Born Again INTO What?

Posted by Elizabeth on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

After I first heard of The Born Again Church Tour 2008 I wondered, how can “born agains” be born again? JIm responded,

“Born agains” can get born again - and again- we’ve made it a passive concrete term but it is an active term which is why Jesus used water and wind to help round out the meaning of it all.

So, WE can be born again, but what are we being born INTO? Our church culture has been so focused on the act of conversion that perhaps we have forgotten the life we are hoping to be born INTO. While birth is important, birth is for life. Over the last fifty or so years, Christianity has come to be defined by conversion (being born again) instead of by the life we are being born into - a life of active participation in the commonwealth of God.

If WE, the church, can be born again - what kind of life will we be born into? What will characterize this Born Again Church? If my church could all be born again, here’s what I would hope that new family would be like:

  • Present to the world because it’s not primarily a matter of translating our beliefs about the world into categories that others will find acceptable. It is a matter of being present in the world in a distinctive way such that the alluring and ‘useless’ beauty of holiness can be touched, tasted, and tried.
  • Sustained by disciplines and practices such as breaking of bread, the revolutionary love of enemies, and the welcoming of strangers.
  • Energized by the transforming, egalitarian, and reconciling power of the Holy Spirit with a heart of acceptance and inclusion because at the heart of the church’s identity, practice and outreach is a politics of gender, racial, and interethnic acceptance and inclusion.
  • Making room for skeptics and doubters because the good news can be expressed in such a way that its being understood by hearers is balanced with the possibility of its rejection. Weakness, vulnerability, incarnation, and refusability are all markers of faithful Christian witness.

What are some of your hopes, dreams, expectations for the new shape of the born-again church ?

2 Responses to “Born Again INTO What?”

  1. Jim Henderson Says:
    July 24th, 2008 at 8:30 pm

    Elizabeth

    Here are the things you said so much better than I could have

    It is a matter of being present in the world in a distinctive way such that the alluring and ‘useless’ beauty of holiness can be touched, tasted, and tried

    Making room for skeptics and doubters because the good news can be expressed in such a way that its being understood by hearers is balanced with the possibility of its rejection

    Is this your stuff? very well written, lovely

  2. Elizabeth Says:
    July 25th, 2008 at 10:59 am

    I must give credit where credit is due - these ideas are summarized from Bryan Stone’s “Evangelism After Christendom” which is probably the most influential book I’ve read in the last six months. I’m sure I used some of his words in concert with mine ;-)

    I’ve noticed sometimes we are quick to criticize what is wrong with Christianity - as many books have been written on this topic, but we are slow to offer hope for the future.

    Admittedly, we have done wrong in the past, but I wonder what are we going to do to make it right?

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