So far, we have discussed the need to read the Bible with our heads, hearts, and hands—but how about with our friends? For now, I’m not talking about evangelism (we’ll talk about that next time), but about community. Here’s the thing: even if we individually balance head, heart, and hands, we are not having the best experience possible. For us to fully exercise all three, we need community. No matter how smart you are, your head is not as sharp alone as it is with others. The Bible is too big for one person to grasp in its entirety; this is why academics who study the Bible have sub-disciplines and specialties. On your own, even if you are a very well-read individual, you are liable to come up with some inaccurate interpretations of the text based on your personal biases (we all have them) that the text doesn’t really support. When you study the Bible with living, breathing people, they have a way of drawing your attention to things that smooth out the rough edges of your thinking. They challenge you with a different perspective as they engage you in conversation. One of the best things I ever did for sharpening my approach to Bible study was to join the PUC Honors program, which at the time had a reputation for turning good Adventists into atheists. The entire philosophy of the program is that all questions are worth asking and that no subjects are too sacred to question. I figured that if I’m going to devote my life to teaching and sharing this religion, well, it’d better be strong enough to put up with that kind of pressure. While I wouldn’t recommend this course of action to everyone—there were some delicate moments that nearly broke me—processing my classmates’ questions alongside my own gave me a stronger (yet oddly humbled) faith in the Bible and greater confidence in the intellectual soundness of Adventism’s doctrines. No matter how wise you are, your heart is not as whole alone as it is with others. On one level, of course, I’m talking about the special companionship that comes from enjoying the Bible with someone else. We all need that relational connection. The Bible studies I do on Zoom with my church members right now really brighten my week. On another level, the Bible’s emotions run the entire range of human experience, and we need to spend more time with other humans to engage with more of the Bible’s emotions. Also, if the emotions in a passage are outside our experience, hearing how someone else connects to it can make it more real for us if we’re connected to them. On still another level, some of us have heavy emotional baggage with certain passages that can only be ironed out in community. Paul’s writings were a sore point for me for a long time. For as long as I could remember, I had heard Paul’s writings used as a hammer to tell me, as a young lady, what I shouldn’t do: shouldn’t wear jewelry, shouldn’t dress in certain ways, and certainly shouldn’t do what God told me to do and become a pastor. Meeting other women who had already dealt with the trauma caused by the misuse of these passages made a big difference for me. My intellectual issues with Paul were solved by study, but my emotional ones were healed by interacting with women who had found peace with their calling to ministry. Words cannot adequately describe my respect for the generation of female pastors, most of them now middle-aged or headed towards retirement, who took up ministry with far fewer living role models. No matter how righteous you are, your hands are not nearly as effective alone as they are with others. The Bible explicitly says, over and over, that we really need each other and that even the most powerful leaders need teams. My favorite parts of Paul’s writings (to balance my expression of frustration earlier in this post) are the ones where he describes the Body of Christ and how a grand variety of people are necessary to accomplish the work of ministry. Living the text of the Bible requires community, given that it contains such lofty commands as, “Go into all the world, baptizing and making disciples in My name.” On a sheer practical level, this is impossible for one person to do. If Jesus needed twelve core disciples and many, many others to accomplish His mission, how much more do we need others to continue this mission? Like most Americans, I struggle with our culture’s spirit of rugged individualism. When cross-bred with poorly-understood Christianity, this individualism creates a toxic martyr. A toxic martyr is someone who thinks they have to prove their Christianity by carrying the heaviest burdens and shouldering all the responsibility on their own. Along the way, they wear themselves out unnecessarily and deprive others of the joy of doing ministry. I’ll confess my own sin here: I do this. A lot. Sadly, I’m not the only one. This is a common issue in nearly every church’s most dedicated leaders and volunteers, and God never asked it of us. There is godliness, not weakness, in acknowledging that you can’t do everything and spreading the joy of ministry around. I’ve been very honest and open in this post for a reason: community is at its most helpful when people can be real with each other. A gallery of performance Christianity is not a real community; it's a show. The term “hypocrite” that Jesus uses so sharply in the Gospels literally means “actor.” When acting replaces honesty, it creates an arms race for the best performance that shames people out of seeing and dealing with their issues. Whether these issues are personal or relational, they cannot be dealt with properly if they are hidden under layers and layers of acting and avoidance. Honesty can be terrifying and must be used delicately, but it saves so much time in the long run--especially with new believers. Next time, we will explore this in more detail, but this week you can start practicing by making an effort to be more honest with yourself. In the process of practicing that honesty with myself, I have recognized that I desperately need a break for my own long-term good. For that reason, there will be no new posts here until at least June 12. Until then, I wish you the best!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorJillian Lutes is the youth pastor at West Covina Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church. Archives
May 2020
Categories |