Sketches Toward a New Christian Future - Pt. I

Just dreaming about where the Church could go.

I recommend you read this one in your browser.

---

I should be out looking for a bull elk right now but I came home early from the day’s hunt because of a great burning in my chest. Thankfully, it is not the kind of chest burning that sends one to the hospital and requires statin prescriptions; this is the heartburn I imagine Cleopas and his wife, Mary, felt as they walked with Jesus on the road to Hot Springs Village (which is what I am calling the town of Emmaus).

I woke up extra early this morning because my mind was writing parts of this essay of sketches you are now reading (many would certainly call this a sketchy essay based on some of the proposals I will make, but isn’t that always the case?). After driving deep into the mountains and very nearly stranding myself in the snow, I found my place and spent several hours peering through binoculars, talking with the Spirit, pacing back and forth on a magnificent rock outcropping, almost hoping a big bull elk wouldn’t present himself so I could come home early and relieve this pressure in my chest by sharing some of these dreams I have for the Church.

My hunting spot

What follows is a series of what I am calling sketches of a positive path forward for the Church and for churches. And these are definitely sketches; as in rough, unfinished pictures of where the Church might go. I’ve been dreaming about a mega-project of books and resources and communities and events with which to pursue this vision, but I woke up feeling prompted to just ship some of these ideas as is. I intend this to be the first of a series.

Who Is This For?

These sketches are for anyone anywhere who wants to be a part of the revitalization of the Church, anyone who wants to participate in the grand work of Christ on the earth. On the other hand, as we’ll see below, I want the western church to repent of a certain worldly globalist, imperialist, magisterial tendency and thereby embrace the goodness and rightness of the existence of a variety of churches that are true to the unique glory of the people they are comprised of. For that reason, I will say that I am really speaking to the church in the USA, though I hope others elsewhere feel free to appropriate elements of these thoughts as they choose.

What is This?

“A new Christian future”, you ask? A path forward from where and to where? What do you think you’re doing? Great questions.

I’m just dreaming about where the Church could go. I hope and pray I am doing so in participation with God’s Spirit and with the people God has given me to share life with.

I see some possible futures in which the same, tired, divisive, zero sum, prideful, violent, patterns that are sadly present in the Church and do her harm, perpetuate and remain structurally embedded in our narratives and worldviews and assumptions. If the Church were a tree, I see some possible futures in which certain of her branches become deformed and pale and grow at unnatural angles because they are encased in a box. I see some possible futures in which network nodes reach their sad local maxima and stagnate.

But then I see the unstoppable Kingdom. I see dumb-as-rock people like me crying out, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” I want a Church like the world has never seen; or a Church again as good as the best day she has ever had; a Church that is so full of life that millions upon millions are drawn to her. I see a Church that repents and forgives and reconciles so much that people start to think we’re crazy but really they want in too.

The Church will go on doing what she’s always done: making disciples of all nations, pursuing theosis, bringing heaven on earth, remembering Jesus’ life and death and descent and resurrection and ascent and the sending of the Holy Spirit, until Christ returns. I am wondering what futures we might participate in on the way. I’m wondering what unique needs and opportunities we have now.

These sketches toward a new Christian future could be called a strategy for the Church; and a strategy is really just a series of high-level decisions made in pursuit of a goal. A strategy is a story of how we aim to get from here to there while solving problems.

If you’d like some examples of the kind of project I’m after, check out the work around Radical Orthodoxy led by Milibank, Pickstock, and friends, or consider the book, Center Church, by Keller. I also have in mind thinkers like Von Balthazar, Rahner, and De Lubac, who were all part of the revitalization of the Roman Catholic church after a season in which it apparently had developed some malaise. There are many others.

What follows is not entirely without meaningful order nor is it as coherently structured as I would like. For me, the challenge of publishing this piece is to resist sitting on my ideas for years while I try to get them in perfect order. I am running and gunning here.

Sketches Toward a New Christian Future

A New Church History, a New Church Future

The other day I was with a gathering of church leaders and my friend Blaine and I were talking about our research for a podcast we host in which we are discussing early Church history. I found these words tumbling out of my mouth:

We need a new Church future based on a new Church history.

Or was it, “We need a new Christian future based on a new Christian past?” 

