Tod Bolsinger

The Myth of American Individualism

It is as American as apple pie to be individuals, to go it alone, to stand on one's own two feet, to live by your own existence.  This is what freedom is all about, isn't it?  According to Barry Shain’s The Myth of American Individualism, the individualism we have today is the complete opposite direction of the intentions of our founders.  Liberty for the early Americans did not mean complete freedom to be left alone, but instead the freedom to order one's life by the ethical demands of the Scriptures, confirmed by reason, within a community. The earliest Americans believed that true human freedom is only possible if it is lived out in a moral, tightly-knit community.  It is freedom with and for community.

But, our commitment to individualism has led to the breakdown of community, disconnection of families, neighbors and townspeople.  In his book, Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam charts the cultural breakdown of social clubs and organizations.  While more people are bowling than ever before, fewer are bowling in leagues.  While more people talk of the need for better education, fewer are involved in organizations like the PTA.  While more people are interested in matters of religion, fewer are inclined to join churches.  Mars Hill Audio reported a study of viewers who watch hours and hours of Home Shopping channels.  The Study determined that the majority of people who call in and purchase items are “regular” viewers, many of them elderly shut-ins who tend to think of the Television “hosts” as friends, and the show as a kind of virtual “community”.  The study concluded that, maybe in a world with increasing personal disconnection, the only place where the most lonely of our society can find a place to belong is as a "member" of a club where key requirement is to buy things. As William Dyrness has written, "The Freedom to be left alone has become the curse of being alone."  With rampant individualism, we have become a country of people who live out our existence in large part alone.

But, since God is a Trinity, the essence of God is loving relationship, best understood as Communion.  Therefore, the essence of humanity, as God’s creation, is also relationship.
This can be very difficult for us modern Westerners to grasp.   In cultures where identity is tied to family relationships, trinitarian relationship and identity is more easily understood and accepted.  But we have been so steeped in individualism that we forget that even the Lone Ranger had Tonto.  We naturally believe that the very essence of humanity is the individual will.  Truly understanding who God is, is absolutely necessary to understanding who we are and who we are meant to become. 

Another reason for this blog is that I want to tap into our current cultural hunger for community and demonstrate how Christian Community (which I will generally refer to with a capital “C”) is the only truly life-transforming environment.  (Indeed, while absolutely no substitute for genuine, local, personal community, I think that the blogosphere-if kept in perspective—offers us an opportunity to nurture conversation and connections across the miles and philosophical spectrum.) 

But first, let’s define what I mean by Community.  Our cultural is currently undergoing a period of nostalgia for the day in which neighbors and families were stable, knew each other well, and cared for each other through the ups and downs of life.  Many social commentators are trying to restore the ideal of civic community into American public life, and I deeply understand and applaud the efforts.  But Christian Community is not just about neighborliness (though certainly the gospel demands that we “love our neighbors”) nor is it just about proximity (though without proximity Community is impossible).  It’s not just being friends or living in the same housing development.  It’s about sharing more than a cup of sugar and the lawn mower, but core values and a vision for living.   

What this means is the church in its essence is not an organization, even a helpful, divinely mandated one.  Contrary to what many of us have been taught, the church is not just a means of grace; and the church is not just here to help you in your individual journey of faith. 

I remember sitting in evangelistic meetings as a young Christian hearing several well-meaning preachers, (including, later, myself, I must admit) saying, “All you have to do to be saved is to accept Jesus into your heart.  There is no church to join. There’s nothing to do.  You can have a relationship with Jesus right here tonight all by yourself.”  Usually the preacher would suggest that a good Bible teaching church would be helpful to the new believer (like vitamins help a diet), but what was most important was a “personal relationship by asking Jesus into your heart.” 

Over time I have come to realize that Paul would never have preached that message.  Instead, all of the early church preached, “Believe and be baptized.”  Have faith in Christ and join with the people of Christ.  Know the God who is Community and become part of it yourself.

