Evangelicals & Catholics Together

I have been keeping an eye open for Evangelicals that sound right.

Father
Neuhaus sees great hope in these folks, yet I usually find small mindedness
and superficial religiousness such as "Me, Jesus, and the Bible".

Here's a guy that wipes out
that impression. In speaking of God and his Faith, he sounds Catholic. There
must be many more. If there are many more, then Father Neuhaus as usual is
right.

Church...

On another note, I read this humorous yet true axiom today...“Church-less Christianity is like sex-less marriage—it can only last one generation.” I like that. As imperfect as our church structures may be, we are called to be in community and without this, we cannot be all that Christ died for.

Liturgy...

Our song lyrics should reflect our theology and they should be words that we really mean. They should be (like the "preaching") adoration, proclamation, declaration, etc. - and they should be instructive in that they teach and challenge us. I continue to wrestle with the right name for that part of our liturgy.

We call it worship but the whole meeting should be worship. We think of the message as formative, yet shouldn't the songs be formative? The whole meeting should have some elements that are consistent and I think we have wrongly separated the meeting into sections and then assigned purposes to these that are much less than what they could be.

I had dinner with David last night and we discussed worship. We sing about giving God our all, I wonder how often we understand what we are saying and if so, do we mean it. I have found it very helpful when the band leader finds the appropriate time to read the words to the song and then to pray or challenge the congregation with those words. It's even better to link these to Scripture.

Conversion...

A truly converted life is a disrupted life. That is what you see in scripture. And a "disrupted" life flies in the face of much of what modern North American Christianity would consider as conversion. St. Paul is the classic example. His conversion completely disrupted his life. It was not the same. His conversion was not just about a change in his religious observances, nor was it just a "spiritual" experience. It was a total experience, and physical too. Somehow Paul was so changed that he began to live his life in a completely different way. His conversion was not a "compartment" of his life among all the other "compartments." And later when Paul was persecuted, hunted, beaten, and imprisoned, his life remained "disrupted", and the experience remained a "total" one.

This is great stuff! I don't know if I would describe my life as disrupted. Changed yes, but disrupted? Lord make your presence known in such a way that I am disrupted today and every day that remains.

Tradition and the living church...

He rightfully quotes 2 Tim 3.15-17 as saying Scripture is sufficient. The problem is the definition of sufficiency. Is it sufficient period? Or is it sufficient when combined with something else and thereby acting as a "plumb line"? If not a plumb line, why Acts 17.11, Isa 8.20, and 1 Co 12.3? Not only a plumb line but the sufficient Scripture itself testifies that God does and will speak to us (Jn 10.27; 14.26; 16.13-14; Ro 8.16; 1 Co 14.29-30; Ep 1.17; 1 Jn 2.27; etc.). What about Scripture's claim of on-going prophetic revelation in the Church (Ro 12.6, 1 Co 12.10, 28; 14.1, 4-5, 22, 24, 29-31, 39; Ep 4.11; 1 The 5.19-21; etc.)? The Scripture itself is replete with examples of how God speaks to His people. Jesus, the apostles, and God's people expected to hear God speak in a variety of ways. The written Word of God does not exhaust the ways God may communicate to His people.

So, when Dan Phillips concludes that it is "grown-up" to rely on the written text of Scripture and that everything that God wants to communicate to every person is contained in the written Word alone, I think he misunderstands what the Scripture is saying about God. I think this view is not "grown-up" but rather undercuts what God wants for His children. In the Scripture, when God wasn't speaking to His people, it was not a good situation. I do not understand why Dan Phillips would seek a place where God is silent.

Sounds pretty Catholic to me. He would be a good team member. I will keep that eye open.