Jim Burklo Got Me Thinking
by Tom Are
Jim Burklo got me thinking. In his most recent post (Progressive Christian Elevator Speeches) he identifies the difficulty congregations have these days in knowing how to talk about ourselves. Even more difficult is talking about ourselves in a way that makes sense to the community at large. We used to be the “Mainline church,” but we held a memorial service for that term some time back. Burklo speaks of the desire to describe himself as “progressive,” but acknowledges that this term is increasingly cluttered as well. Lacking a general term, he opts for what he calls “tag lines.” I would encourage you to read the full list, but a sampling includes:
I’m a progressive Christian who
* keeps the faith and drops the dogma
* experiences God more than I believe in any definition of God
* thinks that God is bigger than anybody’s idea about God
These tag lines speak a fresh corrective to a church that at times has placed a premium on “faith” as belief, while downplaying faith as action. The present day church has learned anew that Christianity is something that is practiced. It is not simply believed; it is lived.
In addition, these tag lines question the historical conversation about who God is and how God has been understood and they prioritize the Christian’s personal experience of God. It was Isaiah who confessed, “I saw the Lord high and lifted up.” This is experiential worship. Far too often, the people of God gather for worship with absolutely no expectation that God will show up. Burklo rightly asserts experience matters.
However, as much as I like these tag lines, I also find them raising troubling questions. Why is it necessary to separate experience from tradition or creed? Our ideas about God are surely limited. Our language falters under the weight of the truth we seek to speak. No definition of God will be adequate. But the same is true for our experience of God. God is bigger than our experience. To suggest that God be defined by my experience alone is reductionist. The present day church that fails to learn how to hold our experience of God in conversation with the tradition of the church impoverishes itself. After all, the tradition of the church is the testimony of how generations before have experienced God.
One suspects, that the tension between experience and tradition may have less to do with testimony that is deemed outdated or passé, and has more to do with problems that emerge when I cannot define God on my own. The taglines are presented not as statements defining a “church” but rather a Christian. American culture does individualism well. The tradition is the voice of community. It is the shared conversation of how God has been known in generations gone by. However, as long as my experience governs my understanding of God, I don’t have to be bothered with how others experience God. Experience matters. But the experience of an undefined God may run the risk of experiencing an unknown God.
If I were to add a tag line or two, I might suggest:
I am a progressive Christian who knows
-Tradition matters: the movement of God’s Spirit today has integrity with the movement of God’s Spirit yesterday, today and every day.
-Community matters: a faith revealed as love cannot be lived alone.
-Ideas matter: God is bigger than but not removed from our ideas, and can be found in our testimonies.