Further, Christian Community is not just a shared experience.  It’s not people who sit together in pews or a movie theater or a football stadium (even if they are the audience for a Christian event!). It’s not polite conversation at a potluck or a great weekend together at a Christian camp.  Christian Community is an ontologically irreducible organism.  It is a living reality that is imbued with the Spirit of God.  And most dramatically, it is the very life of the Triune God drawing people into a covenantal relationship with God and each other.  It is God’s own being on earth lived in and through believers for the single end-result of seeing each person become like Jesus Christ.   So that the Community together is a witness for Christ. 

Which is how we will end this series next post…

We Have Met the Enemy and it is I

For the better part of two weeks now, I have been focusing my attention on the kind of churches that we need to be to welcome “seekers” (that is non-Christians looking for God), “wanderers” (Christians who have fallen away from God) and “adventurers” (Christians disillusioned by churches and looking for a new way) and help all of these folks to find a place to belong and grow deep in the Christian life. 

I have discussed examples both famous (Bono) and fictional (Neo) and acknowledge that while spirituality, even Christian spirituality is of interest these days, and “community” is a sought-after commodity, “church” is not. 

Now, this is not a new phenomenon.  In fact, it is simply the most current manifestation of our enduring western worldview commitment.

In his book, Habits of the Heart, University of California sociologist Robert Bellah, studied the primary commitments and core values of the American people, that is, the most cherished and dominant features of our worldview. Bellah's research declared that the two primary commitments of Americans are forms of individualism. He called these two dominant worldviews:

Utilitarian Individualism: If it works for me, then it is good, and
Expressive Individualism: If it fulfills or satisfies me, then it is good.

In many ways, this is the big issue in all of the discussion of post-modern faith and new ways of being Christians.  Many seekers, wanderers and adventurers are simply saying that the church doesn’t work for me (utilitarian individualism) so now I am finding a community that fulfills or satisfies me (expressive individualism). 

In some ways, this is the very discussion that I see happening in “emergent” circles.  Modernity is based on utilitarian individualism (The Bible is the authority that tells us that this is how the world works, that is just a fact that we can’t deny, so therefore this is what we should do.) 

It seems helpful to me to think of post-modernity as a questioning of the assumption of utilitarian individualism.  Post-modern folks (for lack of a better term) are saying, “Well, When I read the Bible from an older, more Hebraic, less western point of view, I don’t think the world does work this way, it’s not necessarily a fact, and frankly, it is far more meaningful, real and satisfying to seek to discover a different way.)  And whatever satisfies me and inspires me to live better for Christ is what matters really.”

Please don’t get me wrong.  I am not criticizing the seekers, wanderers and adventurers.  I am also not trying to deconstruct our world in to relativity. I just think that most of our techniques, strategies and approaches to church and theology keep overlooking the big elephant in the room.  We assume individualism is a God-endorsed worldview. While the world may be moving from modern to post-modern, the enduring worldview grid for determining most of life’s commitments remains virtually unchanged: Individualism.

And this is not only the great unnoticed assumption of our day, it is also a myth.  More on that tomorrow.

Just the folks We Want to Welcome

Amanda Witt offers an interesting post about people who are using their kids to surreptiously seek for a God they are too embarrassed to admit they are looking for. 

"God reaches out to us wherever we are, in the midst of our conniving, in the midst of our concern for our children, even, it appears, in the midst of pretend worship."

These folks seem to be just the kind of adventurers and seekers that makes all these posts on believing and belonging so relevant. 

Belonging and Believing: So, what?

Here is my quick and dirty pastoral list of "applications."

1.  You can belong to a church without believing, but you can't be a member without being part of the body of Christ (member literally, means "body part").  When someone asks me if they can become a member of SCPC without being a believer, I don't say "no". I tell them that it's impossible.  Believers are "members" and members are "believers."  That is like asking if something can become an "arm" without becoming a "body part".

2.  We offer hospitality to people who come and who make themselves at home within our churches, but their must be a moment of discipleship where we join with the other believers and commit to the Lordship of Christ. This is the sine qua non of "joining" our church.  People can experience the church as psychologically where they "belong" (and we hope they will), but joining the church is committing to Christ and each other. 

3.  In my church (a PCUSA church) this comes at membership.  But membership gives us no privileges, just more responsibilities.  The members commit to financially support the church, to elect and serve as leaders, to raise and nurture new believers and children in the  Lord. 

