The Gospel According to U2, Part One
The Gospel According to ...U2?
Nate Milne's Visit to a Seeker-friendly Church
Back in the first weekend of August I took a trip to Texas for a college friend's wedding. While there, I stayed with a family that I hadn't seen in over ten years who currently live in the same city. The wedding was on Saturday, and on Sunday I went to church with the family I was staying with before they dropped me off at the airport for my flight back to Worcester. The church service was rather... different. I'll attempt here to report on what I observed and make a few biblical evaluations of it.
First, I need to make known what my church background is. I was raised in non-denominational churches, what I would now call watered-down non-denominational evangelicalism. The teaching was heavy on the gospel, but it seemed that there were few if any other doctrines that received any emphasis. I knew from a young age that God was holy and that sin was rebellion and disobedience to God and that there was a penalty of death for sin. I knew that Jesus paid that penalty by dying in our place on the cross, and that he rose from the dead. And I knew that if we believe in him, our sins are forgiven and we have eternal life. But that was all I knew. I had seen enough gospel presentations to know the "bridge illustration" inside and out by age ten, but by the time I graduated from high school I hadn't a clue about the doctrines of the trinity, justification, election, the inspiration of scripture, sovereignty, providence, sanctification, etc. I also knew I was a non-denominational Christian, but I would have been unable to tell a Baptist from an Episcopalian or a Methodist from a Roman Catholic. All of those doctrines and differences were rarely if ever mentioned in the churches I grew up in (the problem of modern evangelical churches failing to teach their children is a topic for another essay).
That all changed when I moved to Worcester to attend WPI. I discovered the Christian Bible Fellowship @ WPI, a non-denominational Christian group on campus. I promptly hooked up with them at the beginning of my freshman year, and also, with a little prompting (and wake-up calls) from some older CBF'ers, I soon started attending Bethlehem Baptist Church in nearby West Boylston. The order of worship in the services was very similar to what I had experienced growing up, but the teaching was different. It soon became clear that I was no longer wading around in the kiddie pool of doctrine but was now swimming in the ocean. In other words, it was deep. Real deep. Within a couple years I was learning about all those great biblical doctrines I mentioned earlier and loving it. I was not only learning the Bible cover to cover but was also learning much about theology and church history. By the time I finished at WPI, I was no longer a non-denominational Christian. I am now a Reformed Baptist (1689 LBCF, with minor exceptions in regards to the Law and the Sabbath, to be precise).
The extent to which my faith had changed as it had grown over my college years wasn't obvious to me while it happened, but it was brought out in stark contrast one day in the spring of 2002. My experience at BBC was not the uniform experience of CBF'ers. One who remained a non-denominational Christian invited me to his baptism in Rhode Island one Saturday afternoon. Yet that morning, at BBC, we had a funeral for two twins who had died within a week of their birth. The atmosphere and message of those two events were like night and day. At the funeral, it was a very solemn, weighty occasion, where the gospel of Christ was clearly proclaimed, and the message was that we didn't know why God had decided to take these two babies home at such a young age, yet God is still sovereign and good, so we will worship him. The baptism, on the other hand, was a very happy, light-hearted affair, where the gospel of Christ was barely mentioned at all, and the message was that all these people were being baptized because Christianity is fun. But is Christianity fun when newborn babies die? The best way I can think of to describe the baptism in contrast to the funeral was this: It felt like a different religion.
Nate Milne's Visit to a Seeker-friendly Church
Back in the first weekend of August I took a trip to Texas for a college friend's wedding. While there, I stayed with a family that I hadn't seen in over ten years who currently live in the same city. The wedding was on Saturday, and on Sunday I went to church with the family I was staying with before they dropped me off at the airport for my flight back to Worcester. The church service was rather... different. I'll attempt here to report on what I observed and make a few biblical evaluations of it.
