Tyler Johnson, MDiv
Tyler is a pastor and a former NASA engineer. He loves to explore truth through God’s word and God’s works. He lives in Iowa with his wife and four children and spends what little free-time he has pondering the mysteries of light.
Last week, Kendall began to reimagine what Church could look like. We are going to continue exploring this theme for a couple of weeks. Next week we have a beautiful piece of reimagining from a friend and guest writer. It is a wonderful, concrete expression of what the Church could be.
This week’s reimagining is more abstract, broader. That’s how my mind works. I love working with the big picture, and trying to find the most basic starting point. So let’s begin.
Theologians will talk about the transcendental properties of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. These are things we are all drawn to, thing we all yearn for in some way. We are attracted to these qualities because they are attributes of God. Or to say it another way, God is revealed in this world through Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.
Ideally, the Church would excel at all three of these aspects. Historically speaking, the Church has been at its best when it has exceeded the culture around it in Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. We see this in the early days of the Church when Christians rescued abandoned babies from the streets and entered into plagued-filled cities to care for the victims. We see it in the middle ages as the Church formed the foundations of the first hospitals and health care systems. The historic Church has displayed radical Goodness.
Or consider the medieval Church’s pursuit of knowledge which led to the creation of schools and universities. Consider that it was the Church’s work of reconciling the philosophy of Aristotle with Christian theology that helped lay the foundation for the emergence of modern science. The historic Church has been a source of radical Truth.
The Church has produced some stunning pieces of music, art, architecture, story and poetry as well. Yet more than anything, this aspect is missing from modern American Christianity. The Church could use a strong infusion of Beauty.
You could divide most of the protestant churches in America into two basic categories. Those who focus on Truth and those who focus on Goodness. There are churches/Christians that put correct thinking and doctrine at the center of all they do. And there are churches/Christians that put good social action at the center of what they do. Neither of these approaches seems adequate to me, as I reimagine what Church could be.
The problem with a focus on Truth in today’s world is that truth has been relativized and subjectivized in pervasive ways. There is no more belief in absolute truth. Our world seems to believe that truth can be manufactured and as long as it is delivered with enough pathos and rhetoric, it then becomes true. Societally we have lost the ability to think through things critically and the Church has largely abdicated its responsibility to be a place of thoughtful wisdom. A reimagined Church will need more than Truth.
A similar problem exists with the focus on Goodness. There are a lot of charities, non-profits, and businesses doing good in the world. To be frank, a Goodness-focused church rarely does anything different from the secular actors in this realm. Which means that if you want to make a difference in the world, you can do about the same amount of good from within the Church as without. You might just feel better about doing it through a church because then you have some religious backing for your actions. A reimagined Church will need more than Goodness.
Don’t get me wrong. Truth and Goodness are both essential to the lives of Christians and to the mission of a Church. But the way I’ve seen them utilized by the Church hasn’t suggested to me that they are functioning to draw people closer to God. Maybe your experience has been different. I kinda hope it has.
Beauty is the transcendental property that seems most absent from the modern Church. And I mean a beauty that is deeper than a catchy, or emotional worship song. I mean a beauty that is steeped in mystery, bathed in paradox and unabashedly other. This is the kind of God I’m drawn to.
This is also the God that we find in the Bible. A God that is radically other. A God that is utterly incomprehensible. A God whose actions are unashamedly paradoxical: The Creator entering the creation, Jesus as fully human and fully divine, The resurrection of a dead man into a new kind of life.
I want a more beautiful Church. A Church that isn’t afraid of mystery. A Church that revels in the paradoxical nature of God. A Church that isn’t afraid of any questions, because Christianity is about a relationship, not about doctrine. I want a humbler, simpler Church. One that isn’t focused on growth, numbers, buildings, or success. I want a Church that is content to attend to the mystery of God, and to be a Loving presence to the people around it.
Some unrelated housekeeping:
It was recently brought to my attention that you have been unable to leave comments. I’m sorry. I believe I have fixed the problem, so feel free to comment away!