As we are considering what a rich spirituality looks like in the twenty-first century, let’s make this the moment when the Church reintroduces itself into the powerful, expansive history filled with resources and insights to propel us forward.

If we want to know how to connect with God in a deep way, if we want to avoid the common pitfalls that Christian communities make on their way to spiritual maturity, (there are at least 12 I’ve counted, but that’s for another day) and if we are interested in changing our lives and the lives of the people in our faith communities – we’ve got to make this a crucial part of our faith journey.

3 Parts – the Ancient, Medieval and Modern Spiritualities

Think of these three eras as shaped like an hourglass.  The ancient church (Pentecost to 600CE) was characterized by rapid exampsion to the continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe.  The medieval church (c.600-1500) was marked by withdrawal as internal divisions and the rise of Islam greatly diminished the Christian influence in Asia and Africa.  The modern church (c.1500-present) saw a new expansion beyond the boundaries of Europe, and in the past few decades the churches of the third world have shown the greatest vitality, expansion and missionary fervor.

The ancient church – after it became the official religion of the Roman Empire, was rapidly transformed from a network of periodically persecuted believers into a geo-political bishop-states.  While some bishops used their power to fight off doctrinal heresies – (Montanism, Gnosticism, and Neo-Platonism) – others left the Christian empire to pursue desert spirituality, creating monastic orders.

Christianity became a largely European phenomenon throughout the Middle Ages.  The Western and Eastern branches of the Church (Edessa, and Constantinople) formerly separated during this period.  The Eastern church became increasingly apophatic (mystical in their theology, and their spiritual disciplines – like listening prayer and stillness).  Monasticism flourished in the West, with Benedictine, Carthusian and Cistercian orders continued to develop contemplative and ascetic approaches to spirituality.

Modern Spirituality begins with the impact of the four branches of the Protestant Reformation (Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, and Anglican Spirituality).  Each of these understood their relationship to the state in a different light, as well as HOW the church in the West needed to transform.  In the Catholic Church, fantastic spiritual thinkers emerged in Spain and France during this time.  As Christianity found new territory in the far West Americas, new post-Reformation Protestant movements (Puritans, Quakers, Pietists, Evangelicals, revivalism, Methodists, holiness groups, and Pentecostals).  Most recently in our time, we’re seeing the Catholic Church fundamentally reformed in Vatican II, as well as other movements (ecumenical, charismatic, twelve-step spirituality, psychological approaches, and creation-centered spirituality).  Finally – the seeds of Eastern Orthodoxy and Christian developments in Latin America, Africa and Asia are finally making a real impact on the Church of the West after years of isolation.

This is about as brief as one could span through the movements of 2000 years of Christian Spirituality.  If you’re truly interested in learning more, I recommend a few books to get you started!

“Our system is perfectly designed for the results we are receiving.”

This was the repeated phrase at a lunch I recently attended where author Alan Hirsch was presenting.  The room was full of Chicago-area church leaders, and the room quickly fell silent as Hirsch began critiquing the current state of affairs in the Western Church.  While he had some apt critique, he wasn’t all sour – he was just as ready to point to fresh perspectives and examples of the church engaging and subverting the culture in America.

He made it clear that only the American Church, unlike the church in Europe or Australia, stood a real chance at re-interpreting the Gospel for the West in a way that could thrive in the post-Christendom era in which we now live.

But his strongest words were the line  he dropped half a dozen times throughout his talk: “Our system is perfectly designed for the results we are receiving.”

Think on that for a moment – how much weight can you bench press?  Only as much as your body’s system allows - and the way things are in your body are perfectly arranged for you to lift exactly what you’re capable of lifting.  Want to up your max weight?  Change your system! Try adding more protein to your diet, and less sugar.  Head to the gym 2 extra times a week.  Read about lifting techniques.  If you want to change the results, change the system.  Its amazing how we constrain our imaginations when it comes to the systems in our lives.

“Oh, that’s the way things have always been, and always will be…”  Give me a break.  You’re talking “equilibrium,” and to biologists, equilibrium is another way of saying, “you’re stone dead.”  Change = life!

The Church in the West today is spending 3 times as much on facilities as it was 10 years ago. 3 TIMES AS MUCH AS A DECADE AGO!  And numbers are in decline.  Leaders are getting harder to come by, as congregations are expecting more and more from their church leaders.  Sure, there are more and more mega-churches dotting the American landscape, but for every mega-church that breaks 1000 attendees, how many congregations had to shut their doors?

It has been said of the American Church, “The front of the parade is becoming more and more impressive, and no one is noticing that the line is getting shorter and shorter.”

The question is – can the church…your church…change its system? It is interesting how quickly we have come to expect the inevitability of the mega-church as the ONLY form of ecclesiological success.  Like the industrialized food system in America, the mega-church has only emerged in the last generation or so; and yet we see it as the only box God can work in.  I for one simply refuse to go along with that.  What ways can we keep the Gospel close to our chest, and yet experiment wildly with the form?  Let’s change the system – let’s take ourselves a little less seriously, and let imagination become our modus operandi!

Don’t do it out of fear that “God’s Church is depending on you,”  Do it because prophetic imagination is central to the story of God.  Do it because the Gospel is ALWAYS changing its clothes – the “word” is always “becoming flesh” and “moving into the neighborhood.” (John 1:14)

We’re perfectly designed to get the results we’re seeing across America today.  If we want more of the same – keep doing the same thing you’ve always done.  Otherwise, get out there and break the mold!

While that is staggering, consider even still the number of marriages that might stick together but “go cold” either through slow neglect or compromise.

A recent report in the NY Times suggested that marriage is understood primarily as a way of advancing yourself and your image, using your spouse to take you to new heights.  Whether this is conscious or not, this expert says that you get married to advance your own social network, to arrange a healthier outlook on things, to make you a better person, to rally up the ladder of your own life.  According to this study, marriage is the greatest “career move” you could make for life.

But I believe that just accelerates the problem we’re seeing with crumbling marriages.  When we marry “for ourselves” – we will toss him out when the next guy comes along with a better set of friends, or dresses better, or… the list goes on and on.  Sure, maybe at the beginning you are attracted to a gal because of how she makes you feel about yourself, the way she interacts with others, and so on – but if it remains what I can get out of this relationship – how I can advance myself… the marriage is doomed from the start.

Maturity in marriage is learning to submit your own desire, and to live for the desires of the other. I am continually amazed at my wife’s ability to do this.  ”Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ,” is the verse that begins the discussion in Ephesians on the mission of husbands and wives in marriage – Paul asks wives to submit to their husbands as the Church submits to Christ, and husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the Church.  Men and women have different roles in a relationship, and there is order to the family structure.

But look again, what does submission and Christ-like love have in common?  Laying your own life down for the sake of the other.

This is how marriages truly last - true and mutual submission. Not in the “lock-jaw” do-it-and-shut-up-about-it kind of submission, I’m talking about the joy-filled desire to see the other person advance as far as she can go – and cheering them on in every way possible.  When both parties do that, both are depositing trust into the relationship, rather than scavenging each other’s social brownie-points for sake of their own “self-expansion.”

Isaiah hears God describe his passionate love for Israel, as a “young love” in passionate desire for the other.  Even after all that Israel had done to betray God’s trust, he is completely consumed with love for them.  But God has a matured, seasoned love for his people too – one that goes beyond just the “me-marriages” we’re reading about in today’s papers; it is a love he is willing to do anything for – to see them advance, rather than just getting what he wants out of the relationship.  This is what “steadfast love” looks like – to lay down what you’re hoping to get out of the relationship – and pursuing the other person as the central object of your affections…