On Catechesis

The Sunday after Ascension Day

O GOD the King of Glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven: We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

Reorienting the skopos of the Church towards a culture of invitation and discipleship is one key in bucking the cultural trends that have contributed to the demographic decline. Last week focused largely on the issue of invitation, while this week delves into the second challenge that primarily involves discipleship by addressing the theology gap and catechesis.

One of the aspects of modernism described was a reinterpretation of Scripture in light of modern understanding. St Anselm of Canterbury once famously stated, “I believe in order that I may understand.” What he meant was that faith must precede intellectual understanding, or more precisely spiritual experience must first occur before it can be comprehended by the intellect. In attempts to create a culture of attraction it is entirely possible to create a reverse of that in which understanding precedes and informs faith.

Just look at Canada today. On all the issues of major theological controversy affecting the Anglican Church of Canada in the last 50 years, the move to change doctrine has ultimately been based on a desire to “catch up” to the beliefs of secular society. Whether it be calls for the ordination of women rooted in secular arguments of gender equality, or similar calls for the ongoing move to permit same-sex marriage in the Church. In these arguments, implicit in them is the idea that if the Church does not conform its doctrines to the beliefs of secular society, the Church will be rejected. Given how the Church has thus far, and seems to be in the case of same-sex marriage, moving with the tide of secular culture, it seems to suggest that Canada is the holiest state on the planet, beating the Church to God's punch.

When this trap of simply accepting secular wisdom is followed in an effort to attract the unchurched, it leads to hollow theology. Hollow theology is a theology which has no real substance to it. It relies on proclamations of what God is like or what God wants with limited support from Scripture. To use a contemporary example, when someone argues in favour of same-sex marriage in the Church solely from the perspective that Christ instructs us to love one another in the gospel, there is no substance to it, because it relies on one or two verses about love being interpreted as superseding and contradicting other parts of Scripture.

More accurately this type of theology causes a problem I call a theology gap. When our theology is generated in some way that is not explained consistently through the words of Holy Scripture, the Church Fathers and the Anglican formularies or when we simply lack the ability to explain our theology using that basis, there is a theology gap.

This reflects poor theological education and training both among clergy and laity alike. When someone asks a question and the answer is some variation on, “because I said so,” there is a theology gap. This affects modernists and theological liberals as provided in the example, but can also affect traditionalists in the second way. If a priest is unable to answer a theological question and resorts to saying something like, “that's the way it's always been,” or, “that's just how it is,” they have fallen into a theology gap as well. Whatever the cause of it, a theology gap will encourage or confirm scepticism towards Christianity and the church.

When there is a theology gap, we should not be surprised that it turns away seekers. When your theology lacks substance, it lacks God, and God is ultimately what keeps the faithful in Church. Similarly, if your theology only speaks to the wisdom of the world, what is the point of being in the church? Divorced from God, the church is merely an extremely inefficient charity organization, and inauthentic if it pays lip service to God whom it ignores when God's word conflicts with society. If society has already got it right, what is the point of church? God's grace transforms and sanctifies us, but if we enter into a church only to be told we've got it all right to begin with, what is the point of God's grace?

Such a church is not authentic and will not build disciples. In order to avoid this, theology must be authentic and done well. Theology done well in the Anglican tradition looks first to Holy Scripture, the interpretation and practice of the Church fathers and the writings of the Anglican formularies, which is to say the Book of Common Prayer, 39 Articles of Religion and the Ordinal. Using this process, any question on Anglican theology can be explored and explained. Bearing that in mind can address the first problem of doing theology poorly.

In order to address the second aspect of the theology gap, the solution is proper catechesis. The Book of Acts contains a famous passage in which Philip meets an Ethiopian who is reading the Book of Isaiah. Philip asks him if he understands what he has been reading, to which he answers, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” (Acts 8. 31). The practice of catechesis—instruction through word of mouth—is one referenced several times in the Scriptures. The authors recognized that the further removed from the context in which the Scriptures were written, the more difficult they would become to understand.

It is essential that all Christians have understanding of fundamental concepts. The Alpha course does a great job of introducing some of the fundamentals in a format which seeks to stoke the curiosity of the participants and allow them to further refine their questions in order to be able to come to the answers. This is great for some basic issues such as who Christ is, the nature of the Holy Spirit, and some similar basic issues. It does not address more complex issues, such as the nature of the sacraments, the doctrines of the church, the theology of suffering or other more complex issues. For that, a proper course of catechism is needed.

