A Desert Within Shouting Distance

Previously, we'd asked that you keep in mind we’re not giving up on Church. We aren’t leaving Church behind. I would guess that, having heard us be so hard on Church life, you’re not sure you really believe us. Let us try to explain:

Our problem with Church life is, put another way, that it has let itself become a subset of Imperial life. Many, including us, live our lives as though Church life is only a feature of something more basic, like the “Church app” for the Imperial iPhone. And, like iPhone apps, the nature of this subset gets pre-approved by Imperial life.

Now, lots of people have this insight and, in response, they abandon Church life. Usually, they abandon Church life for a more generic, “liberal” form of Imperial life.

Sometimes people do this, but they want to still call themselves Christians, so they identify Church life with that liberated/progressive feature of Imperial life.

Now, we understand why they do this and we sympathize. Really. Seriously, we understand that impulse. Still, we also think they aren’t going far enough. We can’t just flee Church for life in the Empire, because we feel that what’s wrong with Church life is Imperial life. We need to keep running until we’re not behind the Empire’s fences anymore. We want to keep running until we find ourselves in the Wilderness.

Not to get away from Church life, but to make room for it.

To find a space, a way of life that can accommodate abundance.

We’re not leaving Church for dead. We’re trying to find room for it to stretch its legs.

We think Church just needs some fresh air and it will be back to its old self in no time.

In other words, in order to change Church for the better, we can’t just change how we “do church.” We can’t just re-imagine what we do on Sunday mornings and the occasional Wednesday night. We have to re-imagine every degree on the clock. Every square inch on the calendar. We have to get out of what our friend Jay-Z calls the “Empire State of Mind.” Get out from under the Empire way of life.

I (Jonathan) love talking about John the Baptist. We have some stuff in common. He dressed weird. I dress weird. He had radical dietary habits (locusts, honey). I have radical dietary habits (Straight Edge). Mostly, I love to picture the 1st Century Jewish mothers getting together and gossiping about John the way I know church ladies have gossiped about me:

“He’s such a nice, devout boy, but (oy) his poor mother! I wish he’d be a little more normal so everyone could see what good kid he is. Join the family business. Buy a proper tunic. Live here in town and be a grown mensch.”

Okay, the Yiddish is an anachronism, but you get the idea.

Aside from all of that, we both embrace John the Baptist for a central reason: He had the faith to step out of everyday life for the work God had for him, but he also had the courage to stay within shouting distance of Imperial city life.

If we’re going to try to prepare the way for the Kingdom to show up, we think this is the way to do it: escape to the Wilderness, yet stay within shouting distance.

We feel that, in order for there to be room for the concrete practice of Kingdom living, we need to step outside the bounds of the normal, every-day structures of Imperial life into a kind of ‘wilderness’. We certainly have trepidation. The wilderness is dangerous and living there is hard work. But we are pretty confident it’s the only place with enough room to accommodate Abundant life.

And yet it’s a wilderness that needs to be within shouting distance from the cities of the Empire. We want those stuck gathering straw and making bricks to look up from their work at the rambunctious sound of Abundant life just beyond the edge of the world they know so well. We hope they might think to themselves, “It seems so different, but it’s also not so far away…”

We want to extricate ourselves from the Imperial way of life, but we want to keep close enough that our alternative lifestyle can be heard if one listens closely.

Furthermore, we understand ourselves as in a long line of folks to engage this tension. Sometimes God’s people are doing really well and sometimes God’s people are just a hot mess. There comes, now and again in our shared story, those who see the mess for what it is and start calling for a big turn around, for repentance. Sometimes they get heard. Sometimes they get ignored. Sometimes they (*gulp*) get dead.

But we believe that the ongoing story of God’s work in the world through His people tells of generations that are able to find a place of, first repentance, and then abundant life.

Please believe us about this one thing: We want to be a part of a generation that, by God’s grace, keeps its covenant.