In Plain Sight: Searching for a More Excellent Way

By Dr. R. Curtis Royal

IN PLAIN SIGHT SEARCHING FOR A MORE EXCELLENT WAY, addresses the ongoing exodus from western churches. Census records remind us there are two to three times more Christians than go to church. Interestingly, the increase of Christianity in third world countries is remarkable. Western churches are suffering a massive dislocation from both society and from Christianity in general. What is suggested in this book is exactly the sort of process God enables/allows while preparing the next stage of a grand plan in the drama of human redemption.

We must search for a more excellent way. Tolerant Spirit is paramount in hearing the voice of the Spirit along the spiritual journey. IN PLAIN SIGHT extends the sacred conversation to all fellow travelers aspiring to discover or regain their spiritual compasses in being faithful to a true and living God who rules and reigns beyond our many fallible conceptions of divine governance in the world, and the interaction of divine initiative and human responsibility.

The problem of forging a new paradigm in the churches for a new age is a sacred conversation about rethinking divine activity and personal and corporate faithfulness. We must become much more intentional about developing a theology of grace which thoroughly encompasses serious crises and problems of all spiritual pilgrims, travelers, and persons of sincere faith.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481711289

Dr. R. Curtis Royal

Dr. R. Curtis Royal PhD was in vocational ministry for over 30 years and has written extensively about the spiritual life. He teaches English in China and interacts frequently with spiritual travelers of many different persuasions. He lives with his wonderful wife, Sevgi, who is also insightful and faithful on their spiritual journey.

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© 2013 by Dr. R. Curtis Royal PhD. All rights reserved.

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Published by AuthorHouse 02/11/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-1126-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-1127-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-1128-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013902949

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CONTENTS

Preface

Section One: The Problem Of Forging A New Paradigm For A New Church

Chapter 1:   How Do Westerners View The World?

Chapter 2:   Who Am I, And Who Cares?

Chapter 3:   Why Has God Made It So Hard To Believe In Him?

Chapter 4:   The Myth Of Christian Beginnings

Chapter 5:   In Search Of A More Excellent Way

Section Two: Developing A Compass For Global Christians

Chapter 6:   In The Rhythm Of Life, Everything Is A Choice

Chapter 7:   Quest For The Spiritual: Seven Laws For The Journey Part One

Chapter 8:   Quest For The Spiritual—Seven Laws For The Journey Part Two

Chapter 9:   The Call To Sojourn

Chapter 10:   The Great Mystery At The Heart Of Human Existence

Section Three: A Sacred Conversation About Soul Survivors

Chapter 11:   Nothing Is Worse Than A Wasted Crisis

Chapter 12:   The Spiritual Journey’s Four Challenges

Chapter 13:   The Spiritual Journey’s Four Challenges Continued The Hospital Challenge

Chapter 14:   Deriving A Theology Of Problems

Section Four: Rethinking Christianity In Search Of A More Excellent Way

Chapter 15:   Yearning Your Way Home

Chapter 16:   Learning To Live On The Edge Of Mystery

Chapter 17:   Becoming A Community Of Pardon

Chapter 18:   A Time Of Great Emergence And The Still-Speaking God

Select Bibliography

PREFACE

Is Jesus misunderstood? If this observation is plausible, how did it develop and why?

It was not long after Jesus died that virtually everyone began putting his or her own interpretation on his teachings. New Testament shows signs of that. Churches of the early Christian centuries used his radical concepts as pastel tints to be stirred into buckets of their own cultural paint. It should be no surprise, then, that the Church’s redo of its world, both civic and private, mostly resembled the tastes of a secular society.

The same is still happening today. Canonical sayings of Jesus have been used to portray him as everything from a flower-power hippie to a power-lunch capitalist. Scholars make him a wandering Stoic philosopher, a Jewish magician, or an apocalyptic visionary. Churches bend him left and right, active and passive, pro-life and pro-choice. Mega-churches seek to dominate their towns in his name, while sectarian groups seek refuge in the isolation of a culture from a remote age.

