You can read my previous post on Dr. Soong Chan Rah seminar at the Justice Conference in Philly (link below). In short, I was critiquing his main point when the Evangelical Church moves out of the city and into the suburbs, it trades its suffering and sacrifice narrative for one of triumphalism. I argue this is only a half true – as there is still much suffering and sacrifice in the Suburban Church.
Still, I truly appreciated the seminar. So much good stuff was said and I want to continue this thread of thought.
Dr. Rah’s was insisting that we need to reclaim a “theology of Lament” as he has been working on a book on Lamentations.
He pointed out the Church can have 3 Potential Responses:
1. Disengage with Surrounding Culture – which is what he argues the suburban church did with the city.
It should be noted the value of the suburbs in relation to the culture, at least from a population perspective. In fact, more Americans now live in the suburbs than the cities/rural areas combined. Thus, I don’t find “disengaged” as accurate – still plant to critique/improve upon in the suburban church.
2. Idolatry and look for “magic formulas.”
Dr. Rah is preaching to the choir here. Yes sir, it’s not only a problem within the Church but a problem of humanity.
“Comfortable chairs, no crosses, eloquent speaking. There is a danger of applying those practices to the justice conversation – apply same formula to justice. Justice then becomes trendy and the church uses it to simply to draw in young people.”
So yes, in the sense that issues arise when justice-seeking is rooted in formula not Scripture – no argument from me but this is always feels like a false dichotomy. As a Christian I can’t exclude the justice inniatives that are taken place outside the Christian narrative. As a Christian I’d describe this as God’s natural law of goodness engrained into the human heart so it seems to me this is in fact, instinctual for humanity to pursue justice/righteousness. Of course being a flawed and broken people, progress, unity, corruption have become legitimate obstacles. Thus as Christian, we’d say we need God’s leading and strength here.
Further, may God judge the churches that are using social justice to lure in the young. But two things: One is that young discerning believers will not stay in a church very long that does that. And two, let’s give some churches a tip of the hat to waking up and learning something that has been brewing in the Gen X’ers and Millennials for quite some time (and a tip of that to the Builders and Boomers who never lost sight of this. Ok, enough self-congratulations, let’s get back to work).
Comfortable chairs are not the problem. Let’s stop saying this stuff. Believe me, there are plenty of churches who sit in very uncomfortable pews in old, neglected sanctuaries, surrounded by crosses and not all the speaking is eloquent. I think we’re making a straw-man out of the chairs and enabling our personal/collective apathy of those who occupy the chairs.
Of course it was ironic to me that I heard this critique from an eloquent Dr. Rah while sitting in comfortable chairs in a room without any crosses. I know, I know, it was the Philly Convention Center but you get the point).
My issues with the social justice conversation are very similar to my concerns regarding discipleship, the worship of God and Christ-honoring expressions of our faith. Our failure in executing more and more of what we desire to has to do with the limitations posed on our needful congregations (many are hurting souls in need of community and care), an inability of leadership and faithful followership and limited resources that may reflect our lack of trusting in God and may reflect our lack of generosity and I’ll agree with Dr. Rah here, our distractions of modern idolatry. But this does not feel like merely triumphalism to me.
3. Lament.
This took some explanation here but I’m sticking with my initial reaction – this feels incomplete as well. Dr. Rah framed Lament as “being in submission to Yahweh’s sovereignty.” I guess I’d have to read the book to get more. Yes, we do need to lament that we have not trusted/submitted enough to God’s sovereignty. But in short, we also need to rely on the narrative of the Resurrection which is why we don’t live in the spirit of lament but in the spirit of joy, celebration, and proclamation – this to me, is the other side of “being submissive toYahweh’s sovereignty.” Both (and probably more) are needed in our churches, suburban, urban, rural, etc.
So every now and then we have to ask ourselves, why does any of this matter? Is this stuff just Christian novelty, is there anything to really be gained here? Aside from perhaps incremental change that only will be detected by likely a small minority, is any of this really pertinent?
In thinking about this, yes, I defiantly think it is. And in this case it’s helped me to take a deep look at my context, my ministry, and myself. Perhaps the processing of this can be of some help to you (as you process). Left unchecked, so much damage can be done. But in reflection, in planning, in praying and relying on God’s strength in execution, it seems we can uncover some good moments. It’s never enough, but may we continue moving forward with God’s leading.
Thoughts? Feel free to comment – thanks for reading.
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