Catechism Making a Comeback?

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american culture, christendom, church, church history, church planting, conversion, discipleship, ministry

So my first takeaway from the Missio Intensive conference, which has taken me five posts to work through (here, here, here, here, & here), has to do with how we define and organize the church on a big picture meta- level. My second takeaway was the amount of thought they put in and structure they give to the process of assimilating new folks into these missional church communities. In other words, they are very intentional about how people join their church. We’re finally recognizing that the church is weird, and as such people need to learn and experience what we’re all about before deciding whether to become part of our family.

The old-school term for this is “catechism,” and it’s an idea I’ve long been saying we need to revisit. Catechism has been a core practice of the church since the early days, and I’ve blogged some about it in the past.

What we got at the Missio conference was one example of how this is being done today, specifically at Adullam. Hugh described two different processes, one for incorporating non-Christians into their church and the other for incorporating Christians. (They explain all this in their book AND, but I haven’t had the time to read it yet; I’m intrigued to see whether what I took away from the conference matches what they see in the book – we’ll see!) The former had a looser more organic feel, whereas the latter was more structured and intentional. They have their own pictures in AND, but I like mine better. Here’s the first one:

Without This There Is No Church

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church, church planting, conversion, crucifixion, gospel, jesus, new testament, old testament, paul, salvation, theology

In the last post we highlighted the importance of defining the church properly by exploring the claim that what we believe about the church determines how we coordinate its life together. Today we’re going to dig further into the definition of the church rooted in teachings by the fine folks at Missio: The church is a networked family of gospel communities on mission. 

This definition requires further definition if it’s going to be helpful. What is the gospel? What is community? What is mission? Today we start with the gospel.

Contours of Paul’s Ministry

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church, colossians, conversion, discipleship, gospel, jesus, ministry, paul

I’ll flesh this out further in a future post as part of an upcoming series on Colossians, but I wanted to share a few things from Colossians 1.24-29. In this passage Paul cracks a window and gives us a glimpse of how he understood his own calling and ministry. I see eight contours of Paul’s (co)mission. It is:

• Thoroughly centered on Christ. In keeping with the rest of the letter, nothing derails Paul from his singular focus on Christ. Here he is the word of God in its fulness, the content of God’s now-revealed-mystery and therefore of Paul’s proclamation, the hope of glory, and both the context and definition of maturity.

• Marked by a willingness to suffer for others. Whatever else we can say about Paul’s strange words about filling up what is lacking of Christ’s afflictions, this much is clear: Paul has no problem suffering on behalf of the people he’s serving. He may even believe that his suffering somehow lessens the chance that they’ll experience their own. This extreme selflessness puts me to shame!

• Accomplished by teaching and admonishing. Teaching is clearly articulating the truth about Jesus, and admonishing is the followup task of straightening out fuzzy thinking and setting things in proper order. Both are crucial.

• Oriented by apocalyptic imagination. This section drips with apocalyptic hints and clues, which (among other things) means that in Christ God has revealed the meaning of history and brought his story to its dramatic climactic moment. Speaking of which…

• Grounded in the (hi)story of God. Paul never loses sight of the ways in which Christ is the one in whom God has brought all his past action and promises to fulfillment. Yes this story has entered its universal stage where all of us are invited to become a part, but this must be intentionally remembered for us to know what becoming a part actually means and looks like.

• Aimed toward full maturity. Paul here shows no contentment for mere conversion, and while no one would doubt his “evangelistic passion,” here we see that Paul rises above our silly debates about evangelism vs discipleship. Paul wants everyone to come to maturity, and he won’t rest until he’s done everything he can to that end.

• Attentive to every individual. Paul is communal to the core, but his passion for community does not hinder his commitment to the individual parts that make up the body. No person gets forgotten or let off the hook; all are intended and expected to grow into maturity.

• Fueled by the energy of Christ. Paul works his tail off (that’s a loose translation), not by his own power but by the energy of Christ at work in him.

Does it need to be stated that these markers provide a wonderful grid for thinking about our own ministries? This may not be a definitive guide, but it’s a pretty good start!

C&C 005 // “Getting Saved” in the Early Church

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christendom, church, church history, conversion

It should be obvious by now that the Christian community stood out in their cultural context. The were different from the people around them; sometimes this difference elicited great hatred, but in many cases it resulted in more people joining the family. And joining the family was not taken lightly. “A process of examination, instruction, and ritual rehabituated the candidates for conversion, re-reflexing them into the lifestyle of an alternative community.” Notice the word “rehabituated” – their actual habits were changed from one set to another. Today we’re going to look at the four stages in this process of “resocialization.”

Stage One: Evangelization – The period of informal contact between Christians and potential believers. I don’t want to make it sound too technical – often it was just simple friendship (not putting invisible targets on the backs of non-Christians and going after them). What they called the stage of “evangelization” ended when persons were admitted by the church for further instruction. Basically, if a friend inquired about becoming a Christian, you would take them to the leaders of the church, where they would be interviewed to determine if they were “capable of hearing the word.”