Jesus gave the Church the answers to life. Sometimes the Church gets mixed up about what he meant. Then the keys are lost to everybody, the churched and non-churched people alike, and that is not good. Speaking as a clergy person of more than thirty years now, I believe that Jesus knew what God originally intended in unlocking life’s meaning, but the Church as I now understand it has simply misplaced its purpose for being and has almost virtually ceased being a movement on the cutting edge.

Daniel Boone was asked if he ever gotten lost. He thought for a moment and said, Lost? No, I was never lost. But I was bewildered once for three days. If our spiritual compass has really broken down, as I believe it has in the West, then I hope this book might point Christians to search more earnestly for a more excellent way.

Many believers today are having difficulty fitting together their religious past and their spiritual present. There are Roman Catholics who flinch whenever they see a nun or a priest; former Seventh Day Adventists who cannot drink coffee without a stab of guilt; Mennonites who worry whether wedding rings give evidence of worldliness. Some of them now reject the Church and find Christians threatening and repellent.

This raises an important question for sincere spiritually minded people today: does the institutionalized church have any scriptural or historical right to exist? George Barna from the Barna Research Group has written an expose of institutionalized Christianity entitled Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices. This expose by two blue-blooded evangelicals, highly respected in wide church vitality circles, issues a necessary wake-up call to the Church in much the same way John Shelby Spong is lobbying from the liberal side that Christianity must change or die. The book Pagan Christianity may well be the most significant prophetic treatise expounded at Christendom since its inception from insiders.

Frank Viola and George Barna team up to rehearse by critique the last seventeen hundred years of church history. They pose a crucial question for us at the outset of the twenty-first century: does the institutionalized church have any scriptural or historical right to exist? Their book was written because: We have written a book for one reason: to make room for absolute certainty, supremacy, and headship of Christ in the Church (250). The authors argue cogently that humankind is driven by human emotions and tradition instead of biblical truth discovered through a consistent and verifiable method of biblical interpretation that seeks to exalt Christ above all things. The challenge put before us is that we must decide who and what we are truly following and if we are a reflection of pagan Christianity. All of us must choose between spiritual revolution (i.e., a return to Christ), religious reformation (i.e., tweaking the old pagan systems), or doing nothing and allowing the threat of extinction to play out its course and eventually disappear into oblivion.

Their writing makes no attempt to destroy the Church but to exalt Christ as head of the Church and not church forms. They call for a return to simple community gathered around Christ’s headship—that is, community free from the humankind-centered innovations and religion that hinders the body from every member functioning.

The concern of this book is that every member functions within the body of Christ to secure the future of Western Christianity. Barna and Viola propose that the contemporary church not attempt to model first-century Christianity but to imitate Christ. Young Americans use descriptions such as hypocritical, insensitive, and judgmental to describe Christians; and those descriptions articulate that which is unchristian. Outsiders of Christianity, especially young adults, have little trust in the Christian faith, and esteem for the lifestyle of Christ followers is quickly fading upon the sunset among those living outside the Christian realm. They readily confess that their emotional and intellectual barriers go up when they are around Christians, and they reject Jesus because they feel rejected by Christians.

Jesus never intended to recruit a pick-and-choose target group who is worthy or unworthy for the reign of God. Throughout the New Testament corpus, salvation for Jesus was the gift of acceptance (not rejection) through forgiveness (reconciliation) and unconditional love (God’s unmerited favor). We have simply added too much to the message and requirements for adherence to gospel faith. (The faith dimension is lacking.) Lapsed, displaced Christians, and growing numbers of skeptical unbelievers, no longer believe Americanized Christianity is what was originally intended.

In resolving the dilemma of proclaiming the real Jesus, we need to exercise humility about who Jesus was and what we know about him. If we do not, we too are on a sure-fire route to misunderstanding him. Jesus will not sit meekly on our stage like a famous but senile professor while his latest Wunderkind (child prodigy) speaks for him.

