Authentic Christianity & "My Rights"

Spring Surge 2020--Preparing for Pentecost

​Some of you live in states that, beginning this week, are slowly opening businesses, including church gatherings. While there is much work to be done to guarantee the health and safety of congregants, this also offers us a chance to teach.

Living in Oregon, I wrestle with watching the rest of our country open. While hearing that we will not be ready until June, and some suggest September, I become frustrated. I have already been notified that some of our non-profits and small businesses will close due to the lack of hope for this fall. Yes, I feel we are being “held back from the rest of the country,” however I acknowledge that we need to continue to be a state that has one of the lowest infection rates and death tolls in the US.

I admit…I go through bouts of frustration mixed with realizing it is not about “me.”

It is clear that many of us are frustrated by those in our communities who seem to be insensitive to the health of others, as well as the potential damages that unemployment, poverty, and paying rent and utilities with no income will have on others. We are truly in a quandary…but isn’t that where the church has always been called to minister?

Some of you have shared your concerns with the “insensitivity” of a few people concerning Covid-19, conspiracy theories, and “fake news.” I feel this same way when I wear a mask in the store and witness people who are not, or who blatantly violate personal space, suggest that masks are ridiculous, or make it difficult for employees to do their jobs while staying safe and healthy themselves.

Even more—we are frustrated when we see or hear this behavior from Christians.

However, we have a great opportunity upon re-opening our congregations to address this. We have the chance to teach, encourage our people to reflect on core Christian principles, and prepare for a Spring Surge beginning with Pentecost (the end of May). The Gospel can once again explode throughout the world with more than proclamation and church attendance.

• Already we have seen the value of digital worship. Many of us are planning to use it alongside our in-person worship services and classes this Fall.
• Research has indicated that many churches experience an increased online attendance during the Covid-19 pandemic.
• In our Monday Zoom sessions many of you are sharing unique and creative ways to do ministry, worship, and outreach. We are excited to hearing more of your ideas as we move forward this summer and fall.
• You are having more discussions to continue using digital worship as you reopen.
• We realize even more than we did before, that church is more than gathering on Sunday mornings. Christianity is world view, a way of life, and practice.

In other words, we want our people to be authentic Christians, even more than we were before. In my younger days the goal was to be “transparent.” We realize that this word did not capture who Jesus called us to be.

• Transparency just meant that people saw who we were, sin and all. You can see when someone’s yard has weeds, junk, and dead sod. No one is impressed with a dirty lawn. Transparency just means you see my dirty yard, but Christianity involves transformation. Allowing you see the sin in my life doesn’t help anyone transform their lives.
• Being Real just meant I was honest with you about my faults. However, Christianity is not about being real—God is real. Christianity is about transformation. Being real only helps people if we are authentically real.
• Authenticity is about being who I am supposed to be. It is truth. Christians are to be who Jesus called us to be. We should live like we ought to live.

Paul offers this core value of authenticity in his letter to the Corinthian Christians. They were a church that struggled to be authentic in a world that was fake, an illusion, and that encouraged people to compete and defeat others to move up the social scale. In 1 Corinthians 8-10 Paul took on a concern that was not only a problem at Corinth, but one that was common in most of the churches he led. In The Better Way: The Church of Agape in Emerging Corinth I make the case that one of the members of the church, Erastus, may have been a wealthy individual who had to host fundraising dinners to support the Isthmian Games that were held at Corinth.

The presence of meat markets, some supplying temples, would have presented a problem to the Jewish Christians. Idolatry had been a problematic event in Jewish history and hosting these dinners with meat offered to idols would have caused the Jewish members to feel uncomfortable, especially if one of their wealthy members was hosting a meal.

Paul explained that, while idols were nothing to the Christians, they were something to those who come from a culture where fleeing idolatry was the normal practice. As you read this section notice how Paul describes the issue:

1. There is knowledge and knowing what we should know (8:1-4). Knowledge with love is the goal of Christianity.
2. Knowledge, personal rights, personal choice and freedom, and lack of concern for others take a back seat to the welfare of other people (in the church and outside the church).
3. Sacrificing for others is a core Christian value (1 Cor 10:31-11:1; Romans 14; Galatians 6:1-10; Philippians 2; 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12).
4. Paul modeled this behavior…and he called us to the same behavior (1 Cor 11:1)

What does this mean for the churches where you minister? How can we encourage our people to model this Core Value of Authentic Christianity? How can we exclaim as Paul claimed…”Be imitators of me…?”

Visit this link to view the planter discussion on ideas to encourage Authentic Christianity in your community.

God bless you this season.
Ron Clark 
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Ron Clark, D.Min.
​Kairos Executive Director