Quotes of the Week
Quote of the Week - August 10, 2007
by Jimmy Hopper
While thinking about the previous post about worship, old and new, and the condition of the evangelical church in general, I thought of the following quote by Francis Schaeffer from The God Who is There back in the seventies. Here it is so give us your thoughts about it:
At first acquaintance, this concept, “I do not ask for answers; I just believe,” gives the feeling of spirituality and it deceives many fine people. These are often young men and women who are not content only to repeat the phrases of the intellectual or spiritual status quo. They have become rightly dissatisfied with a dull, dusty, introverted orthodoxy given only to pounding out a few well known clichés. The new theology sounds spiritual and vibrant and they are trapped. But the price they pay for what seems to be spiritual is high, for to operate in the upper story using undefined religious terms is to fail to know and function on the level of the whole man. The answer is not to ask these people to return to the poorness of the status quo, but to a living orthodoxy which is concerned with the whole man; including the rational and intellectual, in his relationship to God.
Posted by Jimmy Hopper at August 10, 2007 02:06 PM
I think Schaeffer was prescient. As I see it, the task of the modern church is to be unapologetically “dull and dusty” if that is the prevailing perception— while striving to give warmth, vibrancy, and relevance to historical notions. Jimmy, (I know we have had this discussion before), after the novelty (of any new church gimmick) wears off, the soul will long for something that is solid, unchangeable, and transcendent. Oddly enough, I don’t worry about most evangelical kids— they are coming to Reformed churches in droves. I just don’t want our own covenant kids (who have not experienced the charged emotionalism) to think for a moment that they are missing anything in their spiritual walk.