First, I need to make known what my church background is. I was raised in non-denominational churches, what I would now call watered-down non-denominational evangelicalism. The teaching was heavy on the gospel, but it seemed that there were few if any other doctrines that received any emphasis. I knew from a young age that God was holy and that sin was rebellion and disobedience to God and that there was a penalty of death for sin. I knew that Jesus paid that penalty by dying in our place on the cross, and that he rose from the dead. And I knew that if we believe in him, our sins are forgiven and we have eternal life. But that was all I knew. I had seen enough gospel presentations to know the "bridge illustration" inside and out by age ten, but by the time I graduated from high school I hadn't a clue about the doctrines of the trinity, justification, election, the inspiration of scripture, sovereignty, providence, sanctification, etc. I also knew I was a non-denominational Christian, but I would have been unable to tell a Baptist from an Episcopalian or a Methodist from a Roman Catholic. All of those doctrines and differences were rarely if ever mentioned in the churches I grew up in (the problem of modern evangelical churches failing to teach their children is a topic for another essay).
That all changed when I moved to Worcester to attend WPI. I discovered the Christian Bible Fellowship @ WPI, a non-denominational Christian group on campus. I promptly hooked up with them at the beginning of my freshman year, and also, with a little prompting (and wake-up calls) from some older CBF'ers, I soon started attending Bethlehem Baptist Church in nearby West Boylston. The order of worship in the services was very similar to what I had experienced growing up, but the teaching was different. It soon became clear that I was no longer wading around in the kiddie pool of doctrine but was now swimming in the ocean. In other words, it was deep. Real deep. Within a couple years I was learning about all those great biblical doctrines I mentioned earlier and loving it. I was not only learning the Bible cover to cover but was also learning much about theology and church history. By the time I finished at WPI, I was no longer a non-denominational Christian. I am now a Reformed Baptist (1689 LBCF, with minor exceptions in regards to the Law and the Sabbath, to be precise).
The extent to which my faith had changed as it had grown over my college years wasn't obvious to me while it happened, but it was brought out in stark contrast one day in the spring of 2002. My experience at BBC was not the uniform experience of CBF'ers. One who remained a non-denominational Christian invited me to his baptism in Rhode Island one Saturday afternoon. Yet that morning, at BBC, we had a funeral for two twins who had died within a week of their birth. The atmosphere and message of those two events were like night and day. At the funeral, it was a very solemn, weighty occasion, where the gospel of Christ was clearly proclaimed, and the message was that we didn't know why God had decided to take these two babies home at such a young age, yet God is still sovereign and good, so we will worship him. The baptism, on the other hand, was a very happy, light-hearted affair, where the gospel of Christ was barely mentioned at all, and the message was that all these people were being baptized because Christianity is fun. But is Christianity fun when newborn babies die? The best way I can think of to describe the baptism in contrast to the funeral was this: It felt like a different religion.
posted by fargonate | 7:36 PM
2 Comments:
"Is Christianity fun when newborn babies die?"...It sounds like you are saying that death is a result of Christianity. Yes, becoming a Christian is a happy, joyous occasion. Yes, it is VERY sad when newborn babies die. Death is the result of sin entering the world - it has nothing to do with being a Christian. But the parents of the babies that died too young have the hope of seeing their babies again in heaven, so while we mourn for the parent's loss, we rejoice at the future when the family will be reunited forever.
Yep, it's me again ;)
To clarify a bit: Christianity is about holiness and sin. It's about grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness. It's about faith and repentance. And it's also about trusting God and receiving comfort from him and his word during times of tragedy. Is it fun sometimes? Certainly! But the "Christianity lite" that is all about how much fun it is to follow Jesus is a pathetic substitute for the real thing and has no way to deal with times of tragedy. This style of teaching is often associated with youth ministry (see http://www.campwingmann.org/ for example). It's misleading to tell people (especially kids!) that Christianity is fun when Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23). And Paul said that "all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Timothy 3:12).
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