Regardless, you’re probably equally skeptical. I was at first even though I said it; but my conviction is growing by the day. In our podcast, we were originally planning to do a series on the first seven “Ecumenical” Church Councils; these founding congressional events in which many of the basic tenets of the Christian faith were ironed out more or less over the course of about 800 years. The more I studied these, the more I felt like we were missing something. The logic of the councils was grieving me more and more. Btw, I am still a Nicene Christian. I just think we need a much more nuanced and repentant and active understanding and appropriation of the councils which I see as simultaneous treasures for and open wounds on the body of Christ.

Assuming the Christian is taught any Church history at all, the way many of us come to learn the history of the Church looks something like this:

1. Jesus founds the Church

2. Acts

3. Jews and Christians kinda split ways?

4. Christianity conquers Rome

5. Over some period of time a bunch of Church Fathers have a bunch of councils, each time the good guys succeed in casting out the bad guys who are polluting the Church.

6. European Christianity?

7. The Reformation

8. Protestantism

9. Etc.

I see problems:

• The story is too small. It is eurocentric. But the glad tidings of peace went all over the world very early on.

• There are a lot of people who were sincerely trying to follow Jesus who are left out of this story and even condemned to Hell by many within it.

• The real story of the Church looks much less like a linear series of inevitable and logically ordered events and much more like a diagram of biological life on earth but with one or two more dimensions than the ones you’ve seen on posters in school.

• Baked into the history and logic of the councils and divisions of the Church there is a lot of oppression, pride, violence, cursing, unnecessary breaking of communion, and many things that generally harm the unity of Christ’s body. Most of the stories of these councils assume that one side must have been totally right when I believe we should question the very foundations and the assumptions that resulted in such strategies in the first place. Maybe we can reinterpret the history of the Church and, together, start repenting like crazy and ministering to Jesus’ bride, dressing her wounds and doing some deep Internal Family Systems therapy with her. This is a real proposition by the way: who wants to work on the theory and praxis of IFS applied to the brokenness of the Church?

• There is also the more obvious problem of many Christians of all traditions having no idea what riches and complexity and variegated beauty, what proven strategies and more are available to them as those who are adopted into the wonderful story of Christ at work in his body.

If you’re a step ahead you’re realizing that the proposal for a new Christian future based on a reinterpreted Christian past is, in the same turn, one for a different Christian past based on a new Christian future. We need to take (at least some of) David Bentley Hart’s words to heart in his book, Tradition and Apocalypse: that the tradition of Christianity is not defined by the dead past but by the eschatological pull of the Church into the return of Christ for his bride where all who call on his name will be saved.

In our own little way, we are doing this work over at the Mount Vigil podcast which I invite you to subscribe to. Start with episode 30 if you want to catch the whole conversation.

God’s Punishment is God’s Healing

I have a weird theory about the many divisions within the body of Christ which you might find to be too optimistic and desperate in its search for the silver lining. But I believe this with a deep conviction: that the divisions within the denominations and larger traditions and within the many schisms of the church–while they are a real judgement on our sinfulness–are in the same turn, a source of salvation that drives the Good News ever further afield.

Do you think the dividing of tongues and the scattering abroad of the people at the Tower of Babylon is a punishment or a blessing? Yes, it is both. In the same act, Yhwh punishes the people for their pride and rebellion even while he preserves the mission for humanity which he established in the Garden of Eden. There, Yhwh told the man and woman to be fruitful, multiply, fill and cultivate the earth. But the people at the Tower did not want to be dispersed across the earth, they want to stay in one place. So Yhwh, in his punishment, is also preserving and saving humanity in their mission of participation in his work.

Another example; one more on the nose: Israel. Israel fails to follow Yhwh faithfully and keep his commandments and as a result Israel is divided between North and South. Then the Northern Kingdoms are conquered and swept away by deportation and their punishment from Yhwh is to be utterly destroyed. The northern tribes eventually lose their distinctions as they are diluted into the Nations and they become indistinguishable from the Nations. But Yhwh will be faithful to his promises! He has promised to preserve and restore and heal all of Israel and to make the people who are no longer his people his people again! But how, since the lost tribes are now the Nations, as in the Nations who are not God’s chosen people? Well you know the answer: the work of Christ; the Good News of salvation in Christ which goes out into all the world and makes disciples of all nations and thereby brings in all the lost tribes as all people and tongues and tribes become united in the Kingdom of God.

