In a recent e-mail from the Colson Center, John Stonestreet writes about "A Failure of Faith Formation: What We Learn from Public Disavowals of Christianity".
"Last week, following the high profile falling away from faith of Joshua Harris, former Hillsong singer and songwriter Marty Sampson posted this on Instagram: 'Time for some real talk...I’m genuinely losing my faith...and it doesn’t bother me.'"If he had studied his theology lessons, he should be bothered by the consequences of losing faith. This confirms my suspicions that some contemporary Christian song writers are not conveying sound theology in their music.
"The next day he deleted this post and clarified that he hasn’t fully renounced Christianity, at least not yet. Still, he admitted, his faith was quite shaky. He then reiterated his doubts and said that 'the majority of a typical Christian’s life is not spent considering these things' because they fall into the 'too hard basket.'"Once again, one cannot work out those "too hard things" like same-sex marriage, gender confusion, the role of women in the Church, etc unless one has done the hard work of Bible study.
"Sampson’s claims, I’m sad to say, are not uncommon among young evangelicals. And let me just say this as directly and bluntly as I can: they reveal a failure on the part of the church to take the difficult but essential task of faith formation seriously enough."The article goes on to describe the foundations of a "shaky" faith: an emotion based faith, an uncritical faith, and uneducated faith, and a faith based on moral therapeutic deism (MTD).
The solutions to a shaky faith are harder to find. "Faith Formation" is a popular term among Christian educators. It is evident that current efforts at faith formation in the mainline denominations are not doing anything to reverse their declining numbers. It seems to me that positive results depend more on the motivation of the individual. Motivation to do the hard work of study, the discipline to keep at it, and the support of others is what is needed.
Getting to the heart of the matter, there are extrinsic motivators such as sermons, and there are intrinsic motivators, things we call "heart" or "desire". Which ones are stronger and which ones will last the longest and which ones will see you through the hard times? The intrinsic ones.
There once was a professional football player, a number one draft pick, a quarterback, a divisional champion who went to his coach and said that his heart was no longer in it. That is something that no coach wants to hear because the "heart" cannot be coached. Needless to say, that quarterback soon found himself out of a job.
Don't lose your heart my dear readers. Stay with the team. Do the hard work of studying your playbook and practice, practice, practice.
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Truthfully, I never heard of Joshua Harris before I read about his renunciation of Christianity. His story, and this singer with shaky faith, illustrate the problem well. When faith is about emotions and "heart," and is not based on right teaching, heard, read, marked, and inwardly digested, it is thin and can be scraped away fairly easily. Your diagnosis of moral therapeutic deism is spot on.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like there has been a recent flurry of this type of news. Foundations built on sand lead to the fall of individuals and denominations as well.
DeleteThe ACNA Catechism is huge compared to the 1979 BCP Catechism. As well as it should be!
ReplyDeleteAt 70+ pages, it hopefully will serve newly formed and veteran Christians well. As with anything, people will need to go back to it for a refresher periodically.
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