Steve Conrad
by: John O'Keefe
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I’m Sorry; One Christian Apologizes to the World: Steve Conrad
1. Some Christian groups see being closed and judgmental as a “badge of honor;” the idea that we are not supposed to be liked by society, and even disliked. What would your perspective on that be?
I think a lot about this. My own spiritual journey has gone through several different phases, and my thinking about who Jesus is and how I am called to live out my faith has changed over the years. The interesting thing is that in each season, I felt like I was living out my faith in the right way. And whenever I read or heard things that represented different perspectives, I always felt a bit of smugness, thinking that I had things figured out and other folks were wrong. Each of us has a great capacity to rationalize our own beliefs and perspectives.
That said, I think there is something very dangerous in the idea that being disliked is a sign that we are on the right track. Yes, Jesus was disliked, but he was disliked by the religious leaders and those who had political power. The crowds were always attracted to Jesus and He always responded to them with love. I think if we are disliked, it should be by those powers and systems which create injustice and oppress people. I believe the Kingdom of God is very dangerous and threatening to systems and structures like this.
When I read the Gospels, I see that Jesus loved people. He was anything but closed and judgmental. In fact, much of what He did was quite scandalous – hanging out with prostitutes, tax collectors, and ‘sinners’. Yes, He was willing to say challenging and difficult things to people, but there is always an undeniable movement of love from Jesus toward each person that He encountered. It saddens me that in the name of Jesus, many Christians are cold, insulting, and callous toward those people that the church has marginalized. I think Jesus would have spent a lot of His time with people like this.
2. Christians are called to be a contrast society, a community of people that lives radically different than the world. And perhaps as a contrast society, we will be disliked by systems and structures and groups with an agenda of greed and oppression. But we should always be loved by people, especially those on the margins!
In the same vein, those who are closed and judgmental see what they believe as “the true Christian morality.” What do you see as different between what they would hold and what Christians “in general” hold?
I think that morality has become an easy defining marker of Christianity for many in the church. Concepts like ‘knowing God’, ‘growing in love’, and ‘seeking to be a Kingdom-bringer’ are vague, difficult, and messy ideas. They aren’t easy to measure. Because we live in a world that values being able to define and measure things and puts tremendous importance on knowing who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out’, morality becomes a convenient way to measure spirituality. Very quickly, Christianity becomes about making the right moral choices instead of about the person of Jesus.
Unfortunately, when the church focuses on morality, we run into a lot of problems. Defining which particular sins we choose to focus on becomes a very arbitrary decision – many Christians today choose to focus on homosexuality and abortion and completely ignore issues like pride, consumerism, gluttony, gossip, and injustice. Those who claim to hold to ‘true Christian morality’ are selective about which morals they believe are most important.
At the core, the only thing that Christians can hold on to is Jesus. Yes, there are obviously moral choices that go along with that, but the focus should not be on morality but on the person of Jesus and His command to ‘love God and love others’. Every moral choice flows out of that Great Commandment.
3. Many Christian Leaders see themselves as “Prophets” in accord with the Old Testament – calling judgment on others and the like. Do you see them having a voice at the table in the 21C?
I think there is a voice for prophets in our world. But I think there are two things we should keep in mind. Almost always, the Old Testament prophets spoke their prophecies toward God’s people. Most of the time, they weren’t condemning the world - they were challenging God’s people to actually live as God’s people. Second, prophecy was always rooted in love. I think of Jeremiah, the weeping prophet – he cried over the sins of God’s people. He didn’t prophecy out of anger, but rather out of love and sorrow for God’s people and what they had become. When I see the venom in many of today’s ‘modern prophets’, I think their anger saddens God’s heart.
I think there is a voice for prophets in the church of the 21st century. The church will always need people who are willing to stand up and speak truth. But it is a mantle that should be worn cautiously and always out of a burden of love.
4. How do we remove culture from church, or do we?
I think that any attempt to remove culture from church will ultimately be unsuccessful. The church is called to live in culture, and one of our primary functions as a church is to contextualize the Gospel into our culture. The church is the translator of the Good News of Jesus into the language of our culture. This does not mean that the church becomes like culture. Quite the opposite – the church is called to live as a contrast society, a group of people who are committed to living in a way that is radically different than our culture.
In this role of contrast society, we must be students of culture. We must become aware of the ways in which God is at work in our cultural context – those glimpses of truth and God that our culture embodies. We must also be aware of the traps and pitfalls of culture, the spiritual hungering of people, and we must look for language that will resonate with our culture.