This presents us with an hermeneutic for interpreting the manifold divisions with Christ’s church: the very thing that is a judgement upon our pride and viciousness and foolishness is the wind that drives the seeds of the Gospel further afield. So you have probably only ever heard people use the fact of the thousand “versions” of Christianity as a negative thing, as evidence that the whole faith is nonsense. “I’d become a Christian but I don’t know what kind I should become!” But you can actually bless God for how he is saving the world and fulfilling the mission of the Church and preventing the Church from acquiring too much power in one place by letting us break and break again. Every week the bread is broken and passed around to us. Do you see the pattern? This is a truly revolutionary way to read the life of the Church in her many expressions. Bless her in her brokenness and givenness!

Radical Ecumenism

One implication of the above is that we should pursue a vibrant and vivacious ecumenism. “May they all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Let us call Christian Ecumenism an arms-wide-open posture in which we try to embrace as many people as possible who call Jesus Lord as our brethren. It is a posture in which we do not weight Paul’s occasional use of the word “anathema” in an improperly outsized way compared to his repeated exhortations toward Christian unity.

Ecumenism is one of the great things available to Protestantism more than the other houses of the Church though it seems to be on the rise in RC and EO traditions and may it be more so. It is at least a quality that exists in potential if not in always practice as many protestant Christians are all too eager to drop the “heresy” bomb but this can be repented of.

The opposite of ecumenical.

A Fourth Church Theory must have an even more radical, joyful, generous, ecumenism. May all Christians always be faithful to their consciences and may lively debate be had on the things that matter to them but may we also go through every possible effort to maintain unity and friendship and peace between the many expressions of the Church in Jesus’ name.

A Shift in Doctrines of Final Judgment

I think this shift is one of the most important aspects of a healthy and vibrant future for the Church; it is also one with the most baggage for many people. What follows is an extreme attempt at efficiency on a very important and touchy subject. If you’re still interested after this little introduction, Lord willing, there will be much more to come.

Where to begin? Here is how I imagine the current landscape of Christian belief regarding what is called Hell and all things regarding final judgment (these pie charts are not based on real data):

And here is where I hope we are headed:

First off, some definitions. All of these views of final judgement have many sub-versions so consider these quick descriptions as basic introductions to much more complex issues:

• Infernalism / Eternal Conscious Torment (ECT) - Infernalists believe that God will cast into Hell and torture for eternity people who reject Christ.

• Annihilationism - Annihilationists believe the those who reject God and go to Hell will be destroyed. In some sense they will cease to exist.

•  Apokatastasis / Ultimate Reconciliation / Christian Universalism - Those subscribing to Apokatastasis (which means Ultimate Reconciliation) believe that, while “Hell” is real (in fact Hell is more real in some ways for the Christian Universalist because it is constrained within God’s salvific work), it is not the final say for those who die in sin and rejection of Christ. In some sense, Hell and Purgatory are the same, which is to say Hell is purgative and purifying. No person will be ultimately rejected by God but all people will come to salvation through Christ in the end.

Did I show my cards? Yes, I subscribe to the view of Ultimate Reconciliation. I could be wrong–the scriptures are vague on the question, in fact much more vague/complex/nuanced/open to interpretation than you probably think they are, regardless of your position–but, based on biblical exegesis, theological reflection, philosophical reasoning, and the invitation and attestation of what I perceive to be the more beautiful story, I believe Apokatastasis makes the most sense of the witness we have.

Did you know that Ultimate Reconciliation is and always has been one of the legitimate views many people in the Church have always held? What does that do for you? Believe it or not, Eternal Conscious Torment is not a bedrock doctrine of the Christian faith. It’s just one view. Looking back to the pie charts above, I dream of a Christian future in which the ratios change dramatically.

Let me be clear: I acknowledge as brothers and sisters those Christians who believe in ECT in good faith. I know and love and respect many of them. But I do hope their view becomes the minority over time. The ECT view has done great harm to many people’s consciences, it has been an unnecessary barrier to belief in Christ for many many a non-christian, it has traumatized so many Christians who try to rationalize and gaslight themselves into believing how a God who is Love could torture (perhaps most?) of his children for eternity.