There is a short catechism in the Book of Common Prayer which addresses some of these issues, but the catechism is more meant as a final profession of faith at confirmation, rather than purely as an instructional tool. That said, the Prayer Book Society of Canada is developing something called 622. Named after the page on which the Book of Common Prayer's service for young people commences, it is designed as a 42 week exploration of issues in Christianity, aimed at teenagers. The Anglican Church of North America has also released their own catechism which provides, in question and answer format, 345 theological questions and answers along with Scriptural references, and is a good starting point for encouraging the exploration of faith in the Anglican tradition.

More than ever, seekers need Christian education resources that can orient them towards the God who deeply desires that they come to know him.

It may seem simple to say, but connecting people with God is the only way to address decline in the Church.

On a Culture of Invitation

The Fifth Sunday after Easter

O LORD, from whom all good things do come: Grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Having identified some of the issues linked to decline in the Church, before addressing possible solutions, there is one major question which must be answered. In the early Church, one of the early methods of exegesis used by the Church Fathers was that of skopos, a Greek word which means goal or purpose. The fathers would seek to identify the goal or purpose of the Biblical writer for writing a given passage. Whenever anyone presents a response for what the Church must do to address decline, they must explain their skopos: what the goal is. Is it just to fill pews and reverse a demographic trend?

Christian rock concerts and similar events may fill pews, associated altar calls may even bring many to profess Christ as their Lord, but does it truly bring about a conversion of faith that leads to discipleship? Discipleship should always be the skopos of any efforts to reverse any kind of decline in the Church. And it's simple enough to see how discipleship no longer plays front and centre in the language and skopos of the Church.

As discussed previously a significant part of decline in the church is cultural. Sixty years ago, Christianity was a cultural norm. The Church did not need to reach out to the world, it simply existed inside of it and people came as a matter of course. It was what their parents and grandparents had done and there was no reason for that to change. Until it did. During the massive cultural changes seen in the 1960s and the Post-War baby boomer generation, religion took on a more minimal role as society itself was restructured. Women had entered the workforce, jobs were plentiful, new conveniences were being introduced to the home that shifted society, a new wave of urbanisation hit as jobs again migrated to the cities, cars were more plentiful meaning people were no longer geographically centred and could commute longer distances to work and church. Throughout this process of social and economic change, the Church was complacent. What was needed was an invitation to Church.

Today, we still do not proper foster a culture of invitation, but rather seek to foster a culture of attraction. Rather than seeking to invite non-believers to, as Jesus said, “follow me,” our skopos is merely to get them through the Church doors. To that end, we are marketing Church to youth. What's more, we're doing it poorly.

Do away with vestments. Do away with stuffy hymns and complex liturgy. Update the words. Be inclusive. Fudge sin. Be energetic. Stir up the room. Be trendy. Relate to non-believers. Say what they want to hear. Church isn't hard; it's fun! No need to change or to be changed by it!

Each of these is something that can be seen today in different ways in how we market to the unchurched. Each of these propositions ultimately comes down to an attempt to modernise the church. It's about trying to conform the church to the world so that it can be consumed. Traditional vestments and hymns don't sell well, so do away with them, dress in stylish and hip clothes and play modern music. Kids wont cross the door if they think it's just to hear from a stuffy old cleric and sing boring tunes.

Traditions have meaning. Vestments have meaning. Traditional hymnody speaks clearly to the theology of the church. What priests wear, what they say and how they act speaks to the traditions and doctrines of the church throughout the centuries. In attempting to market the church, that is being lost. While it might get people through the doors, it doesn't do anything to make them stay. When the Church is simply asking, “how can we get them through the doors?” it isn't asking the far more important question of, “how can we encourage them to follow Christ?”

Seekers from every age have always, in their hearts, wanted one thing: the living water that Christ himself promised. They seek the authentic heart of God. You can get a sort of worship high out of modern music with its loud, repetitive chords and the excitement of a charismatic speaker. But if it does not carry with it the living water of Christ, those who consume it will still thirst.

When what they are offered is based on what is believed to appeal to people, the offering is shallow. Worse than that, it is rightly viewed as inauthentic. Modern generations are constantly bombarded by media. Buy this, consume that. This will make your life better. When Church is conformed to the world, even in the best case scenario the authentic word of God is lost in that tumultuous noise.

