What do you want from Church: ordinary or falshy?
Restless. Epic. Crazy. Every word we read these days seems to call us to the "next—best—thing," if only we would change our comfortable, compromising lives. Instead, many of us end up feeling disillusioned and disappointed, simply burnt out. In fact, the greatest fear most Christians have is boredom—the sense that they are missing out on the radical life Jesus promised. One thing is certain. No one wants to be “ordinary.”
Our attempts to measure our spiritual growth by our experiences, constantly seeking after the next big breakthrough, have left many Christians disillusioned and disappointed. There’s nothing wrong with an energetic faith; the danger is that we can burn ourselves out on restless anxieties and unrealistic expectations. What’s needed is not another program or a fresh approach to spiritual growth; it’s a renewed appreciation for the commonplace.
Far from a call to low expectations and passivity, is it not time to recover our sense of joy in the ordinary. We need a sustainable discipleship that happens over the long haul—not a quick fix that leaves us empty with unfulfilled promises. Discipleship is not a call to do less; it’s an invitation to experience the elusive joy of the ordinary Christian life.
The ordinary means of grace is precisely how Christ has worked for over 2,000 years to bring the extraordinary gifts of the forgiveness of sins, and the promise of the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting to people bruised, beaten, and battered by their sins, and the sin of the world.
The church has gone from understanding the "ordinary" to demanding everything be "extraordinary;" how "ambition" was historically and biblically always a vice (and sin), but has not been elevated to a virtue; how "contentment" was always a biblical virtue but has now been made into a vice (of mediocrity); how the "contractual" mentality and way of life has replaced the "covenantal" biblical mentality and way of life; and how "passing away" is the preferred mode of speaking rather than talking of the death and resurrection. All these ordinary ways of talking about and proclaiming the Good News have been remade and replaced. What is often given up on is the "ordinariness" of the Good News itself. Namely, that Jesus Christ came to atone for the sins of the lost and the found; that baptism is a gift of God's grace; that the Lord's Supper gives the forgiveness of sins. When these ordinary means just don't seem to be doing what we think they should be doing in the right now, at this moment, immediate demands of our time, they are abandoned for something more flashy, more relevant, and more radical.
Our attempts to measure our spiritual growth by our experiences, constantly seeking after the next big breakthrough, have left many Christians disillusioned and disappointed. There’s nothing wrong with an energetic faith; the danger is that we can burn ourselves out on restless anxieties and unrealistic expectations. What’s needed is not another program or a fresh approach to spiritual growth; it’s a renewed appreciation for the commonplace.
Far from a call to low expectations and passivity, is it not time to recover our sense of joy in the ordinary. We need a sustainable discipleship that happens over the long haul—not a quick fix that leaves us empty with unfulfilled promises. Discipleship is not a call to do less; it’s an invitation to experience the elusive joy of the ordinary Christian life.
The ordinary means of grace is precisely how Christ has worked for over 2,000 years to bring the extraordinary gifts of the forgiveness of sins, and the promise of the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting to people bruised, beaten, and battered by their sins, and the sin of the world.
The church has gone from understanding the "ordinary" to demanding everything be "extraordinary;" how "ambition" was historically and biblically always a vice (and sin), but has not been elevated to a virtue; how "contentment" was always a biblical virtue but has now been made into a vice (of mediocrity); how the "contractual" mentality and way of life has replaced the "covenantal" biblical mentality and way of life; and how "passing away" is the preferred mode of speaking rather than talking of the death and resurrection. All these ordinary ways of talking about and proclaiming the Good News have been remade and replaced. What is often given up on is the "ordinariness" of the Good News itself. Namely, that Jesus Christ came to atone for the sins of the lost and the found; that baptism is a gift of God's grace; that the Lord's Supper gives the forgiveness of sins. When these ordinary means just don't seem to be doing what we think they should be doing in the right now, at this moment, immediate demands of our time, they are abandoned for something more flashy, more relevant, and more radical.