While I do have a strong-but-non-dogmatic conviction of Ultimate Reconciliation, I left Annihilationism in equal measure in my dream pie chart above. First, most people who hold to the ECT view are simply not going to move all the way to Apokatastasis. Second, the biblical witness–especially narrative patterns established in the Old Testament–provide some potential validity to the view. I think Annihilationism ultimately fails for theological/philosophical reasons but I could be wrong and I believe annihilationism is far less harmful a view to the person who holds it than ECT and is far less of a non-starter for the unbeliever who views ECT it as a prerogative of the Christians faith.

There is a Christian future in which those who hold to the ECT view of Hell, while being loved and respected and valued, are the minority. There is a Christian future in which, when the evangelist gets the question, “But how could a good God…” from an unbeliever, the evangelist is able to tell them just how good the Good News really is. You have permission to be part of this future. You will still be a God-fearing follower of Christ. You will find the biblical witness and faithful reasoning are on your side. You will find there is less dissonance in your soul.

A Fourth Church Theory: A New Room in the House and A New Political Theory

Here I want to reappropriate a framework for political philosophy created by Alexander Dugin. Dugin is one of the world’s most important living political philosophers. You may not know who he is but, if you do, don’t freak out. For our purposes, the ideas below have nothing to do with Dugin’s past, political affiliations, etc. Let us flex the ability to isolate a good idea without needing to litigate the life of the person who developed it, without attributing guilt by association, etc. This idea is very precise.

Dugin’s simple and winsome thesis of a fourth political theory looks like this: We all live in a world in which the three available political theories are Communism, Fascism, and Liberalism. All three of those ideologies are evil and destructive. Why not come up with a fourth political theory that avoids the evils of the other three and creates the possibility of a new wholesome future?

In this fourth theory every people group has a unique political project which flows forth from their own geist or spirit; their own culture and vibe; and every global region and every country must develop an adequate level of self-understanding and actualization and receptivity to and interpretation of their story so that they can realize their own authentic political telos without succumbing to the totalizing and globalist tendencies of the other theories.

I think this idea has relevance to a new Christian future in two ways:

First, let’s apply it to what I usually call the “rooms” of the Church. Most of us will have a tripartite grid of Christianity that includes Roman Catholicism (RC), Eastern Orthodoxy (EO), and Protestantism (P). We can visualize it like this:

I’m honestly quite sick of that picture. It just isn’t true. What if we came up with a fourth Church theory?

Problems With “Protestantism”

First off, don’t get me wrong. I really appreciate the Protestant project. I am truly a beneficiary of it. I think the original P claim not to be creating a new church but to be the authentic expression and reclamation of (non-Roman) Catholic and (non-Eastern) Orthodox Christianity was overall a good endeavor though it had its negative externalities. I also think the low blows and cheap shots and uncharitable judgments that many (not all!) RC and EO Christians make about the poverty of Protestantism are often just that. As an example, it is common right now to hear EO thinkers decry the disenchanted and non-mystical nature, as they see it, of Evangelicals. Maybe it is the bias of my charismatic upbringing, but this one makes me chuckle. Ever met a charismatic? My people are quite mystical. It’s all too easy, though not productive, to straw man your perceived opponents rather than steel man them.

Anyway, what follows is not another diatribe against Protestantism but against the violence of stuffing all non-RC/EO Christianity into this room which, as big and beautiful as it is, cannot adequately contain the work Christ is doing and will do in the world.

So here are some problems with the P term:

• The term is an anachronism. Most of the denominations that continue to be lumped into this category are in no wise any longer defined solely by their relationship to the RC/EO churches. We are no longer living in a context dominated by RC/EO magisterial claims. We now live in a world in which all expressions of the church have more or less equal amounts of air to breath and equal freedom to be themselves.
  
  To be clear, many Christians are not only fine with being labeled as Protestant, they are actively trying to breath new life into the term. First among this crowd is Gavin Ortlund whom I greatly appreciate. I basically listen to and read everything Ortlund does and God bless him in his work to pursue a revitalized Protestantism.
  
