An Open Letter to Rachel Held Evans: 3 Ways to Keep Christianity Weird and Relevant
In response to your thoughts on this topic, I want to propose 3 Ways We Can Keep Christianity Weird and Relevant!
1. We must celebrate (not tolerate or reject) the supernatural: Signs, wonders, miracles, healings and unusual demonstrations of God’s presence in our midst.
I heard about an interesting conversation that transpired between Thomas Aquinas and the pope of his day, Innocent II. The pope was showing Aquinas the glories of the Vatican and boasting, “No longer does the church say ‘silver and gold have I none.'” Immediately, Aquinas replied: “Neither can she say, ‘Rise up and walk.'”
What is the solution to a church standing at a crossroads? A community that once again: 1) embraces the expectation that anything is possible, 2) delights in the Holy Spirit being able to move freely, 3) celebrates miracles, signs and wonders (not simply tolerating them at best and rejecting them at worst), 4) upholds the presence of God as superior to Christian rhetoric, and 5) recognizes what we carry and what we truly offer to society—God dwelling within us. It’s all supernatural! We don’t carry political agendas; we carry the presence of God. If Christians need to hear any kind of sermon or message, one of the most urgent is a back-to-basics “reality check.” The reality is that God Himself bled and died so that we could be indwelt by His presence, release His power, and see as much of earth impacted heaven as possible before we step off this planet and into eternity.
Everything in the New Testament church was weird by today’s standards! You consider some of the essential doctrines of the faith, along with the sacraments, as examples of the “weirdness.” I completely agree. Furthermore, I find the basic ministry activities of Jesus Himself rather odd—especially considering that He has invited us to participate with Him in these same supernatural demonstrations of the kingdom (see Matt. 10:8, Mk. 16:15-18, Jn. 14:12).
– Exorcism and Deliverance from Demons (Mk. 16:16-18, Lk. 10:17,19)
– Healing the Sick and Raising the Dead (Matt. 10:18)
– Miracles, Signs and Wonders (Acts 2:19-20)
– Prophecy, Speaking in Tongues and the Operation of Gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12, 14)
Overseas, there is no shortage of the supernatural (nor do they make apologies for it). Everything from radical freedom from demonic torment (as demonstrated in Darren Wilson’s documentary Finger of God), to people receiving visions and dreams of Jesus, to people being raised from the dead in Mozambique under IRIS Ministries. The gospel is being preached with such anointing, that evangelists like Reinhard Bonnke are seeing people healed and touched by God, simply being gathered in an atmosphere where the good news thunders with power and compassion.
The idea of seeing God’s power in action is not a “turn off” to me; it tells me that “there is more” than I am presently tasting and seeing of God. Likewise, I don’t believe it’s a turn off to people who are “searching for Sunday.” In fact, for the first 300 or so years of Christianity, “Sunday” was—by and large—supernatural. The church’s standard mode of operation was prophecy, healing, gifts of the Spirit, exorcism and the like. We must reclaim the weirdness if we are to be truly effective in the days in which we live.
2. We must exchange trendy gimmicks for the presence of God.
You rightly note that the solution is not hip gimmicks, where we substitute the Holy Spirit for smoke machines and exchange the divine presence for a coffee bar in the foyer. The key to reaching a generation for Jesus is not repackaging Christianity to suit current trends; it’s restoring Christianity to its original design. It’s not flashier lights, cooler bands, and increased attempts to repackage “the world” in a Christian presentation.
Christianity must maintain its “otherness,” otherwise it betrays faithfulness to its founder and King, Jesus, who boldly declared, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Wasn’t it this same King who told us to pray in this manner: “Your kingdom come … on earth as it is in heaven” (see Matt. 6:10). This “otherworldly kingdom” should be having an active influence in our world, rather than our world reshaping an otherworldly kingdom in order to make its message and mandate more palatable. If we want to see the Kingdom—the reign and rule of God—in our lives and in our midst, we must prize the presence of God above all else. Above form. Above protocol. Above personality. Above tightly scheduled and scripted services. While none of these things are inherently bad, if we decide to uphold anything above the will and agenda of Holy Spirit, we shut down the possibility of “kingdom come” … because Holy Spirit is the very agent on earth who ushers in the kingdom.
Jesus recognized this, noting that when deliverance and healing took place, the kingdom had come upon them (Matt. 12:28). Paul noted this, explaining that the kingdom does not come through rhetoric or words, but in power (1 Cor. 4:20), and that the kingdom of God is in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). A generation aches for the movement of Holy Spirit, for only He can usher in the kingdom, changing our hearts, minds, emotions and even our bodies!
I encourage you to look up some of the stories that came out of the great revival movements of the 1990s—the Toronto Blessing and the Brownsville Revival. People traveled far distances from around the globe to attend these meetings, not because a building or celebrity preacher was the great solution, but because they heard “God was moving.” The kingdom was coming with power! And you simply cannot argue with the figures! Millions came to these meetings. From across the earth, and throughout the denominational spectrum, men and women, young and old, pressed past criticism, controversy and stigma to visit places God where was visiting.
The great thrill of these revival meetings, be it of the 1990s or going back to Azusa Street (1906), the Welsh Revival (1904), or the Great Awakenings, was that there was a permeating Presence of God that people were deeply impacted by. Of course, every revival is marked by controversy—most often because desperate people challenge the spiritual status quo and press in to experience a God who will not be contained by religious boxes. And when He shows up, the unusual happens. One might even call it weird!
3. We must contend and cry out for what we are not yet seeing …
A generation is searching—I’d dare say, contending—for something more, and instead of trying to be more like the culture, we (the church) need to return to and lovingly embrace our heritage.
