Reflection Roundup: The Limitations That Myths Impose

Each week we gather news stories, notable pieces, and other important items for Christian leaders today. As always, listening broadly draws together differing perspectives from which we can learn but may not concur. Here are 10 things worth sharing this week.

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Faith is the space between doubt and certainty; amid fear and self-assuredness lies trust in power, our knowledge of whom is but a dewdrop in the ocean.

Myth #1: Going to church doesn’t really matter.

Tyler Vanderweele and Brendan Case write “Empty Pews Are an American Public Health Crisis,” a cover story for Christianity Today. As the Hebrews writer admonishes, meeting together truly has benefits beyond personal piety (10:24-25). Practicing membership with a congregational body has different effects than do religious practices performed on one’s own. “The data are clear: Going to church remains central to true human flourishing.”

Myth #2: The church is disappearing.

Actually, more about what it means to be the church is being revealed in present days. Recently Siburt Institute executive director Carson Reed and senior consultant Randy Harris hosted an Intersection conversation, “Everywhere You Look,” with Tim Soerens, co-founding director of the Parish Collective. Despite the anxiety-inducing temptations of the present moment, Soerens confesses this is an “astounding time of opportunity.” Trusting God’s current activity is the path toward what it means to be the church.

Myth #3: Today’s young people aren’t interested in reading the Bible.

Kara Powell writes “Coming Together with Young People Through Communal Reading of Scripture” for Fuller Youth Institute, testifying to the impact that communal reading has on people of all ages. Powell suggests it may be time to reverse the ratio of hearing others’ interpretations of Scripture and hearing actual biblical text being read aloud. This piece offers ways to honor this practice with preparation and planning. Brad Griffin, Powell’s colleague, describes one group who gathered for an evening-long reading of the gospel of Mark. “This memory stuck out to my daughter a handful of years later as a really formative moment in her faith.”

Myth #4: Those who claim to follow Jesus from a distorted political platform are doing so maliciously.

Peter Wehner writes “The Evangelical Church is Breaking Apart” for The Atlantic. One of the many good points he makes in his piece is that we are all following what we’ve been taught to the best of our abilities. Some of the teaching has gone astray, veering away from the Jesus of the Gospels, and “it’s destructive and unsettling.” Yet the fracturing of fellowship isn’t sending an attractive message to the world either. “The root of the discord lies in the fact that many Christians have embraced the worst aspects of our culture and our politics. The result is not only wounding the nation; it’s having a devastating impact on the Christian faith.”

Myth #5: Ministry will eventually make you cynical.

Writing for Christianity Today, Russell Moore shares “My Dad Taught Me How to Love the Exvangelical,” admitting that “what looks like rebellion might often be pain and despair.” Disillusionment with church can happen when attempts to walk in the ways of Jesus obtain labels associated with political ideologies. Moore counsels the reader about “the dangers of cynicism and how to distinguish between the failure of an institution and a failure of the one worshiped by that institution.” An entity made up of humans will experience multiple failures and recoveries, but the mission we serve as a church is God’s mission and it cannot fail. Moore compares our congregational hurts to prodigals, admonishing that we wait on the porch for one another, even for entire congregations, with open arms.

Myth #6: The pandemic is the crisis.

Among the myriad “gold nuggets” in Kyuboem Lee’s “How Might the COVID-19 Crisis Reshape our Churches for Good?” for Christianity Today, is the uncovering of the fragility between the institutional church and the Christian household, mine included! We realized we were pretty bad at sitting comfortably in the vulnerability that enacting “church” as a single family unit required. The fact is, Christianity has been involved in one crisis or another since its inception. The real challenge is to allow the current crisis, whatever it may be, to be revelatory. And then to respond to that revelation.

Myth #7: Because life is hard, we must remain serious.

Courtney Ellis writes “The Paradox of Playfulness” for Christianity Today, saying, “We are often far too focused on completing the necessary tasks of life to spend time pursuing frivolity. Put another way, who has time to play when the challenges facing us are so very, very serious?” Truthfully, some of the most relaxed and jovial times in families coincide with the most painful and difficult. Ellis’s piece is worth the read, held in tension with the question we must ask ourselves: “When life ‘holds out a ball,’ how do we respond?” Do we take and throw it, or do we turn, head down, saying “no”? Surely playfulness was one of the aspects of children Jesus had in mind when he encouraged that their likeness be our spiritual goal.

Myth #8: It has to be one or the other.

Richard Beck explores the extremes in “Pascal's Pensées: Week 31, Avoid the False Dichotomies” on his blog, Experimental Theology. Beck admonishes we must see the good in “the other side.” If everything good comes from the Lord, and God can bring good in everything … well, this is the type of discussion Beck asks us to have with our thoughts at his guidance. It’s definitely worth the process of consideration, especially when we’re tempted to anoint our own perspectives or choices.

Myth #9: Christianity is partisan.

For the New York Times, Ryan Burge writes “Why ‘Evangelical’ is Becoming Another Word for ‘Republican,’ ” saying that “for many Americans, to be a conservative Republican is to be an evangelical Christian.” Used to be, evangelicalism was defined by fiery preaching designed to create an emotional response and a radical life change. “Now the data indicate that more and more Americans are conflating evangelicalism with Republicanism – and melding two forces to create a movement that is not entirely about politics or religion but power.” Even in the biblical text, people have always tended to have issues once given a large amount of power or political influence. Burge takes a muddy issue and describes it clearly, offering difficult truth.

Myth #10: Life is better when it goes according to plan.

It’s more a matter of being prepared, at the right place, at the right time. Surely there is a sermon in there somewhere?! Our kid caught that ball. Had to share.