tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post4795472477077018193..comments2024-03-07T02:36:52.536-08:00Comments on Can you believe?: What is our vocation? (Twelve years later)Johan Maurerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-28010848133965699192019-01-25T22:49:45.355-08:002019-01-25T22:49:45.355-08:00"Weak Christianity" ... Very good questi..."Weak Christianity" ... Very good questions.<br /><br />A few years ago I played with some diagrams (inspired by Natural Church Development) to help understand why movements decay into one or another type of formalism. <a href="https://blog.canyoubelieve.me/2009/02/why-part-two-and-some-thoughts-on-pork.html" rel="nofollow">Here are a couple of attempts</a>. It's an ironic decay for Christians to permit, since we have in Jesus a founder/messiah who is eternally faithful and who can therefore get us off the cycle of enthusiasm -> consolidation (institutionalization) -> plateau -> decay (fragmentation) -> yet another messiah/hero/reformer. In the case of Friends, we have seen so many of our ancestors and maybe some of our contemporaries trying to preserve the forms and losing touch with the "why." <br /><br />When the light goes out, liberal and evangelical Friends have different ways of faking it, choosing different cliches and fragments from Quaker heritage (or generic evangelicalism) to keep the show going. <br /><br />In the liberals' defense, some of those forms or outward expressions they prefer are themselves of huge value in a hurting world: pursuit of justice, equality, peace, simplicity, and decisionmaking based on group discernment. As the voices of teachers and elders have weakened, we've forgotten to ask "why" and to turn to the One who can remind us that all those forms are actually ways we've learned to live with Jesus at the center.<br /><br />My best understanding of Quaker faith and practice is that we're people who gather around Jesus and who are learning to live with him at the center, and who are helping each other learn these things -- including their ethical and prophetic consequences. Of course I know that there are other understandings of Quakerism out there, but that Christ-centered understanding is where I choose to make my home, to be vulnerable and accountable in that home, and to make it more accessible. <br /><br />Beyond that closest circle, I cherish my ties with all those who care about peace and about breaking bondages, even as I realize that they and I might not have the same attachment to the central "why" question of the Christian movement. I'll probably always be curious about how (if they're Quakers) their line of descent from Fox and the founding generation changed from a Quakerism that <i>intensified</i> the Christian message to one that <i>relativized</i> it. <br /><br />Maybe "weak Christianity" has been a kind of inoculation that has actually repelled potential Christians. (I first heard this idea from Andrew Towl of Cambridge Meeting in New England Yearly Meeting.) Maybe some of those who collaborate with us, and who had never before experienced a humane Spirit-filled version of "strong" Christianity, will be able to reverse that inoculation!<br /><br />Well, these disorganized thoughts are a start, I hope. Thank you!Johan Maurerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7217199.post-81890810379101350202019-01-25T05:54:44.796-08:002019-01-25T05:54:44.796-08:00Would be interested to hear more of your thoughts ...Would be interested to hear more of your thoughts on the status of "social quakerism devoid of belief in the power of God -- what Parker Palmer called functional atheism." As someone who grew up in an evangelical yearly meeting and has been one of the "boundary crossers" you discuss in your post, weak Christianity, if not functional atheism, among liberal Friends continues to be discouraging and difficult to me, even as I continue to appreciate so much of what liberal Friends bring to the table. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com