  Nonetheless, I contend that there is a coming Church future based on a Christian past, reinterpreted, in which the narrative shackles of of the RC/EO/P framework fall off.

• “Protestantism” as a word is negative, spent, and not very compelling. We need all of our big words to do things for us. Yes, at one time, our ancestors protested what they saw as Church corruption. It is finished. Let’s move on.

To be clear, the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox designations also need to be critiqued but I am speaking primarily to Christians who would be otherwise shoehorned into Protestantism. I assume (though I really can’t know and have no preference) that the space this Fourth Church Theory creates will be primarily occupied by people who would otherwise be labeled as Protestants.

It’s such a simple but powerful idea! Guess what? You don’t have to be RC/EO/ or Protestant! By adding this fourth dimensions to our narrative structure we create some breathing room, massive potential for new life and, Lord willing, a new wineskin for some delicious new wine.

Does this idea do something for you? Do you feel creative space opening in your mind? Do you feel some relief? Then this is for you.

I pray that the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant traditions may thrive and grow and evolve and burst forth in flowers and fruit. I claim them all as brothers and sisters in Christ. I also pray that a new place may be opened up for the rest of us; that a new perspective on the story of God may be heard.

The Kingdom of God as Fourth Political Theory

If you’re keeping up, then you are waiting for the second way I think Dugin’s Fourth Political Theory has relevance to a new Christian future. This second point takes Dugin’s question head on. Dugin’s question is something like, “What possible political theory can we turn to if Communism, Fascism, and Liberalism are all wrong?” I believe the best answer we can provide is: the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom, this invasive weed (mustard plant) of Love and Truth and Goodness and Beauty that is growing under everyone’s fences. It is all over breaking into the world’s kingdoms. Christians must repent of all allegiances to regimes that are communist, fascist, liberal, totalitarian, and otherwise at odds with God’s justice, even while they seek the welfare of the cities they live in and sometimes even serve as governmental leaders in those nations and celebrate the real goods, however broken, contained within those systems. Even in the midst of so much evil, there is still Truth and Beauty and Goodness in communism, nationalism (I won’t try to convince you there’s transcendence in fascism), and even liberalism. As exiles in Babylon and ambassadors of the coming Kingdom, we are generously embedded inside the political systems of the world, simultaneously resisting their overtures, seeking their welfare, elevating their goods, diminishing and critiquing their evils, subverting their false claims to supreme authority, while submitting to their God-given and temporary true claims to limited authority.

Liberalism

For the majority of the people I am writing to, the big boss of repentance into a greater revelation of the Kingdom will be understanding, grieving, repenting of, and resisting the charms of Liberalism or Western Liberal Democratic Capitalism. Far from being faithful to its claims of freedom and democracy as supreme virtues, Liberalism is profoundly oppressive to the souls and bodies of those within and without it’s boundaries.

Btw, I will never use the word “liberal” to describe people who are  progressive/leftist/democrats. Republicans, Democrats, and Libertarians are all Liberals. Right and Left, apart from submission to Christ, are just two arms of the great beast of Babylon.

There is certainly a place for the two broad personality types that typically become rightist and leftist but they need to be conformed to the pattern of Christ so they can be mutually submitting members of his body and stand shoulder to shoulder in his army declaring allegiance to the same King and citizenship in the same Kingdom.

Anti/Globalism

I believe the Kingdom of God is the Kingdom destined to take over the world. Even now all nations have been folded in as the Gospel has gone out. I believe that, on some blessed day that I almost weep to imagine, every knee will bow and every tongue, with real love and sincerity, will confess that Jesus is Lord.

I also believe that the Kingdom–at least when faithfully expressed and unpolluted–is the least oppressive, least imperialistic, least violent, most humble, most generous and loving government on earth. Which is to say the Kingdom is, in another sense, anti-globalist.

So the Christian Church must simultaneously be the most globalist and most anti-globalist project on earth. The beauty of the Fourth Political Theory (in its baptized form here expressed) is that it is inherently anti-globalist in the way that the Church must be. This has implications for a new theory of missions, for global ecumenical dialogue, and more. This is why I want to say that I am speaking first to the churches in the USA and not hoping to capitalistically export my worldview and dreams onto other sister churches in other parts of the world.

