If you have been following these posts thinking that I am criticizing Bono and Neo you are only partly right. In truth, I don’t know Bono and Neo is, of course, fictional. So criticizing them is a bit odd.
Further, Bono is really the quintessential Christian Gnostic, Neo only inspires it in some. (As a friend pointed out, in the first book, Neo attended and tithed to a local church. In the second book, he leads his own worship service on a boat. In both cases, he is demonstrably NOT trying to be individualistic in a Bono-esque way, but does pose a challenge to the inadequacy of ordinary churches.)
In actuality, I’d love to be the pastor of the kind of church that either Bono or Neo (if he was real) would come to. Partly because they are both really cool and partly because I like U2’s music and the way Neo drinks beer while talking about tortoises and ministry.
(Note of thanks: Brian McClaren’s analogy—from the mouth of Neo—of churches today being like filling stations that used to give both “leaded and unleaded” fuel was one of the single best insights I have ever heard in ministry.)
But, what I really want is for my church—or any church—to be the kind of healthy, committed community of authentic believers that an individualistic (but obviously wounded by the church) Christian like Bono, and a reforming, prophetic (and disappointed in the church) Christian like Neo would find refreshing, challenging and real.
So, to that end, I now offer some suggestions for change in the church, starting with this one: our first emphasis should be belonging before believing.
The church should offer people the the invitation to belong to the community of God's people even before they figure out what it means to believe in Christ. I don't mean formal "membership" in the sense that churches like mine offer it, but I do mean that someone should feel welcome and at home, experiencing life in the community as the witness to God's own presence, as the first priority before making a faith commitment. The church's first emphasis should be offering belonging, even before teaching faith.
I didn’t make this up, in fact, it is one of the central ideas from George G. Hunter’s book, The Celtic Way of Evangelism. (This "ancient-future" text--to borrow Robert Webber's phrase--is certianly one of the most popular emergent and missional books. It is also the most highly regarded book by my students in the “Evangelizing Nominal Christians” class I teach for Fuller Seminary--even more than mine!)
Hunter demonstrated that St. Patrick's ancient approach to evangelism of the "barbarians" of Ireland was to begin with offering welcome, hospitality and ministry to people and to hold off pushing for faith commitments until someone had truly experienced the faith through the community.
If the first emphasis of the church is creating a community of belonging, then Christian belief will be the fruit of an experience of the Triune God through genuine community with other Christians. (Which is what my book, It Takes a Church to Raise a Christian is all about.)
When the soil of faith is necessarily the dirt and fertilizer and weeds and rocks of a particular Christian group of people and not some ethereal personal Christian commitment, then genuine belief will be to confess your trust in Jesus and JOIN this (particular) body. (Hence the need to confess faith and be baptized—which is, unless you are a Catholic, entirely about belonging to a faith community. Baptism is an entrance ritual. )
Interestingly, what Bono and most churches that he would never visit both would agree upon is the idea that believing is way more important than belonging. Christian faith requires both—always. But by emphasizing belonging--both the need to offer it and receive it--first, the Bonos and the churches would both have to confront just how often belief is not enough.
Tomorrow: Why I am not a heretic for saying this.
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