Some years ago, I initiated a blog category called “Voices,” intending to provide a vehicle through which important spiritual “voices” could be heard (again). I tend to think it’s beneficial to pay attention to what others have said, but I’ve used this category only sporadically of late.
Below is a short collection from a few “voices.” This is no monolithic sampling: the voices are not all actually quoted, they do not come from the same vantage point, and they are not equally significant. It’s just a collection of things people have said. I thought I’d eventually fashion some of these into fuller posts, but I now rather think that it’s better to post them in a list, letting the voices speak without too much commentary.
I hear these “voices” in my head, and, with one exception below, I recommend them!
Emily Dickinson: an independent, distant soul
From the movie A Quiet Passion, about the life of Emily Dickinson.
Emily: “God knows what is in my heart. He doesn’t require me to be in a pew to remind Him.”
Mr. Dickinson: “I hope that remark isn’t as frivolous as it sounds. Your soul is no trivial matter.”
“I agree, father. That is why I am so meticulous in guarding its independence.”
Later in the movie, Emily is seeking a review of her poetry, having had minimal publication success. She manifests a reaction strange to the reviewer, and she explains, “It’s easy to be stoic when no one wants what you have to offer.” Leave it to a poet to say something I wish I’d said.
Radio nonsense: does “grace abound” for the USA?
Why, oh, why did I linger on a radio station during a scan, when I heard something that sounded like a sermon? Will I never learn?
Pretty much every time I happen onto a Bott Radio Network station, it turns out to be disseminating a disappointing mix of Christianity and American nationalism. This time was no exception. I heard a radio preacher refer to the “grace abounds” idea in Romans 5-6 in the context of the USA. The man was acknowledging that America has sinned a lot, but that God’s grace can still abound to help the country. Leaving alone the inappropriateness of a purportedly Christian sermon dealing with a political entity at all, I hope most will be able to see that Paul’s words had nothing to do with any group as a group, and they should not be repurposed that way. A group (a church, a club, a family, or the people of a country) does not have the capacity or standing to experience God’s grace as such. This radio voice should have been turned off.
Roger Thoman: waiting as a description of Kingdom living
“Maybe we need not wait for the next big thing to come along in the world of church and churchdom. Rather, maybe God is waiting for his church, his ekklesia, his people, to learn the simple steps of growing up into a lifestyle of simple love-motivated obedience thus expressing him more fully in the world.” – R. Thoman, Simple Steps of Obedience
Route 66: A simple house church
Roger Thoman’s voice (above) is typically speaking about simple/organic church, so it seems natural here to mention this next “voice.” I live relatively near to the famed Route 66, and I once watched a couple episodes of the B&W series. Episode 1 came to rest briefly on this interesting “simple church” subject!
From Route 66, episode 1:
Todd: Jenny, where is the rectory? Where does the minister live?
Jenny: We don’t have one.
Todd: Who conducts services?
Jenny: Nobody. The church is shut down. Of course, in our house, Pa always reads from the scriptures on Sunday morning. And Mr. and Mrs. Thompson from next door, they come over. We sing from the Sacred Harp, just the four of us.
Shelly: Nondenominationalism
I was watching The Aeronauts, a movie about dreaming vision and risk for the sake of understanding, and more. I was reminded, as I listened to and watched the eyes of visionary people, how I used to be visionary about non-denominational Christianity. I don’t ever want to lose that dream, but it’s becoming more elusive and less likely that I’ll ever be part of it. But I still honor the voice of Rubel Shelly, who wrote I Just Want To Be a Christian, serving as a singular hinge for a change in my thinking about “church.”
It is possible, then, for people to be Christians, just Christians, and to experience corporate life in local assemblies which are churches in the New Testament sense of that term. If you doubt that such a thing could happen, you have forgotten the first several pages of the book of Acts. 17
I just want to be a Christian! I want to acknowledge every other person in the world who is a Christian as my spiritual brother or sister. Realizing the distinction between the authority of Scripture and the non-binding nature of my own opinions about certain matters, I want to find a way to promote the unity Christ died for and Paul commanded. Without compromising one iota of revealed truth, I want to deal with the spirit which fosters sectarianism and eliminate it from my own heart first and from the hearts of others if possible. 23-24
Only in a denominational body does one person have the authority to set the parameters of another’s faith. 31
Unity is the situation of fellowship and oneness which exists among those who embrace the foundation doctrines of Christianity. Basically, these doctrines have to do with the biblical doctrine of God, the incarnation and vicarious death of Jesus Christ, and obedience to the gospel in repentance and baptism. 32-33
The heaven-kept membership roll of the New Testament church is not limited to people on membership lists of congregations with “Church of Christ” written over their doors or imprinted on their letterheads. 79
Thomas Campbell insisted that “The Church of Christ on earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one.” . . . Some today appear to make no distinction between the Church of Christ which Campbell spoke of, and which we are trying to restore on the one hand and what a modern almanac would mean by using the heading “Church of Christ” and listing a certain membership figures. When we cannot distinguish the two, we have slipped away from the ideal of the movement and have embraced a sectarian view. 82
Shelly’s voice, for me, is a rich, strong baritone, although I (and probably he, today) wouldn’t sing all of those things with exactly the same melodic figurations. (A preference for the baritone might be sexist, but I just don’t care for sopranos in general, tenors are typecast into hero roles, and the operatic bass connotes the villain.) May this good baritone motivate us to do something meaningful in the church world again. . . .
Earnestly Speaking 