4. While many today believe without belonging, this is the most pervasive mistake of the day. Indeed, I got word that the speaker at our Junior High camp told the kids that church wasn't important only faith was.  Fortunately our Junior highers saw through that and challenged the notion.   

Final, so what:  The pervasive issue in all of this is how Christianity which is a personal and communal faith deals with the pervasive, enduring, almost unquestioned heresy of the past three hundred years.  Stay tuned on Monday.

Tomorrow, a great link for your weekend reading.

Posts for the President

On Inauguration day...

Show respect for everyone. Love your Christian brothers and sisters. Fear God. Show respect for the king. (1 Peter 2:17, NLT)

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. As you make your requests, plead for God’s mercy upon them, and give thanks. Pray this way for kings and all others who are in authority, so that we can live in peace and quietness, in godliness and dignity. (1 Tim 2:1-2, NLT)

Obey the government, for God is the one who put it there. All governments have been placed in power by God. (Ro 13:1, NLT)

More Caught than Taught

I have always believed that Christian faith is more caught than taught.  That the community of believers are supposed to be a witness through our lips and our lives of the truth of faith and that that winsome witness is contagious to those who come in contact with us. 

For the better part of a week now, I have been blogging on the dual conviction that all believers not be part of a local church and that local churches need to do a better job of welcoming struggling believers.  I have supported the idea that the first priority of a church is to offer welcome and hospitality.  But, I have also said, belonging is the first, not final priority.  Belonging alone is not enough.  As we seek to be faithful to Jesus Christ, we cannot be building bridges of friendship that we are afraid to cross with the demands and calling of discipleship.

We need to make sure that people “catch” our faith. 

Hospitality is so important in the ministry of Jesus that he welcomes and eats with sinner, tax collectors, and “known women of ill repute.” (It just felt kind of fun to write that phrase for some reason.)  When we see the extraordinary lengths to which Jesus welcomed the outcast, it is easy to think that the gospel is nothing more than a word of welcome. 

This is often the mistake that my more liberal friends make.  In the name of hospitality, we abandon beliefs and convictions.  We welcome anyone in the name of Christ, even into leadership for the cause of Christ, even if their beliefs and lifestyles betray the word of Christ.  We tell people to come as they are and then insist that they can stay as they were. 

We also saw, this, ironically enough, in the early seeker church movement.  We wanted people to be so comfortable, to feel so welcome, that we got rid of churchy things like crosses and vestments and even prayers of confession and such.  Again seekers were told that they didn’t have to do anything that made them uncomfortable, with the great temptation that we do nothing but affirm each persons’ complacency.  (See Rob Asghars’ posts on this topic.)

But this is not the hospitality of the New Testament, nor I believe the hospitality that is meant today by emergent churches, seeker churches and even—gasp—Presbyterian churches like mine.  To say that belonging is enough is to miss what the church is: A community of disciples of Jesus.  The Body of Christ. 

Belonging is first, but belonging is not the goal.  Belonging and believing is the goal.  Both must be present.  We must have, in the words of George Gallup’s most recent material, congregational engagement and spiritual commitment.

Gallup’s material shows that most religious people today separate these two crucial elements.  Congregational engagement and spiritual commitment do not necessarily go together.  Congregational engagement is a more “psychological” experience.  It is when someone can say, “This is my church.  I belong here.  I am myself here.  My best friends are here.  I can use my talents and resources here.” 

Spiritual commitment is when a person’s lifestyle reflects a deep commitment to a faith.  When their lips and lives say, “I believe this is true.  This faith re-orders my values and decisions.  I invest in growing in this faith daily.  I am even willing to suffer some consequences to live by my convictions.” 

I believe that true discipleship of Jesus demands both.  And that when we speak of offering belonging, we are speaking of encouraging and creating the environment for what Gallup calls is congregational engagement.  And here’s the kicker—Gallup’s data shows that while spiritual commitment does not lead to congregational engagement. The reverse is true.  IF, (big, big, “if” here) those who are deeply engaged in the congregation are spiritually committed people. 