House Church Networks

I think we are moving into a new Christian future defined by an ecclesiology that places a high regard for church gatherings in houses. My church is actually a network of house churches that meet together as a monthly large gathering. The whole church shares an eldership team, an oversight team that supports our leadership, a set of catechetical and other resources, and a community of house church shepherds and other leaders who all commune regularly to be sure that we are following Jesus together. Going all the way with the anti-globalist (which is to say unique-glory-honoring) nature of the Kingdom, each house church in our larger church has its own unique culture and practices while at the same time sharing a common DNA and similar liturgical life. Kingdom life is neither individualistic nor collectivist but a trinitarian both/and.

A Plan for Faithfulness in Total War and/or Soft-to-Hard Totalitarianism

WWIII, am I right? We don’t know what is going to happen. Maybe WWIII will go hot in a way that will leave no one wondering; maybe we will somehow continue to live in a world at war in a way that is sanitized and normalized and is so numbing and ambiently traumatizing that we struggle to maintain our humanity despite relative comfort and stability. Whatever version of life in a world at war we are given to live, the Church must, for starters:

• Accept and acknowledge reality. The Church’s reality is a heavenly reality and we do not succumb to the narratives of the world. On the other hand, we do not shy away from what is really happening in the world and pretend everything is hunky-dory. We cannot prophesy the now-and-future Kingdom into the kingdoms of the world if we refuse to gaze upon them and acknowledge their destructive tendencies.

• Have a plan for faithfulness in the midst of war. Many churches outside the USA are all too well acquainted with war. The churches in western countries should look to them for examples and instruction and ask them for prayer.
  
  How do we help our people maintain fidelity to Christ and the pursuit of his Kingdom when the nations of the world are vying for our hearts and seeking to enslave all of humanity to the work of nation-states that are doomed to pass away with the arrival of the coming Age?
  
  Think of the habit of nations to force military conscription and to draft the youth of their populations into the service of their death machines. Whether or not the country you live in chooses to conscript the youth into their militaries, they are always and everywhere trying to conscript their souls. The Church needs a plan for helping her children remain Kingdom citizens while embedded in the midst of a Babylon that sees them as actuarial inputs in a bureaucracy of death and oppression.

• Have the cross as her insignia. How tragic and ironic that the cross was painted on the panoply of war for the crusaders; the symbol of God’s willingness to die for his enemies. In a world at war the Church must refresh the symbol of the cross and be prepared for death, imprisonment, and disenfranchisement in christlike witness.

• Be shrewd as serpents. The Church must level up in her ability to quickly discern and adapt and solve problems creatively. The systems of total control being built all around us are mostly built on bureaucratic niceties and are like a python’s slow squeeze. The Church needs to be on her toes. She must learn to wiggle out of a trap like a crafty snake, all while remaining innocent as doves.

Rule of Life

The work of teaching Christians how to live has continued throughout the life of the Church, beginning with Saint Paul in texts like Ephesians 4-6 and Romans 12-16 continuing with examples like Saint Benedict and his order, recently brought to life by Rod Dreher in his book, The Benedict Option, and more recently brought into a wonderfully vibrant movement of the Church by the work of John Mark Comer via his project called Practicing the Way.

The work of making disciples has never ceased but it has lacked a certain coherence and tangibility for many of us and now, more than ever, the Church needs a Rule of Life: a whole life plan for discipleship. If the internet were the only shaping force in our lives we would be in desperate and dire need for Rule of Life. But there are many more forces of chaos in our lives than just the internet. Whether Rule of Life or another name is used, there is no vibrant future for a Church that does not create systematic, comprehensive, life-giving programs for discipleship.

A New Vocabulary

Whether by adoption of new words, or by a rich catechetical, sermonic, and liturgical education that undoes a lot of bad teaching and thinking, the Church needs a new vocabulary with which to narrate our way into a beautiful future. For many of us, “faith” is mere propositional assent, “freedom” mere choice, “truth” mere facts, “love” mere preference,  “eternity” a mere infinite succession of moments, “God” merely the biggest object, etc. Far from pedantry, a careful and thoughtful rebuilding of the Christian’s vocabulary is essential for a beautiful and theologically rich Christian future and internal life.

