I spoke earlier about how I was having disagreements with my Church's leadership. I hope that no one misunderstands me that I dislike the people in my congregation or thought them poor Christians. On the contrary, they are my friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ and they have helped my wife and I when my wife and I lived hundreds and thousands of miles from our family.
Things were, for the most part, good then too... even though I was having disagreements. Our congregation, as much as I love and loved it, had some issues. Nothing out-of-the-ordinary for congregations like mine; we had questions and aspirations revolving around terms like "seeker sensitive" or "relevant" or "needs-based" or "modern" or cutting-edge worship, or "purpose-driven." We needed more numbers; not for vanity's sake, but so we could reach souls. But still, numbers (and what drew them or turned them away) became something of a discussion and slowly it became an obsession. Our congregation was largely, spiritually immature and (by my own, imperfect and spiritually immature observation) and largely Biblically illiterate. Some people wanted to take "Baptist" off of our Church name. A few of them even suggested we take "Church" out of our name.
Something felt... wrong about many of those ideas, though I couldn't put my finger on it. I didn't know they were wrong, but I suspected they were. I set out and find the answers. This is when I would cite my experts, and others with other viewpoints, would cite their own experts. For reasons I addressed in the earlier posts of this series, I no longer thought I could trust the experts to help me, or anyone else, out this quagmire.
The answer, or so I thought, finally dawned on me during the "Indian summer" in Illinois... the answer was, of course, Scripture. Scripture had been pushed to the side or ignored by my congregation throughout this whole thing (so I thought). We needed the pure Word of God, unmitigated by these new-fangled (or old-fangled) ideas about Purpose-Driven this, or seeker-sensitive that. Yes, Scripture and understanding Scripture better was the anti-dote to these problems of modernity that I saw. I would rebuild my youth group's structure to turn them into a tiny attack force of hermeneutic-awesomeness. That was the answer. I found a book (which will remain nameless) that dealt with this very issue. Only now, looking back on it, do I realize that my solution to these problems was to trust the advice of... yet another expert. My hypocrisy knows no bounds it seems. But at the time, I did not think about it.
I knew in advance that this author's thesis was to tear-down the ideas I disagreed with and replace them with the sheer simplicity of Biblical truth (I guided my guide to guide me where I wanted). That was my new ministry model. I delved into this book, finishing it in less than one day despite it being the busiest time of year for me. The author handily tore apart the modern, Evangelical Church culture and diagnosed the problems... a lack of Biblical knowledge and correct interpretive skills. The book had confirmed my suspicisons. It was written by a Bible-only-guy who was gonna lay down the law... he was getting to the conclusion, the answer to my ministry crisis, I had found the answer! Yes, yes, yes, after all the heart-ache, and all the current madness I had the first glimpses of a new hope and the answer was...
Hollow.
I cannot remember feeling more empty after reading something than after reading that book.
Basically the author's answer to all of these problems was "read your Bibles and do what it says." Ironically it is the answer I wanted to hear when I first picked up the book. It is the answer I knew it would be when I opened the book, the answer I had waited for. But somehow after the build-up, after everything, it felt... incomplete.
The author’s whole ministry plan was for little children to have Bible stories taught to them(a great idea), for elementary students to learn systematic Biblical theology (also good goal), middle schoolers to be fed with nothing but expository preaching (good, but a high bar to jump over), and high schoolers learning basic principles of hermeneutics and exegesis (great idea, but quite a challenge). It sounded great on paper... all the tools necessary to study and know the Bible and therefore to combat all the evils of this age.
Yet his solution struck me as inadequate. Where was prayer? He seemed to rarely mention it. Where was serving others? It too seemed largely absent Where were apologetics, and praise, and worship, and fellowship? His whole philosophy was simply to turn congregations and the Christians inside into a Bible interpreting machine. That, or so his solution struck me, was the entire Christian life and the lifeblood of the Christian mission.
There seemed to be obvious holes in his solution... suppose a teacher taught something wrong, suppose some of the archeological evidence changed, what if a child missed the first few years of a study? The most glaring problem was what would happen if one interpreter studied the Bible and came to a different conclusion than what some of the others believed? Would there be a change in the Church’s doctrine? What if I studied and could prove the Church’s interpretation was faulty, but the pastor didn’t believe me? The problems seemed enormous.
Seeing these problems it struck me that this solution was incapable to stem the tide, and impossible for it do what it needed to do... guide a Church of individual believers. I felt downright sinful for thinking the Bible and the Bible starkly alone was inadequate. I still believed (and believe) the Bible is true, 100%, and I still believe it has the authority derived from God, it's author. On that I have no doubt. But how could I even question the sole authority of Scripture?
I had the proof in front of me. Purpose Driven Life used the Bible, so did this guy who bashed the Purpose Driven movement. I used the Bible to disprove my Church's stances and my Church used it to support their stances. I didn't know where to look. Actually for a few weeks I quit looking into anything... maybe there was no answer, maybe there was nothing better than the Church politics and the dog-eat-dog ministires we sometimes serve in. Suck it up and deal with it! That seemed to an answer offered by many.
But it seemed clear to me then that wherever truth was to be found, if it could be found at all, it would not come from the so-called popular experts, nor could I expertly interpret Scripture on my own. I didn't need the help of experts. I needed the help of the Church.
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