In other words, the best way for someone to become both a belonger and a believer is by first belonging to a community of believers.  (Spiritually committed believers.) 

So, what does that mean for me as a pastor?  Tomorrow a list of “so, whats?”.  But in the meantime consider this: If faith is more caught that taught, is your congregation both “contagious” enough and “close” enough to unbelievers and wayward Christian seekers for them to “catch” anything?

Birthing Christians

When Cyprian wrote in the third century "He cannot have God as his Father who does not have the church as his mother,"  he was asserting church authority.  And like Tim Stafford points out in his article, "The Church Why Bother," the reformers were not interested in weakening that stand.  But I want to offer it as more than a statement of church authority, but also as a spiritual reality.  True Christian belief is "birthed" through Christian community.

This is just a spiritual fact: there is no true believing without belonging.  True believers belong to Christ and to other believers.  They are “engrafted” into his body as “members of one another.” (Romans 12:15). 

But that true believing often starts, appropriately I might add, by “hanging out” with Christ and the believers.  By “belonging” first.  Christian personhood, like human personhood always comes to us through other believers.

Miroslav Volf reminds us (in a passage from After our Likeness, p.183 which I cite in It Takes a Church to Raise a Christian: How the Community of God Transforms Lives), “Without other human beings, even God cannot create a human being.”

Volf also says, “Christ’s presence is promised not to the believing individual directly, but rather to the entire congregation, and only through the latter to the individual.  This is why no one can come to faith alone and live in faith alone” (Volf, After Our Likeness, 162, emphasis mine). 

This is not only a challenge to unchurched believers, but also a reminder to us that when we invite someone into our fellowship, we are extending to them the good news that we both proclaim and demonstrate with our lives. 

For the gospel messages to transform they must be far more than just content communicated, even the content of the Divine love of the Father in Jesus, but also include the personal and experiential way in which that content is communicated. 

Think of the stories at bedside and the radiance of a face reflecting the love of Christ, words of admonition and the silent holding of the hand of a person in pain, eating and drinking the bread and wine, worship of the one true God, holiness and failure, manipulation and sword, the blood of the martyrs, the lives of the saints, hypocrisy and lust for power among church dignitaries and the rest of us, and economic interests and political machinations. (Volf, “Theology, Meaning and Power,” 57.) 

It seems beyond doubt that a person becomes a human being not only by learning her mother’s language but also by feeling her mother’s touch and hearing the sound of her voice. Similarly we become Christians not only by learning the language of faith but also by being “touched” by other Christians and ultimately by God on a nonsemiotic level. 

When Jesus called the disciples to follow him, it wasn’t as a bunch of individuals who were disconnected to each other.  It was within the context of a rabbinic relationship where they would be together be deeply bonded to him and each other. 

And of course, they didn’t understand exactly what they were getting themselves into when they chose to follow him.  They had to learn on the go.  They listened to his teaching and enjoyed his touch.  They partnered with him in the ministry and they ate and drank together.  They were a “band of brothers” who had no small degree of sibling rivalry and even at the very end of Jesus’ life, they still didn’t really get it.  (See Acts 1 for an amazing excerpt of how even after resurrection, the disciples still missed the point.)

In fact, until the Spirit came upon them at Pentecost, we could call the disciples followers who were not believers.  They “belong” to Jesus, but they still didn’t “get” Jesus.  In many ways, this is the state of a lot of the church today.  (What one friend insists—rightly so—on calling the “visible church”, as opposed to the “invisible church” of true believers.).  But once they did believe, then their bond to the fellowship deepened and became the primary social relationship in their lives.

Let me end with one more excerpt from my book:

The early church understood and taught that to be baptized as a Christian meant to undergo an “extraordinary thoroughgoing resocialization” so that the Community of believers “would become virtually the primary group for its members supplanting all other loyalties.” ( Wayne A. Meeks, The First Urban Christians: The social world of the Apostle Paul, 78.)  Through this relational restructuring of the Spirit, the believer progresses in depth of faith (relationship to God) and in transformation into the likeness of God (understood in relational terms and expressed in relationships with other believers—see 2 Corinthians 3:17-18; John 13:14-15).  Indeed, as the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-26) attest, relational maturity is virtually indistinguishable from spiritual maturity and the spirituality of a Community is defined by the quality of the relationships formed.