If we can hear Jesus against ourselves, as well as for ourselves, we may discover the Real Jesus, the one who points us to life’s ultimate meaning.

Because Jesus is so misunderstood, and so many churches of different brands and varieties have lost their spiritual compass, we must choose between spiritual revolutions, religious reformation, or simply doing nothing; and which will it be?

The spiritual revolution needed is about doing pilgrim theology and taking the path that leads to theological and spiritual discovery. Christian theology (theology means God-talk) is an activity for those en route, and it should be conducted so as to aid those who study it and practice it to travel more efficiently and effectively toward truth and life. As Christians who talk about God (theologians), we are seekers of truth, not merely its custodians (custodial or fortress theology is when the spirit of pioneering gives way to the spirit of dogmatism). Those who think of themselves mainly in the guardian of truth mode are not likely to recognize error in their beliefs because their beliefs are no longer subjected to thorough scrutiny, if they ever were. The beliefs of such thinking serve only as presuppositions for which they dogmatize rather than give their provisional answers to questions that may need to be carefully re-evaluated. Sheltered from critical analysis and scrutiny, those ideas can, and do, block the path to wisdom and to discovery of further theological truth and practice.

Pilgrim theology is about taking the path that leads to theological and spiritual discovery. Along this path are spiritual laws to guide us, and one size does not fit all.

The pilgrim is on a journey. The journey is an important one that has been undertaken only after long and careful consideration. Each spiritual traveler is totally dedicated to completing the journey. The pilgrim does not pursue goals with frenzied haste but moves deliberately and steadily and is dedicated to the journey. He or she has been called to persevere until the goal is reached. The sincere God-seeker willingly puts all else aside to follow this solitary path and is eminently aware that the goal of the journey will not be quickly reached; in fact, it will take a lifetime. The fellow traveler is not impatient. The sojourner keeps moving, buoyed by the sure sense that one day the journey will be completed. Only then will one find spiritual treasure beyond one’s own imagining. The pilgrim will reach the destiny for which he or she has been yearning.

At its best, Christianity is a journey, a way to travel, not a destination. Jesus the meaning-giver is the helpful guide and spiritual companion. He is a spiritual friend. Together we travel on a path in search of a more excellent way.

This writing is about learning how to see the designing hand of God, the still-speaking God in our lives. That is, in such a way that we know God has designed us for a purpose regardless of our life circumstances and the trials and tribulations that have impacted our witness for good or for naught. The Almighty promises to carry us through until we meet deity face-to-face and know ourselves completely.

Far too many Christians are known for what they are against. Western Christianity developing over the last fifty years now is no longer what I believe Jesus intended. Much of Americanized Christianity is perceived negatively by a growing consensus of people perched on the periphery of the Church or outside its perimeters. They have some very legitimate concerns, especially when they observe that American churches tend to be infatuated with it and turned inward. We must intentionally learn how to reconnect with all people—hurting people—and minister more effectively with people as they are and now what we wish them to be spiritually. All fallible believers were designed to live at the center, not on the periphery, of the Church. Many of these people are fraught with problems (where there are possible solutions) and caught in predicaments (where no conceivable solution is in sight) from which these displaced and alienated persons feel they cannot escape or find meaningful resolution. Or else they are self-proclaimed outsiders, not interested in being committed to God, Christian faith, or receiving divine intervention.

Today, far too many believers have lost their hearts for hurting people. They are immersed in institutional survival issues, or too involved in political issues and culture wars, for those precious to the Almighty living outside the orbit of theism (the belief in God) or Christian faith. The negative images they have conjured up are not necessarily meant to debase Christianity. Yet the issues are indeed complex. And to be fair, these perceptions are not always the Church’s fault.

