We had a special speaker today in church, a guy who is now a professor at a Christian college but had long been affiliated with our church. His sermon, on the occasion of our church’s 80th anniversary, focused on carrying on the church’s solid legacy, and by and large was good. He made some offhand comments about “seeker sensitive” and “emerging” churches, however, that disturbed me.<\/p>\n
Among those comments was a criticism of what he called a “smorgasbord” of spiritual practices. He was referring to the interest in the Emergent movement concerning ancient spiritual practices, such as contemplative prayer. Where’s the beef with a spiritual smorgasbord?
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\nI think this preacher is most comfortable with a “traditional”-style evangelicalism. But “traditional” evangelicalism, to the extent there really is any such thing, itself is a spiritual smorgasbord. From where do we get our “liturgy” of an opening prayer, a few hymns and\/or praise songs, an offering, and a 20-minute sermon? We’ve adopted these things, of course, piecemeal from earlier Reformed, Anabaptist, and other traditions — which adopted bits of their forms of worship from still earlier traditions.<\/p>\n
And from where do we get our most emphasized spiritual discipline, that of personal “devotions” (individual prayer and Bible study)? Again, from earlier traditions, including some of the same monastic traditions that included the contemplative practices the Emergent folks are trying to recover.<\/p>\n
Even more significantly, from where do we get our theology? We pick and choose, starting with the early Catholic formulations of things like the Biblical Canon and the Trinity, through Luther and Calvin, the Anabaptists, a sprinkling of Barth, and then on in various directions. In fact, it’s ironic to hear the “spiritual smorgasbord” complaint from an Evangelical preacher, since it’s one of the main complaints Catholics have about Evangelicals — we take bits of doctrine and practice the Catholics developed, drop other (big) bits, and then add all sorts of other stuff.<\/p>\n
But a smorgasbord isn’t a bad thing. In my view, a smorgasbord evidences some maturity of taste. A person who enjoyes smorgasbord is able to appreciate a variety of foods. And, even within that variety, there can be harmony — flavors, textures and colors that complement each other and syngeristically add up to a greater whole. The same, I think, can be true of our spiritual lives. Of course, we must excerise discernment to ensure that a given practice is consistent with scripture and the historic Christian faith. Within that broad framework of orthodoxy and orthopraxy, however, the faith takes forms as diverse as the individual members of the Church and the varied times, cultures and places in which it has been practiced. And that, I believe, reflects God’s own creativity and love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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