Church needs to stand out. Church needs to be different. Church needs to be authentic. Church needs to invite, not market. Fostering a culture of invitation doesn't mean that the church has to change its appearance or its doctrines, it means that those who remain it it must become more Christ-like.

Christ was the one who asked others to follow him. When Christ gave the great commission, it was a charge to all believers, and remains one that applies to all Christians today. It is the responsibility of every believer to themselves be a proper disciple of Christ, attempting to live his life of grace and truth, and to foster a culture of invitation where anyone can be invited and welcomed into Christ's presence, and where they can hear his gospel.

Invitation may be difficult, but it isn't complicated. During the push for the Alpha Course in 2013, Michael Harvey discussed the difficulty in inviting people to Alpha. He offered this simple model of invitation, “Would you like to come to Alpha with me?” It is no more complicated to invite someone to Church saying, “Would you like to come to Church with me?”

Michael Harvey offers this other piece of advice. Getting an answer of Yes is the destination, but No is the way you get there. In other words, don't be afraid of rejection, and invite!

Being inviting means also that once someone has entered the Church, the culture of welcoming must exist. All of these relate to two things. Being authentic disciples of Christ, and having a skopos that doesn't end just with getting someone in the door. This is the first step in addressing decline in the church.

On Cultural Relevance

The Feast of the Reign of Christ

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in thy well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Sunday Next before Advent

STIR Up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

On this last Sunday of the Christian Calendar, also known as the Feast of Christ the King and the Reign of Christ under the more recent revised Calendar, there is a reflection on some of the previous topics discussed this year.

A number of different topics have been discussed related particularly the subject of worship: what it means, how we pursue it on a Sunday, the way things like prayer and liturgy contribute--or indeed detract--from worship of God. Related to many of these is a question of doctrine, which was discussed primarily in the discussion of the Anglican maxim of lex orandi, lex credendi. What we pray reflects and informs what we believe as doctrines of faith, and therefore what we believe informs the ways in which we pray as much as what we pray.

In the West, the Church, whether it be Anglican or any other tradition, is in decline. Of great concern to many Christians is the way in which this overall trend can be reversed. Cynically, this leads to a view that places a great importance on filling pews and not on the transforming grace God offers us. In these situations, it is easy to see how doctrine can be sacrificed. Decline in Church attendance is ascribed to Christianity no longer being relevant to modern Western culture.

In this view, scientific advances of Western society, changing morality and social mores and generally a broader resistance to (real or perceived) antiquated, superstitious and discriminatory religious views, must be addressed by substantive revision of doctrines in order to return Christianity to the cultural mainstream, and thus again be relevant.

How much further from the truth could we be? JB Phillips, in his book Your God is Too Small, once noted that, “we can never have too big a conception of God, and the more scientific knowledge (in whatever field) advances, the greater becomes our idea of His vast and complicated wisdom.”

To quote the Anglican formularies, the ordinal describes the purpose of the priesthood as those called:

to be Messengers, Watchmen, and Stewards of the Lord; to teach, and to premonish, to feed and provide for the Lord's family; to seek for Christ's sheep that are dispersed abroad, and for his children who are in the midst of this naughty world, that they may be saved through Christ for ever.

As the Ven. Fr. Michal McKinnon paraphrases it, “the charge of the Church is to seek the lost who are in the midst of the world that they may be saved, not by us, but through us by Christ.” How much does this contrast with broad churchmen who argue that the Church ought to conform to society in order to bring people in?

The danger here is in false doctrine. We risk an approach which sees the application of the cultural context in which Holy Scripture was written and our own cultural context being applied to its interpretation in which which seeks to shape God in the image and likeness of God, rather than allowing it to be used as a tool to bring God's transforming grace to man in a way that allows us to become closer to the true image and likeness of God we were meant to be.

Does the Church maintain its relevance by changing the Church internally in order to meet people where they are, or does the Church meet people where they are by literally going out into the world to meet them and bring them into the Church?

It is St Paul in his epistle to the Romans who exhorts us to, “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect,” (Rm 12. 2).

As St Teresa of Avila reminds us, the Church is Christ’s agent on earth:

Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.

Being relevant requires many things, but it never requires us to change Church doctrines to conform to modern sensibilities. It requires the Church to truly teach the Gospel, wholly and completely, and then to practice it. It requires the Church to step outside of the walls of its physical buildings, to meet people where they are and respond to their needs in the way that Jesus not only preached the Father’s will, but worked it.