The Church: Born Again, Again, Again & Again…
Posted by jjsmulo on Sunday, August 24th, 2008
By Kathy Escobar
This article was first published on the Emergent Village Weblog.
In a covert conversation in the middle of the night, Jesus, in John 3, shares with Nicodemus what it means to be born again. I love this imagery—a religious ruler sneaking out of his house so no one would see him because somehow this wild & crazy guy named Jesus had gotten under his skin. Jesus’ response to Nicodemus has become pivotal words in the history of evangelical Christianity—“no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (v. 3). I remember the day that I was “born again” in Christ. The day will be etched in my brain & heart forever. But it didn’t stop there. It wasn’t a one-time experience where I “sealed the deal and then was done with it.” Rather, it was the beginning of many more spirit-led experiences where I knew I needed to shift, change, grow in my relationship with Jesus. I believe a huge piece of our personal spiritual journey is the ability to continually be born again, to be willing to readjust our thinking, our actions, all kinds of things, as the Holy Spirit moves & changes us. Life experiences change. Cultures shift. We grow up and out and into places we never expected. And with each twist & turn we are required to re-examine our faith, listen for God’s spirit, and be willing to be “born again”.
The same thing applies corporately to “the church”, the messy & beautiful body of Christ. I believe the church is in the midst of a major, history-making “born again” experience that is creating a wide range of responses from its people. Some are resistant to change, satisfied with the status quo, and probably can relate to the religious order of Jesus’ time that said “Hey, we have got this buttoned down, what do you mean we need to be born again? We’ve been doing this for a long, long time, and it is so working for us, don’t mess with it!” But there was a whole other group of people that got a stirring in their heart they couldn’t ignore, a taste of Jesus’ ways that they were desperate to live out. And who could have imagined that little wacky band of misfits would end up being part of changing the course of history forever? I think a lot of us reading this blog would consider ourselves in this category. A little like Nicodemus, many have found ourselves sneaking off to have covert conversations with other people about the stirring in our hearts. Our dreams for the kingdom of God keep us up at night & we can’t seem to shake it.
So what will it mean for the church to be “born again”? I know there are opinions all over the place on this one, but here are a few of my essentials of a radical shift in the church’s heart, way of thinking, actions.
- Recognize that it’s not really working for a lot of other people (even if it’s still working for us). Let’s face it, Christianity has a bad reputation. People are tired of our judgmentalism and lack of compassion & care for the poor and marginalized. While some churches are still growing, we need to remember that many many others are dying. People are leaving the “system” by the droves, and the new generation of young people isn’t too keen on joining into the existing monster. The old methods & rules just won’t work anymore.
- Continually humble ourselves & admit our mistakes. I think the world is waiting for this. They do not see Christianity as a reflection of Christ. They see Christianity as a reflection of power & control. Something is wrong with that picture. Corporately, we have a lot of work to do to demonstrate our humility, our heart for justice, peace, equality & diversity in actions not just words. This will take a long time to shift, but I believe it’s possible if we, as the body of Christ, draw back to the sermon on the mount as a guiding text for our faith.
- Be willing to be uncomfortable & let go of what we have always known. Jesus made it oh so clear that the ways of following him would require giving up what we held dear. The only hope for the church, in my opinion, is for its people to be willing to give up what we have conveniently relied on to make us feel comfortable & safe. We will have to shed things that hinder our ability to love our neighbor the way Christ calls us to. We will have to get honest about really tough questions: What is God asking us to consider that we really don’t want to do? What needs to change? What do we need to let go of? What do we have to risk? How can the true heart of Jesus be expressed through us, individually & as communities? What’s holding us back? What are we afraid of?
- Practice being more flexible & fluid. The church was always meant to be about relationship, not structure. To survive, I believe the body of Christ has to learn that its strength is in its heart not its skeleton. The more fluid we become, the more we can permeate & penetrate our neighborhoods, our cities, the world, one relationship at a time. We humans have a default mechanism to organize & build. I am not against that, I think some structure can be very helpful & productive, but I think we will have to become more adept at flexibility & fluidity, which means giving up mortgage payments, egos attached to org-chart positions, and programs that perpetuate the status quo & distract us from love.
- Learn how to do relationship, relationship & more relationship. This may be the part that is the hardest for us & is the most critical moving ahead. Yeah, we talk about loving God & loving our neighbors, but when the rubber meets the road, real relationships are tricky especially when God is asking us to love people we aren’t used to loving. Our greatest hope is to learn to love like Jesus loved. Sacrificial love. crazy-in-the-trenches love. Nonjudgmental love. We won’t hit it right, we are human, not God, but I do believe as we stretch & learn & try, more and more people will be touched by Jesus through us and the “church” will come alive in beautiful & powerful ways.
I realize this is barely scratching the surface, but they were the ones at the top of my head. I’d love to hear your additions & reactions, too.
