Ecclesiology 2 - A New Church - part 1: The Cornerstone

    C.S. Lewis once opined that the avid reader should alternate between new books and old favorites.  I have recently taken up once again The Problems of Wineskins by Howard A. Snyder (1975, Inter-Varsity Press).  The subtitle of the book is "Church Structure in a Technological Age" and the subject is a deep and rather critical look at modern Western ecclesiology (the study of the church, the origins of Christianity, its relationship to Jesus, its role in salvation, its discipline, its eschatology, and its leadership).  I first read the book as a junior theology student in 1983.  It has been in and out of print in various media and under various titles ever since (an updated edition was published in 2005 under the title Radical Renewal).  I own 3 copies of the book, two from the first 1975 printing and one from 2017.  Most of what will follow will be taken from this work, but I have no intention of re-typing the entire volume here.  I strongly encourage any would-be enthusiast to purchase a copy; they're available in both new and used copies at all decent book stores, including Amazon.

    The title, The Problem of Wineskins, alludes to the parable by Jesus as recorded in Matthew 9, Mark 2 and Luke 5, the point of which is that new wine cannot be  put in old wineskins, for the still fermenting wine will break through the old, non-elastic wineskin.  Snyder compares the gospel to ever-new wine and suggests that we must occasionally create new wineskins within the church to contain it.

The premise of Wineskins - as well as that of the next several posts - is that Western theology has strayed far from its first century Eastern roots to the point of being almost unrecognizable.  As a result, what should be a glorious declaration of God's redemptive power (the ever-new wine) has grown dull at best and obstinate at worst (an old wineskin).  Snyder offers several hundred pages of possible corrective actions that could lead to renewal, reformation, revival and relevance.  The ideas expressed are by-and-large both radical and reasonably simple.  Over the last 50 years, many theologians have tried implementing Snyder's ideas.  Most of these efforts have either fizzled out or undergone a "hostile takeover" by more mainline denominations.  There has certainly been no total reformation of Western church structure on the order of Luther, Calvin, et al (as far as that goes, Luther's Reformation actually had limited success, as Snyder explores extensively).

    And why it that?  Why, if the concept is so well-known and so widely attempted, should we have not yet seen a more nearly universal change in Western ecclesiology? As I've stated, I have read the book probably four times since 1983 not including the countless times I have perused its contents looking for this or that passage.  However, this is the first time I've read it since I started working on my own enlightenment.  I think, then, on this reading, I've discovered the flaw here.

    One can find a little of everything among Western Christian denominations from the super-straight to the totally whacked out.  I shall leave it to the reader to determine which is which.  Using the broadest possible brush, we can conveniently divide most sects into three main groups - the Evangelical, the Liturgical and the Pentecostal.  Evangelicals are known largely by their worship services that resemble rock or gospel concerts with a "brief pause for a word from our sponsor."  Liturgicals are known for worship services with pre-printed bulletins (theater programs?) that outline every moment of the planned service.  Pentecostals are, of course, known for their flamboyance with their faith healings, speaking in tongues, etc.  In the more "modern" congregations of all three groups, the walls of the sanctuary chancel have become dominated by large video screens displaying PowerPoint slides of nice, serene photography and hymn lyrics.  Frequently, worshipers must crane their necks to look round the cameras set up for live streaming the service onto YouTube or Facebook.  All three seem to suffer from the same two problems.

    First is the near total lack of any real spirituality within the context of the corporate worship.  In the case of Liturgicals, the formalized structure of the service tends to create, yes, familiarity, but with that familiarity comes a certain level of tedium.  Evangelicals are more interested in spirituality but, more often than not, seem unable or unwilling to distinguish between actual spirituality and mere volume.  Pentecostal services most often look to the outsider like something between mass hysteria and charlatanism.  It seems that the services are designed to appeal to the mind (Liturgical), the emotions (Pentecostal), or both (Evangelical).  None of them appeal to the spirit in any meaningful way.

    Secondly - and this is where I find fault with Wineskins as well - is the fact that the program is entirely communal in nature.  Let me be clear: worship is and should be a communal experience, but by its very corporate nature, it allows almost no room for the individual spiritual experience, and I think this is the missing key to genuine church revival.  A church is, by definition, a community with a specific mission.  As a community, we fail in our mission because we overlook that any community is only as strong as the level of commitment made by its individual members. If the individual cells are neglected of nourishment, the whole body starves to death.

    The solution to both problems, as Snyder correctly points out, is to shift the emphasis in the church program away from worship and toward the small group meeting.  Snyder suggests that these small group meetings take the form of informal Bible studies held during the week in people's homes.  Good plan, been tried, doesn't work.  Still not getting at the heart of the matter.  The part of all this for which I will take credit is the idea that (a) yes, emphasis should be on small groups, not on corporate worship, (b) yes, we should be engaged in more frequent and intimate Bible studies than the typical Sunday School class allows, but (c) even this Bible study program shouldn't be the main focus of the church schedule.

    We need to be teaching individual Christians both their value and their responsibility in the Body of Christ and, as I am coming to learn through the posts in this blog, that is best accomplished by a deep personal understanding of prayer and meditation.  Ironically, I'm finding this is best accomplished by studying Eastern practices such as Buddhism rather than Western Christian dogma.  It begins by understanding that pretty much everything in Western ideology is wrong and we need to hit the reset button, philosophically, religiously and socially.  We need to learn and understand the Three Immutable Facts of Impermanence, Suffering and Emptiness.  We need to learn to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect.  We must learn that, since not one of us can actually be perfect, it is our obligation as Christians to willingly die, move out of ourselves lock, stock and barrel and allow the Holy Spirit to take over.  These are things that, here in the West, we happily pay lip service to, but let us get cut off in traffic and see how well we let the Holy Spirit live in us!

    That is, to me, the most important thing for the church to do.  As a church, we must first and foremost be concerned with the enlightenment of our individual members, perhaps through a 1-hour weekly meeting with 30 minutes spent on meditation guided by a Christian lama, and 30 minutes spent on discussion, confession, encouragement and the sharing of ideas about how one can make this understanding something we carry with us throughout the week, to "pray without ceasing" every minute of every day.

    We will spend the next several posts looking at some of Snyder's ideas for church renewal, but I don't think any of them will work until the people we expect to implement them can learn to get out of their own way, to completely and finally die to self and let the Holy Spirit live through them.  Initially, we might have to invite some Eastern teachers to help us learn how to do this; I see little evidence that any Western theologians have any idea how it is done except possibly a few members of the Quakers, Mennonites or Amish or this or that individual pastor.

    So, here's my own personal contribution to the discussion to follow, to wit: how the church can become relevant again.  Make prayer and meditation the cornerstone of the church program.  Make the small, intimate meditation meeting that meets weekly in members' homes the entry point into the church body and save the worship service as something that happens among the community of enlightened believers.  Till the next post.

Pax

P.S. I am fully aware that referencing Buddhism so frequently in what is essentially a Christian thesis will receive a good deal of push back from my more ecumenical friends and family.  That's okay.  In Mark 3 we read that, shortly after Jesus began his ministry, members of his own family tried to get him to come home and shut up.  He was embarrassing them.   Later, in Luke 4, when Jesus was preaching in his hometown of Nazareth, the crowds tried to stone him, saying "isn't this Mary's son, the carpenter?"  It seems familiarity does, indeed, breed contempt.  Not only does derision from my closest friends and family put me in good company, it seems like a pretty clear indication that I'm doing something right!