The Church and Spiritual Formation
Last night, as I was doing some online reading, I came across George Barna's web site. Barna has been doing research on the state of the Christian church for some 20 years. In describing the new directions his own ministry was going to take, I came across this statement, which I've been thinking about ever since:
"...our research has shown that most of the influence on what people think and do comes from just seven sources: movies, television, music, family, books, law, and the Internet. That same body of research shows that the local church has virtually no discernible influence on people's lives." -- George Barna, The Barna Group
The local church has virtually no discernable influence on people's lives.
Wow.
Couple this with Bill Hybels' belief that the local church is the hope of the world.
What does this mean?
Here's an article featuring Dallas Willard and Richard Foster lamenting essentially the same thing:The Making of the Christian, from Christianity Today.
Add to this mix of thought Dick Staub's contention that the superficial and shallow nature of our culture, including current Christian culture, is rendering faith virtually powerfess and insipid.
What's happening for me is that I'm wondering whether or not I'm following Jesus very honestly. The residue of a works based upbringing, coupled with an early education in living in the unreachable subterrain of my inner life, mixed in now with my Wilow experience and my Willard/Foster/Merton reading, all lead me to conclude that there are some things I am fooling myself about. Today is my fast day, and God is speaking to me loud and clear.
I keep asking "How does a person follow Jesus?" because I keep hoping someone is going to say "Why, you already are." But in my bones, I know that's only partially true. Unquestionably, there is something missing.
And if many of my friends are honest, I think they feel something akin to this as well.
Willard and Foster argue that in the end, following Jesus is neither primarily about the forgiveness of sins or about battling the social ills of our time on behalf of our neighbor, as popularly preached by the right and left, respectively. Certainly forgiveness of sin and taking care of neighbor are central to the whole notion of following Christ, but they are not the core. A person can claim and feel their sins are forgiven, and they can take care of the poor, but in the end, such people can walk on in their lives essentially unchanged on the level of functioning paradigms. The care of the poor does not necessarily lead to loving, nor does receiving forgiveness of sins necessarily make us forgiving.
Honesty about this is difficult, mostly because of long, long habits of mind. We think we know what's what, and one day, and then another, and then another, we wake to discover it's not what we thought at all. And there it is again, the call of the Christ, still holding forth a vision of what might be.
"Come and see."
...rousing up the spirit yet again...
1:43:24 PM