I think one of the primary shortcomings of the 21st century Western church, is that our language and practices are outdated – they are applicable to a culture that no longer exists (we are at least 20 years too late). We must develop new language and new practices for a new postmodern culture. In this way, we continue the dual movement that God calls the church to – both toward culture and as a contrast society that looks radically different than culture.
5. How can we remove “Christians” from Christ?
I think we have to hold loosely to anything that is ‘Christian’ and hold tightly to Christ. Many of the styles and trappings of church will come and go, but the message of Jesus is constant. Our musical styles, the buildings or forms of church, and the language that we use will continually change, but our calling to love God and to love one another is constant.E Stanley Jones talked about the idea of separating Christ from Christianity back in the 1930’s in India. As a Western missionary there, he discovered that the Indian people wanted Jesus, but they did not want all of the trappings of Western culture that came along with it. Too often, we have (unwittingly?) packaged the Gospel with a lot of cultural baggage – ideas about progress and efficiency, ideas about what a church should look or act like, and in the worst cases, political and commercial ideology.Again, we must be students of culture – to be able to recognize what is Jesus and what is culture in our churches. Sadly, many of us who follow Jesus don’t have these skills, and so the church and culture get mixed and muddled.
6. You speak of moving from “church” to a more authentic “Community” where we can truly express of lives in meaning. Can you give a few examples of how that would work, and what it would look like?
I am intrigued by the new monastic movement and attempts toward living in community that have become more popular in the last several years. I think these kinds of movements help us to overcome the individualism and consumerism that have come to define 21st century Western culture.
On a very practical level, here are a few ideas about what Christian community in America could look like:
-Sharing. Perhaps we don’t all need our own everything – our own cars, our own lawn mowers, our own computers. What if several families living in close proximity decided to share together. This could involve sharing child care responsibilities and sharing meals together. I think a sense of interdependence would be so good and healthy – and I think in this kind of context, we would break past politeness and truly become part of one another’s lives.
-Mentoring. I think this is a practice that has been largely lost in our culture. I think the church today takes the idea of formation pretty lightly. I think it would be tremendously powerful if the church were to value mentoring – that younger Christians could learn and grow from the lives and experiences of those who have walked the path before them.
-Adoption. I would love for the American church to be a place where adoption is the norm. We are generally quite affluent, and I think it is a beautiful picture of the Kingdom for Christians to provide homes for homeless children (both here and around the world). I think it would be a great way for us to expand our horizons and think more broadly about the world.
These are just a few ideas – I think that Christian community will look different for each person.
I should also say this: I have seen expressions of Christian community that are quite beautiful, but there is a danger that they become inwardly focused. As followers of Jesus, as we seek to be in community with one another, there must always be a movement outward, into the world.
7. What do you see changing in the Church of the 21C?
I see so many good things happening in the church today. I love the conversations that are beginning, the increased emphasis on caring for the poor and oppressed around the world. I love that we are thinking more about how we as the body of Christ can begin to reflect the Kingdom of God in real and practical ways (rather than just thinking about our faith as a ticket to Heaven).
With all of that, one thing that I worry about is that we may lose the ability to speak truth. Because the church over the past several decades has become associated with being judgmental and closed-minded, many Christians today are afraid of saying anything because we fear contributing to that stereotype. I hope that this does not come to characterize the 21st century church. As we seek to hold onto both truth and love, we will become agents of transformation in our world.
BONUS QUESTION: If you could rewrite your article, what would you change and why?
I look back at this article, and while I still see some valid ideas and thoughts in it, I would definitely express my ideas differently today. Though the idea behind the article is humility, it still feels very heavy-handed in places. There seems to be an anger toward some expressions of the church – and that anger is unhealthy. The truth is that we are all fallen creations, and anything that we do will ultimately be imperfect. The beauty is that God is the Great Redeemer, and He works His purposes even though flawed people like me.
If I wrote the article again today, I think I would try to focus more on casting a compelling vision for what God is calling the church to be. It is easy to tear down and deconstruct – it is much harder to paint a picture of what the church could be. I think I tried to do that in some small way in the article, but I think over the past few years I have hopefully begun to understand even more of how God has called His people to reflect His love and grace to a world that desperately needs it. I don’t want to make Christians feel guilty, I want to invite people into the wonder and joy of being Kingdom bringers in our world!
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