A Wise Response to “Enchantment” Narratives

Whatever you think so-called “Re-enchantment” is, it matters to the Church. For my part, I think Re-enchantment is simultaneously just a conversation and an objective move of spirit, it is both a fiction and a true story, it is both a fad and a persistent reality we have only barely begun to understand, it is happening both within and without the Church to different results. Re-enchantment is a body jerking back to life after the doctor yells “Clear!” and applies the defibrillator pads.

What does it assume? Re-enchantment at least assumes a prior Enchantment and subsequent Disenchantment of some kind. That “Re” does a lot of lifting. The word implies some kind of story in other words. But what is the story? Is it good or bad? The idea is tricky because it means something different to nearly every person you talk to and most people think they know more about it than they do.

Since I hesitate to define the term, let me just say that this movement more and more people are calling Re-enchantment, which has something to do with a growing sense among western peoples of the spiritual/magical/non-materialist in their understanding of reality, is an extremely significant movement that will define the context of both life in the Church and life outside her bounds for the foreseeable future.

The Church needs to acknowledge the complexity of this whatever-it-is we call Re-enchantment, theorize it, develop loving and generous ways to guide people through/in/out of it, joyfully appropriate it, warn against it, and so on. 

Divine Counsel Worldview

Short shrift as ever, let us just say that the Church needs to embrace a Divine Counsel worldview and hermeneutic. Re: the work of the late Dr. Michael Heiser (evangelical) in his book, Unseen Realm, and the first few episodes of the Lord of Spirits (EO) podcast for starters. If you don’t understand the significance and coherence of ideas like God’s Divine Counsel, the gods, the Sons of God, and more, then you are missing major plot elements that you will need if you are going to move into the future without getting off track at some key turns.

Developing a Divine Counsel worldview has also brought me a lot of joy. The world as it is is much more interesting than we give it credit for. A Divine Counsel worldview makes the Bible make more sense, adds richness and depth to things like baptism, salvation, sainthood, and so much more. For a rich Christian future it is incumbent upon the Church to embrace a story of God in which the weird parts of the Bible are not left out and we are not “selectively supernatural.”

---

We’re nearing thirty pages here and there are so many more sketches I would like to sketch. But I’m getting terser by the minute and what’s the rush?

Where Do We Go From Here?

There’s nothing in this essay that will convince anyone of anything but I hope that some of you feel something; something like a door opening in your heart, a glimpse of the pink glow of a sunrise, a word that has been on the tip of your tongue now springing to mind. This is all by way of whetting your appetite. This is all an invitation.

For my part, there are follow-ups to this essay already in the works and I intend to develop each of the above sketches and many more into more substantial works. I have a roving mind, endless curiosity and interests, and a nice case of ADHD so know that Sun Tongue will in no time soon do what one is “supposed to do” and solely focus on a single topic or theme. I will, however, make sure and structure my web content in such a way that those interested in only one topic can home in.

If you’re picking up what I’m putting down or if you’re way ahead of me:

• Share! Share some of the books/projects/communities/leaders who you think are already doing this kind of work to revitalize the Church and prepare a lovely future for her. Share your own work.

• Pray! Pray for your own church, pray for the churches in your town/state/country, pray for a vision of how Jesus wants to work through you to edify the body. Pray for more of the Spirit. WE MUST BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. THE WORK OF THE CHURCH MUST FLOW FROM PENTECOST.

• Repent! Whatever the Spirit brings up; repent of it! Confess before God, your oversight, or spiritual helpers, whatever is weighing you down.

• Become a disciple! The work of the Church is to be done by disciples, that is, apprentices to Jesus. Which is to say the work of the Church is to be done by losers and outcasts and rejects and average people and midwits who have nothing on their CV other than the fact that Jesus loves us and called us and we are now following him.

• Dream! Make! Do! Now, more than ever, the world needs a Church full of dreamers who have the courage and discipline to pursue their dreams. One of my big crazy dreams is that I could create a writer’s/creator’s/teacher’s residency, funded by donors and nestled as a program within the nonprofit I steward called Mount Vigil. If you have access to grants or donor resources and feel so led, then please reach out.

• Reach out here on Substack! I’d love to talk.