On the evangelical attraction to Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. (Original article published 04-22-2004 available at the Franklin Road Baptist Church Website )
Bored with the truth, increasing numbers of evangelicals are looking for new places to get satisfaction. Having lost contentment and feeling failed by and bored with the pop-worship that dominates most churches in this post-Christian culture, increasing numbers of evangelicals no longer desire to listen to the music or the sermons of user friendly Christianity. They are looking for different worship experiences.
Rituals and symbols have always been a part of Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions. The bells, smoke, tapestries and ceremonies of those traditions fascinate some evangelicals to whom church has become increasingly monotonous. Bob Wenz, director of U.S. ministry with the National Association of Evangelicals, detects this emerging tendency. He sees "a growing trend among evangelicals that is focusing more on the sensory aspects of worship than on the cognitive aspects like marking foreheads with charcoal on Ash Wednesday as a sign of humility before God, or lighting Advent candles in the weeks before Christmas."[1] Two words jump out of Wenz's statement, words he places in opposition to one another. They are the words "cognitive" and "sensory." Evidently some within evangelical Protestantism now find cognitive Christianity tedious and, as such, to be an insufficient reason to attend church. In case some of you may not know, cognitive means "the act or process of knowing; perception." In deference to feelings, cognition has to do with the mind. At the base of our living, knowledge and wisdom ought always to inform us. Man cannot live by experience alone. For that reason, Solomon wrote Proverbs, to advise persons against destroying their lives through experiences that sex, drugs, alcohol and crime provide. Cognition informs us to avoid encounters that can induce injury or even death. Likewise through spiritual cognition we learn to avoid harmful teachings that destroy our souls, both in the now and for eternity. This growing disinterest in the cognitive is dangerous. In any activity of life it is but a small step from the "sensory" to the "sensual," and worship is no exception. By adopting a sensory approach to church, the focus of churchgoers becomes more intent upon the experience of the moment than the truth of eternity. Worship becomes fixated upon how we feel about what's going on rather than upon the cognition and eternal verity of it. And given the instincts and appetites lurking within our souls, that thing the Apostle Paul calls the "flesh," the sensory becomes prey to the sensual, that is, unless truth informs, arbitrates and restrains experience. Left on its own, the sensory/sensual (i.e. experience) subverts biblical Christianity to a works-religion of "self." Such a religion possesses "no value against fleshly indulgence" (Col. 2:27). By its very nature, fire cannot control fire. "For the time will come" wrote Paul, "when they [i.e., the church] will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires [the sensory/sensual] ; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths" (1 Tim. 4:3-4). The New Testament places the highest value upon a cognitive faith, the Apostles' Doctrine (Acts 2:42). It is the Christian's birthright. But Evangelical Christianity like Esau, appears to be forfeiting that birthright and blessing for a bowl of sensate soup. By Pastor Larry DeBruyn ________________ [1] Religion News Service, "Evangelicals Adopting Rituals," The Indianapolis Star, 6 March 2004, F3. |
