in August I wrote here about the tithe.  That post brought about some hearty conversation.  How we are called to give to the church, to the poor, and to those who serve the least is an important topic of reflection for an American church in the midst of an economic crisis.  How will we respond when we have less discretionary income?  We still feel some tinge of responsibility to give money away, yes?  But do we discipline ourselves and continue to give, or do we sit back and only wish we could give more?  As one of my old football coaches would ask, “If I wish in one hand and spit in the other, which one will fill up first?”  The answer is obvious.  Doing hard things requires decision.  Sometimes decisions about our money are particularly difficult.

Today I read an article in Christianity Today’s December edition entitled, “Scrooge Lives! Why We’re Not Putting More in the Offering Plate. And What We Can Do About It.”  I want to recommend the article for those interested in giving.  The article provides important insights about the current state of generosity in the church, exposes some reasons why people do not give, and challenges the reader to develop into the type of person who will joyously give more.

Check it out.  If you like, come back here and comment.

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“Lord, May it Be Your Will to Give the Big Three a Handout!”

I woke up to this FoxNews headline today: “Detroit Church Prays for Bailout with SUVs at the Altar.”  Here is a portion:

With auto workers in the pews and sport-utility vehicles at the altar, one of Detroit’s largest churches on Sunday offered up prayers for Congress to bail out the struggling auto industry, Reuters reported.

“We have never seen as midnight an hour as we face this week,” the Rev. Charles Ellis told several thousand congregants at a rousing service at Detroit’s Greater Grace Temple. “This week, lives are hanging above an abyss of uncertainty as both houses of Congress decide whether to extend a helping hand.”

Local car dealerships donated three hybrid SUVs to be displayed during the service, one from each of the Big Three. A Ford Escape, Chevy Tahoe from GM and a Chrysler Aspen were parked just in front of the choir and behind the pulpit.

I’m not quite sure what to think of this.

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Hitler and Emergent

This video made an appearance at TallSkinnyKiwi.  My friend Mike passed the link along to me. I laughed.  Out loud.  A lot.

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Santa Claws.

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