I have so much hope for the church if we will stay the course & allow ourselves to go through the pains of re-birth over & over & over again so we can become a better reflection of Jesus in a changing world. It will be hard on us personally. It will be hard on us corporately. But I strongly believe it’s possible. God, please help us to be born again. and again. and again.
P.S. Want to be part of intentional, challenging conversations about the church’s re-birth? Join Off The Map Live’s “The Born Again Church Tour” in Seattle, Denver, or Los Angeles this fall, featuring Dave Kinnaman, author of Unchristian, Jim Henderson, co-author of Jim & Casper Go to Church, and more. Off The Map is dedicated to exploring new ways of thinking about and practicing what it means to follow in the ways of Jesus.
August 24th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Let me know when the Los Angeles “tour” happens. Thanks.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:27 am
What Bible are you reading?
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
1 John 2:6 This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
Paul never says “the old has gone, the new is coming, one born again at a time.” And John does not say “whoever claims to live in him must TRY to walk as Jesus did until his next born-again experience”.
This idea that you get to keep coming back as a new person until you get it right sounds a lot more like the reincarnation of Kabbalism than the one-time born-again experience of Christianity.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:26 am
[...] http://offthemap.com/live/2008/08/24/the-church-born-again-again-again-again/ [...]
August 25th, 2008 at 5:48 am
dsjulian, I expect Kathy is reading this Bible:
These verses describe salvation as a process, like Kathy did.
And you aren’t seriously saying all Christians are perfect already, so there’s no need for a process of salvation, are you? Have you been around any Christians lately? Thinking of yourself do you never sin or find yourself going in the wrong direction and in need of making adjustments to get yourself back on track?
I like that Kathy is being realistic about her Christian experience. I’m glad she doesn’t have to pretend that she’s perfect already because of some one-time thing that happened in her life.
August 25th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Paul, the LA tour is November 21-22. You can read about it here.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Perhaps a better quote may come from 1 Cor. 9 where Paul says “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means i might save some.” We know WE don’t save anyone (God does), but Paul started that section back in verse 19 by saying “I make myself a slave to everyone.” I can’t think of a better illustration of humility than that (well actually I can, but Jesus is always the best example), to make ourselves slaves to others. Always thinking of those outside the organized church as being the most important. That doesn’t happen in a lot of churches. And the way most churches are set up, something like the pains of childbirth would occur if they did exactly that. but that is what needs to be done.
August 25th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Crazy-in-the-trenches love is the quote for me. This article is a Christ like example of submitting to God and one another. Not considering ourselves better so we don’t stumble, action. I love it that we can be open to God changing us through His Spirit, and through people around us who are created in His image.
Church, I humbly submit to stop the quarrel and root for love and more fruit of the spirit? Otherwise how is anyone going to know who we follow and the good news Jesus brings?
I’m thinking that Phil 2:1-18 would be good review.
Lord please mold us and shape us into vessels for good use in serving your eternal life giving agenda.
Thank you Kathy!
August 25th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Thanks Helen for bringing us back to the Word
August 26th, 2008 at 3:10 am
i once heard a preacher explain 2 Cor 5:17 about becoming a new creation in Christ.
he said that a closer translation would instead say, we are continually becoming a new creation in christ.
great article kathy. and great bible slinging, helen. you are one of the best bible verse slingers that i know. i really think you missed your calling as a bible teacher. oh, wait a minute. perhaps you didn’t. it just doesn’t look very evangelical’ish!
August 26th, 2008 at 8:32 am
late to the conversation but thanks helen for bringing us back to the point which is that part of our experience as christ-followers is continual transformation more and more into his likeness. because the body of Christ is a reflection of its followers then it naturally follows that “the church” would continually be transformed, too. this is not a simple ‘we’ve got it all mastered’ formula. the beatitudes make that pretty clear to me. transformation requires humility. personal humility, corporate humility.
dsjulian - i think you may have become hung up on the illustration & missed the point.
helen - i agree with pam!
robby - imagine how things would be different if we were truly servants to others? the serve-me, we’re-the-greatest-and-have-this-buttoned-down mentality is so contrary to what Jesus modeled.
lee - that is the scripture that came to my mind when i saw helen’s initial comments, too.
pam - i do think it’s continual transformation & that verse has been used to hurt many a person who still struggled in their life with things from the past. i am so with you on helen
the fadels just wrapped up their colorado visit. it was lovely, they can tell you the stories…
August 26th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Interesting discussion about being born again, again, & again… I think we too often get hung up on the “event” rather than the life we are born again into, and forget that being born again is not a static state, but rather a process of transformation over time that may require many “re-births” in a sense where the old is left behind and newness of life is created within us.
Kathy, I appreciate how you say,
This shift from the existing structures to a more fluid, relational expression of church is at the top of my list. Great thoughts on what it might mean for the church to be born again.