We need to find ways to see ourselves and reflect our faith commitments more clearly and inclusively. We, as a Church, ought to take more seriously how firmly many different kinds of people reject, and feel rejected by, Christians. Too many brands of Western Christians no longer represent what Jesus had in mind, and Christianity in our society is not what it was meant to be. It has become increasingly difficult to see the real Jesus in its adherents because of the negative baggage that now surrounds him. In the world’s eyes, many kinds of Christians cannot live very peacefully with others, and we are known more so than not, whether fundamentalist, conservative, moderate, liberal, or other, for possessing an us-versus-them mentality. Not only are we fragmented politically into red and blue states, but we are also divided into red and blue churches.

The fragmentation includes lapsed, marginalized people forced to live on the Church’s periphery and outsiders alienated by Christian faith and practice. These disenfranchised persons of various descriptions tend to believe Christians do not accept them because of what they do, how they look, or what they believe. They feel marginalized, oppressed, and demonized by those who claim to love Jesus and are commissioned to share the desire of divine love unconditionally. What a contradiction and scathing critique on Western churches that are losing their spiritual compass.

We must become much more intentional about developing a pilgrim theology that addresses the serious crises, problems, and struggles of all spiritual pilgrims, including orphans (who do not belong) and immigrants (who are leaving from one place where there is not enough spiritually to a place of plenty) aspiring to travel in a Christian way.

Some of these people are honest skeptics like the disciple Thomas. Others are marginalized, oppressed, and demonized, scrutinized by a standard not found in Scripture. The ministry of reconciliation includes those inside and outside the Christian family. Jesus invites all of us to become a new community of human beings. But too many believers project an unchristian attitude in the name of godliness and holiness toward matters of faith and practice that only perfect things are lovable. The gospel is very clear: God loves imperfect things also. Among the many imperfect things God loves are: tax collectors, sinners, the sick, lepers, the goats, prodigals, elder brothers, those hungry, thirsty, strangers, the naked, prisoners, the poor, those held captive, the blind, and the oppressed. (See Matt. 9:9-13; 10:8; 22:34-40; 25:31-45; Luke 4:16-18.)

But only imperfect and broken people can really appreciate the extravagant welcome and offer of divine acceptance in Christ. It just so happens that the Father (the divine parent) throws a party (Luke 15) and the so-called good people do not attend. Scripture highlights that the cripples, the lame, and the blind are invited to the banqueting table (Matt. 22:11-12). These are the invited guests responding to the Lord’s gracious invitation of new life to the whosoever will gospel.

The pattern has never changed. Persons not having anything to prove or protect can believe they are loved as they are. But those of us who have spent our entire lives ascending the proverbial spiritual Jacob’s ladder have greater difficulty grasping the deeper truth of divine grace (unmerited favor). The truth is so hard to glean. The truth is found at the bottom not at the top. All spiritual orphans and immigrants will attest to that fact. We all started the journey as orphans and immigrants. Those of us seasoned on the spiritual pilgrimage should never forget from where we have come.

In our feeble attempts at spiritual perfection to climb the ladder, somehow well-meaning Christians of diverse theological persuasion have missed Jesus. Jesus is the one who comes down to us by incarnation (John 1). So instead of making our ascent toward deity by mastering holiness ethics, correct political affiliations and positions, and socioeconomics and the like, we should be searching for a more excellent way together.

Western churches are in great need to rediscover the essential kernel of the gospel (Luke 4:16-18; Matt. 9:12-14; 10:7-8). Our ministry of reconciliation is to spiritual orphans and spiritual immigrants in search of a more excellent way.

May we begin to learn how to face the challenges of being human together as the family of God but also to deliver a promise of mercy, direction, and hope for those living in our confused and chaotic age. In chronicling the stories of soul survivors and overcomers of resilient spirit, they have traveled through perilous, and unexplored, spiritual territory. Life is an uneven journey. We need to learn from each other.

