Sunday, May 27, 2012

Comfort Zone Religion

    "Passion without action is pity." It is amazing how one sentence can rock your world. The quote was said during my time at Rockbridge, a week long camp for chapters of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and it profoundly changed my view on racial reconciliation and my tendencies towards classism. I want to devote several blog entries to my changing views on those issues, but I want this one to talk about one step I have taken and the ramifications on my view of the Church.
    To make a long and detailed story short, I left Rockbridge with a feeling of discontent. I knew change needed to happen in my life. From viewing the giving of money as an acceptable substitute for caring about those who are marginalized (passion without action?) to my horrible heart attitude on topics like diversity and the global church. The knowledge of my need for change had been a long time coming-- reading great books, such as Radical or Don't Waste Your Life, or having deep talks with friends had begun to show me the error in my ways. Rockbridge, however, drove all the points home. It was time for me to stop saying the right things, and start doing the right things.
     When I got back to my apartment at Wake, I began to search for a new church in Charlotte. I felt a call from God to find one that desired to be intentional about crossing socio-economic, racial, and political lines. Trust me, I say "felt a call", not "I really, really, really wanted." Truthfully? I wanted to go where I went last summer. Christ Covenant, a huge PCA church in Matthews, was such a blessing to me. But it is 100% rich, white people. By going back there, I would be suggesting to myself that my comfort zone is more important than what God was putting on my heart; a desire to understand Christianity from a different perspective and to get to know people from outside my sphere of existence. My IV staff worker, Kevin Boyd, once showed me a picture with two non-connecting circles. One said "Your Comfort Zone." The other said "Where the Magic Happens." It was time for me to leave my comfort zone and find a church that would challenge my views, and maybe just maybe, watch some magic happen.
      After a lot of searching I found another PCA church, Christ Central Church in the NoDa area of Charlotte. It is the hipster, artistic (also, poorer) part of Uptown Charlotte-- a drastic difference from the South Park/Matthews area I was used to. Oh and yes, it meets in an old theater, not in the bright, formal sanctuaries I was accustomed to.  
      10 am service. I was there (early as usual) by 9:45 sharp, so as to meet people. The greeter at the door laughed when she saw my crisp suit and tie. She was good-natured about it, but said that the church was, "far from the 'dress code' type of church." I walked into the old building, impressed by their desire to show the community around them that they were not afraid to worship among the 'artsy' and 'different' types around them. Being 'in the world', for sure.
       The tie quickly came off as I noticed the only other person in a tie was the pastor, who was wearing sneakers. "Tim, what on earth did you get yourself into?" I thought very, very, very soon into my introductions to several members of the church. They were genuine and warm, but not many I would hang out with on a regular basis. One guy was a lawyer. Another very easily could be homeless. What an incredible mix of people! But far, far from my comfort zone!
       And then the Praise and Worship time began. Being in the church my whole life, I know most praise songs pretty well and know many hymns by heart. But these songs were gospel songs. I felt uncomfortable, knowing that literally everyone else around me knew the tunes and could sing the syncopated rhythms perfectly. I had to laugh to myself when the first song I knew was the doxology. 
       At least they follow the Book of Church Order (BOCO, ftw!), like any good PCA church. Are they that much different? The pastor stood up and talked about the vision of the church. They want to be different. They want to have a missional mindset in every aspect of their lives, not just in terms of Missions. He made a comment that impressed me deeply. He said, "Many of us have been deceived to think that Christianity is the mint julep and apple pie of religion. Paul shows us that it is the Everclear of religion-- it is a rebel, it is dangerous." Christ Central is desiring to get uncomfortably close to the poor and needy. Not just in words or in service, but in the everyday actions of each member. By attending church in the middle of a poor part of town. By opening their doors to everyone. By preaching hard truth in an intentional way. By not caring about a person's net worth but instead caring about their spiritual worth. By being intentional about racial reconciliation. Boom. Tim Nic, spiritually convicted church attender.
       Look, I am not saying there in anything wrong with the 'Christ Covenant' model of churches. I grew up in a white, traditional PCA church. I owe most of my spiritual knowledge and growth to Faith Reformed. I am still a part of Christ Covenant's college ministry simply because of the friendships gained and the incredible teaching. A lot of yall know I am a huge Tim Keller fan-boy. He built a church intentionally towards the rich, academic elite in New York City. There is NOTHING wrong with his argument that everyone needs the Gospel, and at the time the educated elite of the city were not getting teaching that answered their questions. Why is his model not wrong? He reached out towards those that needed Christ.
      My point in all of this is to call all of us out of our comfort zone. Dr. Keller faced fierce opposition when he went out of his comfort zone to establish Redeemer Church. Pastor Howard Brown went out of his comfort zone to establish Christ Central. And I am trying, by God's grace and His strength, to step out of my comfort zone. I plan on feeling confused, nervous, and anxious about attending such a drastically different church (except for the strong theological teaching, Calvinism ftw!). I also plan on, and already do, feel excited. Excited to learn about different cultural backgrounds. Excited to be challenged on my pre-conceived notions of race and poverty. Excited to be a part of God's plan of bringing Revelation 5:9 into reality. How can you step out of your comfort zone and exact needed change? You and I will be surprised by the ways we are strengthened and grown. Let's go, and see what magic might happen!

2 comments:

  1. Tim!
    I would also say that even if our ministries or churches are all predominately of a certain ethnicity (white,black,Asian,ect) and we are not reaching out to or having a heart to connect with, serve or try to get to know our brothers and sisters in Christ from different backgrounds, nationalities and tongues; we are missing a huge part of the mission of Reconciliation.
    I think the perfect example of what we have in this is Jesus Christ Himself. He did not just stick to hanging out with His 12 disciples, no He pushed the envelopes and boundaries of His day. He was not afraid to step out of His comfort zone and talk with or share God with someone that is different then Himself. We also have to realize that God has done away with all of the lines of division on the cross, so we as believes can talk to, be friends with, live life together with people of different races, ethnic groups, or cultures.
    I would also say that we need to also recognize 2 things.
    1) The Gospel in how God not only calls us to be reconciled with Himself, but with Others, Creation, & Our very own self (Identity). If one of these is off or we do not care to grow in it, especially reconciling with God and our self (Our Identity, and Identity in Him) , we can not TRULY become reconciled with others.

    2) God does not call us to be colorblind. God calls us to recognize all the different cultures, races, languages, and have a heart for them. All of these displays God's beauty and how wonderful He is. God is a multi-ethnic God, a God of the nations. We would be limiting how we worship, see, and even hear God, if we don't see the beauty of other cultures and races.

    So questions to not just you, but everyone:
    1)Are we having a heart for the nations?
    2)We is God calling us to step outside our comfort Zones and cross racial, socio-economic boundaries?
    3)Where or with who is God calling us to be reconciled to?

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