An Appeal for a Clean Conscience (part 1)
A little over three years ago, I joined a Reformed Baptist church. The Baptist part was some time in the happening. I worked for a baptist and my work took me to a couple Southern Baptist Convention annual meetings. He mostly brought me to pique his vanity and as an attempt to bring me to the "dark side." I had grown up in various Presbyterian and Reformed churches, culminating with the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC).
Other than early childhood outside of big cities in California (plus a babyhood stint in Minneapolis of which I have no recollection), I've spent the last 20 years in a small town in the "lower Alabama" part of Florida. (i.e. the Panhandle) I've been in small churches all my life (other than the fountainhead of the CREC in Idaho) and small towns.
In all the churches I had ever been in, almost everyone was white. In 27 years, there was a total of three black members and they were all single and never at the same church at the same time. (One of them went on to marry the pastor's daughter and have the loveliest daughters in every shade of chocolate and coffee. No two are alike in color or personality. But that was after my time.) We had a few Asian members. One Latin when I was in college. Really, what I realized, comparing what little I knew about Black culture with my Presbyterian culture: it's really more of a culture preference. Presbyterians are not very expressive. My mom would sometimes put a hand on my shoulder to calm my swaying while we sang. (Just because she didn't want me to draw anymore attention from the other moms than I already did. She got comments but she shielded me from them. I could tell I stood out anyway.) That works for a Japanese or Korean. That would stifle almost any African, Caribbean, or American Black who walked in our church. (I think there were three black people in my college church.)
I despise the "seeker friendly" church, the big-for-the-sake-of-big church, and the self-agrandizing celebrity church. But the picture presented in the Bible is of a big gathering. And it seemed that the CREC in particular was rallying around sub-points of doctrine while the more established denominations watched their walls broken down by infiltrating heresies and publicly contentious pastors. My last church went from PCA (too liberal) to its own denomination of 2 or 3 churches, until it found its way to the CREC. I like to call the CREC the Island of Misfit Churches. Cuz it is.
Further the Bible shows a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural crowd of worshippers. I've also pretty much never been outside of the multi class church. And the Reformed church tends to attract the middle class. Probably because Sola Scriptura requires a dedication to literacy. More than basic literacy. Not that the middle class isn't full of people who can't be bothered. I started to crave a glimpse of this multi-ethnic church. It may have started when friends went to India to be "Indian Christians", self-consciously divesting themselves of Western trappings (other than their blond hair and foreign accents). The woman started wearing a nose ring because it's one of the symbols of being married. Wait, that's not a rock and roll thing? It's not a symbol of defiance? That's when a lightbulb popped on in my mental closet.
Anyway, this had been stirring for quite a while. (My teens maybe?) Then I attended the SBC meeting in New Orleans and it was glorious. Rev. Luter of Franklin Avenue Baptist preached and I heard a spark and a fire like I had never heard. But even better was the way he interacted with his congregants. They chanted back and forth, call and response, and then another lightbulb moment. Rap and hiphop comes from the churches! Okay, that's not the whole story on those music forms. But it separated the form and the content. I was well acquainted with condemnation of rap and hiphop but the experience helped me see that there's a culture of rhythm far deeper than a culture of rap. Moreover the room was packed with people. We heard reports on the Gospel working in places where I thought it couldn't have a crack in, not now anyway. There was a young man from Latin America who was working in the Middle East! So much for my stereotype of the white missionary. It was gloriously invigorating. Maybe I might have had similar experience if I had attended a PCA General Assembly. (Pretty sure that CREC meetings are smaller than the CREC church I attended. That's probably changing, but probably still accurate.)
This is all just context for what I really wanted to say. I think that will be part 2.
Other than early childhood outside of big cities in California (plus a babyhood stint in Minneapolis of which I have no recollection), I've spent the last 20 years in a small town in the "lower Alabama" part of Florida. (i.e. the Panhandle) I've been in small churches all my life (other than the fountainhead of the CREC in Idaho) and small towns.
In all the churches I had ever been in, almost everyone was white. In 27 years, there was a total of three black members and they were all single and never at the same church at the same time. (One of them went on to marry the pastor's daughter and have the loveliest daughters in every shade of chocolate and coffee. No two are alike in color or personality. But that was after my time.) We had a few Asian members. One Latin when I was in college. Really, what I realized, comparing what little I knew about Black culture with my Presbyterian culture: it's really more of a culture preference. Presbyterians are not very expressive. My mom would sometimes put a hand on my shoulder to calm my swaying while we sang. (Just because she didn't want me to draw anymore attention from the other moms than I already did. She got comments but she shielded me from them. I could tell I stood out anyway.) That works for a Japanese or Korean. That would stifle almost any African, Caribbean, or American Black who walked in our church. (I think there were three black people in my college church.)
I despise the "seeker friendly" church, the big-for-the-sake-of-big church, and the self-agrandizing celebrity church. But the picture presented in the Bible is of a big gathering. And it seemed that the CREC in particular was rallying around sub-points of doctrine while the more established denominations watched their walls broken down by infiltrating heresies and publicly contentious pastors. My last church went from PCA (too liberal) to its own denomination of 2 or 3 churches, until it found its way to the CREC. I like to call the CREC the Island of Misfit Churches. Cuz it is.
Further the Bible shows a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural crowd of worshippers. I've also pretty much never been outside of the multi class church. And the Reformed church tends to attract the middle class. Probably because Sola Scriptura requires a dedication to literacy. More than basic literacy. Not that the middle class isn't full of people who can't be bothered. I started to crave a glimpse of this multi-ethnic church. It may have started when friends went to India to be "Indian Christians", self-consciously divesting themselves of Western trappings (other than their blond hair and foreign accents). The woman started wearing a nose ring because it's one of the symbols of being married. Wait, that's not a rock and roll thing? It's not a symbol of defiance? That's when a lightbulb popped on in my mental closet.
Anyway, this had been stirring for quite a while. (My teens maybe?) Then I attended the SBC meeting in New Orleans and it was glorious. Rev. Luter of Franklin Avenue Baptist preached and I heard a spark and a fire like I had never heard. But even better was the way he interacted with his congregants. They chanted back and forth, call and response, and then another lightbulb moment. Rap and hiphop comes from the churches! Okay, that's not the whole story on those music forms. But it separated the form and the content. I was well acquainted with condemnation of rap and hiphop but the experience helped me see that there's a culture of rhythm far deeper than a culture of rap. Moreover the room was packed with people. We heard reports on the Gospel working in places where I thought it couldn't have a crack in, not now anyway. There was a young man from Latin America who was working in the Middle East! So much for my stereotype of the white missionary. It was gloriously invigorating. Maybe I might have had similar experience if I had attended a PCA General Assembly. (Pretty sure that CREC meetings are smaller than the CREC church I attended. That's probably changing, but probably still accurate.)
This is all just context for what I really wanted to say. I think that will be part 2.
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