When we as churches focus on offering belonging first (but not finally) we are offering both welcome and a challenge.  Our hospitality itself is evangelism, an offer of the good news we want adventurers to find in our midst, affirm in faith and demonstrate by joining with us. And for belonging to turn into true believing, what truly gets left behind is the goal to go it alone.

Showtime at Wittingshire

Jonathon and Amanda Witt have posted a nice review for Showtime. It is all the more meaningful because it comes from such thoughtful folks. 

If you haven't done so, already, please use this opportunity to find their fine blog.

I’ll Get By With a Little Help From My Friends.

So, I went to a Dave Wilcox concert Sunday night at a jam packed but friendly Coachhouse in San Juan Capistrano.  To tell you how good Wilcox is, I saw at least three other relatively well-known musicians at the show.

Twas a delightful evening. A good time listening to good music with good friends.  But, the best moments of the night were in the middle of what would usually be called Wilcox’s mistakes.  Twice, he forgot the words to his own songs.  Now, this wasn’t some kind of drug-induced meltdown ala Jim Morrison and the Doors.  He just simply forgot them. 

Now, if that had been me, I would have been horrified and embarrassed.  If nothing else, I would have faked it and let the audience think that I was just doing a cool “re-mix” of my won stuff.  Not Wilcox.  He just kept playing and asked the audience, “Anybody know how this goes here?” And sure enough someone did.  Not once but twice.  And both times, he reacted with such delight and genuine gratitude that it only endeared us to him all the more.  Then, to cap it off, not once, but twice, he invited the fan who knew the words to come up on stage and duet with him. 

Both times the audience roared approval.  We were both taken by Wilcox’s humility, ease in his own skin and graciousness, as well as the honor and thrill it was for a tried and true fan—who knows the words so well—to sing a duet with the author.

For the last two days, I have thought about this scene as a metaphor for our spiritual lives in Christ.  We are not called to sing perfect solos, to impress each other and the audience (the world?) with our precision and command, but instead to do our best and when we need it, ask others to join with us and help us sing the song of our lives. 

The church as a community of friends who sing alongside each other, who invite each other to be duets and trios and choirs of faithfulness as we together sing the songs of praise, live lives of beauty and point to the God of grace and friendship. 

Would that I could preach and live with such comfort in my own skin, such confidence in my friends’ abilities to know the words that I forget and to still accept me when I flounder.  The Christian life is not meant to be a solo striving for sanctity and salvation, but a journey of humility, friendship, mutual dependence and good-natured ribbing, laughter and warmth that points to another way of living, by grace under the reign of the real Author and King of all.

I know, this post is a bit mushy. But it really was a sweet moment.

Next post. Back to Cyprian, Bono, and other more serious stuff on the same page.

Steve's in the house

Please welcome a new blogger and old friend to the blogosphere.  Steve Norris is the same "Steve" that I saluted in my book, Showtime.   Here is an excerpt from p. 86:

When I think of people who demonstrate endurance, who show up for Christ everyday and put up with others, I think of my friend, Steve.  Steve is a faithful husband, father of two girls, an elder in the church, and a real estate appraiser.  He cares for his aging parents, he generously gives to the work of Christ and he can tell a great joke. 

He does nothing that anyone would consider spectacular.  He’ll never receive a standing ovation and his hometown will probably never have “Steve Day” in his honor.  But everyday, he eats his oatmeal, reads his Bible, does honest work, plays with his daughters, sends email to friends, hugs his wife and says his prayers before he goes to sleep.  When others left his church during the hard times, he stepped into leadership.  When others compromised their ethics to get ahead financially, he stayed true.  When colleagues sacrificed family in order to get promoted, he scaled back preferring more time with his daughters than more stuff in his garage.  When others are cynical, Steve is hopeful. When friends are in trouble, Steve is there with a kindly smile, a helping hand and an open wallet. 
He is a solid, dependable, caring man whom I could count on in any situation from raising my children to walking my dog. 

I love this guy and you'll love his blog.  Go by his site and tell him his old roommate sent you.