Plague Flushes Out Heresy, But Does Anyone Care
By: Marcy Pedersen
Tags: Religion And Spirituality, Religion, Questioning God, Questions, Church

What happens when everything that you say is important for faith is taken away? Do you scatter for answers and shift for new meaning? Do you work as hard as you can to “keep” them and just shift it all online? In essence maintaining the status quo. Luckily we had those bywords we could count on in our time of need. Things like community and fellowship. That will keep them tuned in.

It’s amazing at how important marketing and things like SEO get when we can’t get them in the door. We will get them online. They will watch, fellowship, have community, and donate. The plan has changed, but it hasn’t been squashed. This pandemic will end and we will go back to the way things were. We just have to hold on until we can return to normal worship services. Let’s pray.

When you teach willing listeners to focus on one thing they tend to pick it up. They believe and at some point it becomes their dogma. The dogma of church. What I grew up hearing for the most part. You must attend, you must attend, you must attend. All the while ignoring a message they could take and apply anywhere. We heard the message. Come to church, come more, come often, come now, come all the time. If we didn’t show up we weren’t good Baptists. We needed to be there to get what they had. It all worked until it didn’t.

J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays provide an excellent hands-on approach to reading, interpreting, and applying the Bible. They state simply that reading the text thoroughly and carefully lies at the beginning of the interpretive journey. There is a distance between the Old Testament text and us because of time, culture, language, situation, and covenant. It can be crossed, but it takes some interpretive technique to pull meaning out of it. The practice of deriving meaning from the text is referred to as hermeneutics. Basic stuff for theology students and Christian scholars, but something not as familiar to church goers.

During my life time the church has argued over the authority of scripture. We want to be able to interpret the scriptures to suit our needs. Duvall and Hays explain that in order to interpret scripture we must first grasp the text in their town, measure the width of the river to cross between them and us, cross the principalizing bridge, and then grasp the text in our town. Which means we try to understand what the author wrote, decide what width of differences between that culture, situation, time and us exist, and then determine the theological principle that applies to us.

The churches fight over the authority of scripture did something to those watching, but perhaps not enough. We understand that people want to interpret verses the way they want and create theology and doctrine from it. We were kept so busy focusing on the doctrinal fights of the church that we missed an important point. The basis of our faith is scripture not the activities we have created around them and understanding what it says to us takes some work. Why aren’t we focusing on how to interpret and read the text instead of making people dependent on others to do that for them?

At our next meeting we will discuss how to keep them engaged during this pandemic. They have got to keep coming. Graphics and our marketing efforts are key. If we can ramp that up we will survive. People have to give so that we can continue to pay staff, keep the building going, pay for all this design work, and ensure we are in a place next year to increase attendance.

That was a real conversation at a church staff meeting. It’s a great meeting. Those are valid concerns. Yet, why does the church in this era insist on attendance as the key indicator of success? Somewhere they decided that attending and attending a lot was the goal. Why isn’t the focus on how to help others interpret the book? Even Denzel Washington’s character in The Book of Eli understands the importance of the book and ensuring it survives the apocalypse. He wasn’t concerned with ensuring the church survived, but ensuring the book could be disseminated.

There is a verse that encourages us to not forsake the assembly. Love our neighbor, love your wife, respect your husband, teach your kids, pray, do your duty to your country, pay taxes, work, eat, love, and follow the book. Outside of the traditions of the Jewish religion found in the Old Testament, which I am in complete awe of, tell me where are you pulling this emphasis on church activity? Church is a part of the whole, but it’s only part. What happens when we can’t attend? Nothing should happen. It can be an important part, but it’s not the basis of it all.

Legalism is based off fear. Concern over what will happen to us. When that drives it drives us to the wrong thing. The message that we need to find hope in turbulent times and for eternity is much simpler. Too simple in fact to denote a six figure staff budget complete with a marketing team, art director, and graphic designer. My daughter is a part of one of those teams at a mega church and while I applaud her work and their efforts and hope they thrive during the next year, I also get terrified that they are missing a simple message that could truly empower people in turbulent times.

There is a book. It needs studied in order to understand it. Despite what your Sunday school teacher might have told you, it’s not always as simple as just whipping out those color sheets. It might take some effort. We might need to introduce ourselves to the subject of hermeneutics and figure how to interpret centuries old text. When we are stuck at home and can’t “fellowship” instead of going to hell like you would have us believe why don’t we crack that book open and figure out what it says.

If Jesus is real, His story is true, He lived as a simple man, among fishermen, traveled, ate a simple diet, and lived like a nomad where do we get big buildings, budgets, and the dogma that says you must attend, you must attend, and attend more. Church church church is the message you sent my entire life. Now that we can’t attend like we used to are we damned? You are quiet about the message God might be trying to send now? Or are you afraid of what it might be?

We weren’t meant to worship church. Love it, praise it, fund it, and need it. The message is in the book, in community with like minded believers wherever they are, and in sharing life and helping each other out. It’s about a deity, isn’t it? I thought He was kind of everywhere. If this pandemic has showed us anything it is that we do not need church. It needs us. It sold people on the need to continuously show up, ill equipped them to live out their faith each day, and perpetuated a heresy that it’s members can only overcome in solitude and seeking. It’s a Man, it’s a book, it’s simple, it was never about the church. If you don’t believe me set out on an interpretive journey of the book and see where it leads you.

Marcy Pedersen