For an increasing number of people, the Church is no longer the place of refuge and sanctuary but a place of disillusionment and hurtfulness. Organized Christianity bears a fair measure of responsibility for the state of unbelief and the trivialization of profound and necessary theological questions being ignored.

In redefining the process of Christian maturity, we must include honest God-seekers of all varieties interested in making the spiritual journey with Jesus the meaning-giver and spiritual guide. Regardless of how arduous the struggle is with one or more of the spiritual life’s four great challenges—the desert, the prison, the hospital, and the storm—we must search for a more excellent way as spiritual orphans and immigrants; that is, for people who seek to respond to God when the Church doesn’t.

The prevailing assumption behind this book is that Western Christianity, by and large, has lost its spiritual compass. That is, Christianity no longer represents what Jesus had in mind, and Christianity in our society is not what it is meant to be. One option in dealing with the lost compass motif is to begin a sacred conversation (as others have before me) in the book by dividing it into four sections. Section one is about the Problem of Forging a New Paradigm in the Church for a New Age. Section two will attempt to Develop a Compass for Global Orphans. Section three initiates A Sacred Conversation about Soul Survivors. And section four is about Rethinking Christianity in Search of a More Excellent Way.

Section one addresses The Problem of Forging a New Paradigm in the Church for a New Age. Chapter one begins this sacred conversation with a pertinent question: how do Westerners view the world? The world has changed drastically, and its impact forces the missionary challenge of the Church to decide whether it is change or die. Chapter two poses the question: who am I and who cares? With the widespread assault on the human person in terms of identity issues, human worth and dignity, loss of certainty, and absolute truth, there is a deep spot in our souls that is hungry and not being fed. Chapter three asks the question: why has God made it so hard to believe in him? Chapter four discusses The Myth of Christian Beginnings and the fact that there is no original form of the New Testament church. The Church has always been in the process of adapting, adjusting, and reforming its form and shape (not its functions) in the world to meet the challenge of changing times. Chapter five offers a clarion call for us to be In Search of a More Excellent Way. Although a token respect of religion is developed, discontent with the Church or religious affections is evident in the confessions of widespread lethargy, apathy, or stark indifference to the spiritual development of the individual soul in church. Spiritual orphans and spiritual immigrants are looking for new homes to which they can make their traveling plans and itinerary.

Section two is entitled Developing a Spiritual Compass for Global Orphans. In explaining the idea of spiritual compass, chapter six begins with the affirmation that In the Rhythm of Life, Everything Is a Choice. Sacred discussion develops over the question, Where do I go to find God? (Start with the faith you have.) The progression leads into the what we think we know problem and exploring the two kinds of knowing (intellectual knowing and story-knowing). Last, there are at least seven laws for the Christian journey that I have gleaned thus far. Chapter seven explores The Quest for the Spiritual, introducing the seven spiritual laws for the journey. Chapter eight continues the discussion begun in chapter seven regarding The Quest for the Spiritual: Seven Laws for the Journey. These two chapters discuss what the spiritual is and identify the rules of the road that govern in the form of seven spiritual laws to apply the spiritual compass while on the journey. Chapter nine discusses The Call to Sojourn and what the commitment entails; searching for a more excellent way; handling the bend in the road; the ministry of disruptive moments; and the challenge to become a new kind of Christian. Chapter ten is about The Great Mystery at the Heart of Human Existence. We will explore by inference, observation, and through biography as theology how grace works in our lives, especially as we struggle with the stuff of life.

Section three is entitled Soul Survivors. In explaining the concept of soul survivors, chapter eleven begins with the truth that Nothing Is Worse Than a Wasted Crisis. The chapter centers around the question of the invisible hand of God: Do all things really work together for good? Where do we go to find God? The corrective is in deriving a more substantial theology of crisis. Chapters twelve and thirteen deal with The Spiritual Journey’s Four Challenges. In chapter twelve, an attempt is made to identify the essentials in deriving a theology of crisis. Chapter thirteen attempts to understand more fully the human predicament. Chapter fourteen considers the dynamics in Deriving a Theology of Problems.

In section four, chapters fifteen to eighteen, there is a consideration of Rethinking Christianity in Search of a More Excellent Way. Chapter fifteen helps us begin a sacred discussion in deriving a theology of struggle: Yearning Your Way Home. It asks the question, How should we shape our lives? Some suggestions are made in terms of dealing wisely with life’s mysteries that suffering is necessary for soul making and it is never for naught in the life of the spiritual pilgrim. Chapter sixteen emphasizes the importance of Learning to Live in the Edge of Mystery and seeking grace in the wilderness experiences on the journey. Chapter seventeen challenges sincere God-seekers to become A Community of Pardon. In this chapter, we are encouraged to take a serious look at our theological blind spots in presenting Jesus in the real workaday world. Chapter eighteen concludes the book, addressing the Twenty-first Century as a Time of Great Emergence and the Still-speaking God. We must find more effective ways to meet God and fellow travelers in search of a more excellent way.

SECTION ONE:

THE PROBLEM OF FORGING

A NEW PARADIGM FOR A NEW CHURCH

CHAPTER ONE

HOW DO WESTERNERS VIEW THE WORLD?

Section one of this book address the problem of forging a new paradigm [1] (model) in the Church for a new age. There are many reasons why we need to forge a new paradigm in the Church for a new age. First, it is because of how Westerners view the world. Second, the worldview struggle and intellectual crisis opens the discussion and debate for change. The third reason is the demise of utopias. The fourth reason is that we no longer live in a so-called modern world but in a postmodern condition, and all these factors contribute for the need to forge a new paradigm in the Church for a new age. Let’s begin with a pertinent question: how do Westerners view the world?

There is an interesting map entitled, McArthur’s Universal Corrective Map of the World. Not to be taken lightly, this map makes a serious statement about the world. If you are accustomed to look at traditional maps, they usually picture northern countries at the top of the map with southern countries at the bottom. The tips of South America and Africa are pointing up in this map! The map was so arranged with the south at the top and the north at the bottom.

Whoever said that there should be only one correct way of picturing the world, both physical and other aspects of it? Whoever implied that any given worldview (a comprehensive set of basic or ultimate beliefs) would picture everything correctly? This is the problem of worldview. The noble truth is that we see what we are taught to see. We, unfortunately, have been taught to see life only one way. North is always up! It’s shocking to compare McArthur’s map with the ones we were exposed to in geography class in grade school. How do Westerners view the world? The Enlightenment [2] has contributed greatly to Western worldviews.

A great influence on the Enlightenment on Western worldviews is the affirmation that seeing is believing [3]. For centuries a supernatural perspective was considered an important part of a worldview. Yet during the centuries following the Protestant Reformation [4], the revolt broadened into one against the legitimacy of institutionalized religion and against any expression of supernaturalism. Such Enlightenment thinkers included Kant, Newton, Rousseau, Voltaire, and American founders Franklin and Jefferson. In general, these men held a deistic view of God, acknowledging his existence as Creator but leaving the conduct of life to man and his reason [5]. The quest for a so-called superior, more rational view of the world led Enlightenment thinkers to be more skeptical of biblical prophecy and miracles as proof of divine attestation of Christianity. [6] The mechanistic view of the universe commonly held by Euro-Americans is a product of these times, as are the basic ideas upon which much of our schooling depends. In reacting against excesses of extreme religious credulity, Enlightenment thinkers discarded, or at least raised serious questions about, belief in anything that could not be rationally understood against anything they could not rationally understand. Many people stood against part of the worldview pressure and did affirm God’s existence regardless.

There are at least six characteristics of Western worldviews. Though there are in Western worldviews specific features that can be quite affirmative of Christian faith, the following characteristics may also obstruct it.

The first characteristic of Western worldviews is that they tend to