Pagan Clothes, Pagan Music Leaders…

The book, Pagan Christianity, is out of control at this point.  Not only are the authors attacking things (buildings, orderly worship and pastors) for which there is no biblical prohibition (and, some would argue – see 1 Peter 5, for example – much biblical support and benefit to the Body); in the following chapters, they set up straw men to attack: dressing nice and song leaders.

The Sermon… Pagan?

Pagan Christianity doesn’t stop with church buildings and orderly worship.  Since much of this book nauseates me so, I’m going to hurry up a bit, so I can be done with it and – hopefully having convinced a few people to spend their money on better things – get on to more encouraging posts.

What can I say?  I’m a completist.

(Edit: I tried to be brief, but I just have so much to get off my chest about this book!  I was going to try and devote one post to four chapters, but I couldn’t; sorry!)

The sermon.  Here’s the deal: they argue that Paul and Peter and all the apostles’ preaching was not the same as your pastor’s Sunday morning sermon.  They were apostolic workers.  They came, they preached, they empowered the Church, and they left.  What happens on Sunday is derived from “pagan” philosophers who peddled their thoughts and their great whit and wisdom for a buck (PC, pp.89-91).  When pagan philosophers began to get converted to Christ, they just kept using the same oratory skills they had learned, and began using them for the work of Christ.  They became expert teachers who now had captive audiences on Sunday morning.

Thinking through Our Order of Worship

This chapter’s review will only be one post.  It’ll be shorter, and there are hardly any Green Flags.

Barna and Viola have orderly worship down to a science (they think).  Here’s their conclusion about most all “Protestant”* worship:  “The order of worship… includes a three-fold structure: (1) singing, (2) the sermon, and (3) closing prayer or song.”  My, how sad and lame that order sounds; thankfully, that’s not my experience, at all!

What I have experienced in at least the past 10 years of worship (first in a non-denom church in the Reformed tradition called Holy Trinity, and later in the churches of the Anglican Mission in the Americas is what Robert Webber calls the historical “four-fold pattern” of the worshiping church.  That pattern is something I have modeled all worship experiences after (strangely, even before I knew it existed!), dating as far back as 1992!  That pattern is simple, and it has emerged in virtually every worship tradition, from high-church Anglo-Catholic-Orthodox to informal Pentecostal or Baptist traditions (I daresay, even the simplicity of a Quaker service echoes this pattern.

Enough preamble; here it is: Gathering together in God’s presence (this involves songs of procession and praise, and often prayers for forgiveness and words of invocation); the service of the Word (involving the reading of scripture, the teaching, and a response to the message, which can include the Creeds or a time of meditation); the time of Eucharist, or thanksgiving – a chance to respond to the goodness of God, primarily (but not always) through the celebrating of the Gospel in Holy Communion (also, a time for prayer and singing); and a Sending out into the world, in which a benediction is proclaimed and songs of mission and purpose are sung triumphantly – and we are sent out to love and serve Christ with gladness and singleness of heart!

Alan Weighs In…

Here’s an email from my friend/brother/priest, Alan Hawkins.  Alan is a church-planter in the Anglican Mission in the Americas, and is passionate about building community and enabling the saints to minister to one another.  Here are his thoughts on the recent posts:

Balance Is Required…

A few last words on Chapter 2 of PC. Then, I promise, I will be less… yeah, I guess “wordy” is the correct term!… in the rest of the posts.

I think that Viola and Barna are teetering on the edge of (or have jumped headlong into) a legalism that could really go to further splitting the Church.  This book could be a whole lot more constructive and useful, were it not written in such combative, adversarial language.  This book’s tone doesn’t invite discussion – it squashes it.

A better book for looking at the need for getting the Body of Christ out of the sanctuary to take part in home-based worship is The Second Reformation by William A. Beckham.  While not a perfect book (I’ve only read one perfect Book!) it has a great sense for the balance of whole-Church formal worship and home-based fellowship; he refers to churches that only meet in one as a “one-winged church”; the “two-winged church” sees the need for recognizing the majesty of God in formal gatherings as the local Body of Christ in public settings, and also the need (and deep desire of Christians everywhere) to really share life with a small, consistently caring home-based fellowship.

Viola and Barna, Chapter 2 – The Red Flags

As you might have guessed if you read my previous post, I don’t think Viola and Barna’s chapter (in Pagan Christianity?) on church architecture is without its problems.  Here are a few (in my mind) glaring issues:

1. Frank and George seem to denigrate the visual arts in worship (though they do not think it worth devoting a chapter to).  Their basic argument seems to be that it originated with honoring dead saints.  Two problems with that: a) what’s wrong with honoring those who have gone before us?  Honoring that “great cloud of witnesses” is far from idolatry; b) the origin of the first Christian worship art is irrelevant – the question is, how do we use the arts in our worship?  Art can be used in so many edifying and God-honoring ways!

Viola and Barna: Pagan “Church” Buildings?

In Chapter 2 of Pagan Christianity (hereafter, PC), Viola and Barna take on both the history and value of the traditional church building. I’m going to go over some of the highlights of this chapter.

How I’d like to handle these chapters is to list what I call “Green Flags” (things that really ring true), “Red Flags” (things that don’t ring true or seem illogical) and neutral, interesting points (such as interesting facts, “so what?” statements and books cited that I just may want on my Christmas list – often from writers Viola doesn’t seem to like!).  If I get really wordy (like this post) I will divide Green and Red into two posts over two days.  Today: the Green Flags!

Green Flags:

1. “The New Testament always reserves the word church (ekklesia) for the people of God.  It never uses this word to refer to a building of any sort.” (14)  Amen to that!  The Church is the people of God.  No argument there.
2. “Meeting in homes was a conscious choice of the early Christians.” (15)  And it is a conscious choice of the organic fellowship groups we’ve been involved with for the past nine years!  Of course, this leads to a bit of a Red Flag (see below)!

Viola and Barna: A Thought before Beginning…

Let me preface this review with a few quotes from the authors of Pagan Christianity?, Frank Viola and George Barna.

On page xxix, Barna’s introduction states that, “We cannot avoid bringing our culture to the church with us; it is a part of our very being.  But in the light of tradition we need to sort out those cultural influences that contribute to the integrity of Christian worship from those that detract from it.”