C&C 004 // Why the Early Church Grew

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alan kreider, christendom, church history, conversion, Conversion and Christendom, discipleship

In the previous post in this series through Alan Kreider’s The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom, we talked about the enormous growth rates of the early Christian movement, seemingly against insurmountable odds. In spite of ridicule and persecution, many people joined the church. Why?

Well, for starters, it wasn’t for many of the reasons we might think. There doesn’t seem to have been much of a public witness. Christians were “silent in the open,” and you probably would’ve been too if it meant keeping your life! If they advocated their faith in public, they could get the whole community into trouble. They didn’t even have explicit campaigns or programs of “evangelization.” Neither did they have particularly attractive worship. In fact, in much of the second and third centuries, non-believers were barred from the Christian gatherings! Of course worship had an impact on evangelism (as we use the word), but indirectly so; it shaped the lives of Jesus-followers such that they would be attractive and question posing (their everyday lives, not their church gatherings. Worship gatherings were designed to enable Christians to worship God, not to attract non-Christians. [As a side note, let’s be sure to acknowledge that this doesn’t necessarily mean we shouldn’t continue to seek seekers; different times sometimes call for different tactics.]

So what about the early Christians was so attractive? There was something new and strange about them; they seemed to open up new possibilities for human existence. But in what specific ways?

C&C 003 // “Rumor Worthy” and “Question Posing”

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christendom, church, church history, constantine, conversion, discipleship, early church, martyrdom

Kreider begins chapter 2, entitled “The Intriguing Attraction of Early Christianity,” with the observation that both Justin and Cyprian were not only converts, but also martyrs. Simply put, their decision to follow Jesus cost them their lives. They were executed for participating in a movement that was “marginal” and “on the fringes of polite and respectable society.” They, along with the rest of the Christians, were literally considered “insane” by most of the people surrounding them.

Yet people persisted in converting to Christianity in ever-increasing numbers.

If, as many scholars suggest, by the time of Constantine (in the early 300s) around 10% of the population had become Christians, then the church grew by an average of 40% per decade during the first three hundred years after the time of Jesus. Despite scorn from the populace and often persecution at the hands of the powerful, the Christian movement grew. As Kreider aptly states, “Something was deeply attractive about it.”

Attractive perhaps, but not exclusively so. Listen to the words of an early critic, the pagan Caecilius from Carthage:

C&C 002 // Cyprian’s Conversion (repost)

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christendom, church history, conversion, cyrian

Although Kreider devotes only four pages to Cyprian’s conversion, we do well to give it significant attention. Why? In part because Cyprian was a very influential figure in the early (and subsequent) story of the church. (Click here to see many of his writings.) In addition, he was the kind of person many churches today covet (at least in our culture). He was a wealthy, successful, powerful high-roller who was also somewhat dissatisfied with the high life. Here’s the story.

Cyprian probably came into contact with the Christian community through a friendship with a leader in the church. Cyprian was intrigued by the church – especially its claim to offer true freedom – but he had mixed feelings about his lifestyle. He ate fine foods, enjoyed the company of powerful elites, and dressed in very expensive clothing. He sensed that most like him who enjoyed these things were more possessed by them than they realized [The rich person “is held in bondage by his gold, and . . . is the slave of his luxury and wealth rather than their master”], but he wasn’t sure he could change. But he did long to be free.

C&C 001 // Justin Martyr’s Conversion (repost)

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alan kreider, church, church history, conversion, conversion and, discipleship, justin martyr

To read the intro to this series (which I’m re-posting and then taking further), click here. Today we’ll look at the conversion of early Jesus-follower Justin Martyr.

Kreider begins chapter one of The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom by identifying the essence of conversion as change, and he then seeks to understand the types of changes that took place in conversion during the earliest centuries of the church. After noting the ambiguous New Testament witness on this matter (due not to confusion or contradiction but simply lack of information), he turns to the stories of Justin and Cyprian in order to better understand what conversion looked like in the church shortly after the time of the apostles.

Justin, who lived in the early to mid second century (AD 100-165) and eventually died for his faith, gives two accounts of his conversion.

New Series – Conversion and Christendom (repost)

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America, american culture, christendom, church, conversion, new testament, salvation

[I started this series some time ago but never completed it. I think it is more than worthy of returning to, so I'm going to repost what I posted back then and then pick up where it leaves off.]

Over the next bit, I’ll be blogging through a little book called The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom by Alan Kreider. Here Kreider aims to better understand the changes that took place in the church during the fourth century (when the Christian faith was legalized and standardized by Constantine and his heirs) by examining their practice of conversion. If we look at how the process of becoming a Christian changed throughout early church history, especially with the beginning of the period called “Christendom,” perhaps we will better understand the larger transformation of the church during this time. (And, by extension, we will gain wisdom for our own time of transition back out of a “Christendom” situation.)

In the Introduction, Kreider lays out three goals: