I have just returned from Russia. One of the things I noticed in Russian culture this past week was its obsession with loud music. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good rock jam as much as the next guy. But early in the morning, as I rise for breakfast, as I offer my day to Christ and all my concerns and praises, I seek some silence. Then I usually spend the first two hours reading, in a MacDonald’s or someplace where the music is muted. Breakfast time for me is a time for quiet. In Russia however, I found the music to be as loud and blaring at 7 a.m. in the morning at a breakfast restaurant as it is at a disco. I wonder if this is not a product of a culture that cannot handle too much silence. We all know of some people who can’t stop talking on their cell phones or who can’t handle time alone on a Saturday night. It is like they are afraid of the silence. Perhaps this fear signals a lack of a grounding in the depths of a transcendent reality that can sustain life in the silence. I was in Russia for way too short a time to make any authoritative pronouncements on why Russia loves loud music at 7 in the morning. But I sensed a deep lostness there and I pray for our missionaries and our Russian believers. In the last 15 years, your time has come! Let us support with all our hearts, minds souls and resources our brothers and sisters ministering in Russia.

But I digress. Back to the topic of silence. I believe silence is a lost art in our evangelical churches. The age of contemporary rock concert worship has seemed to orient our worship always towards stirring up a celebration (which is good). Again, as I have said elsewhere, I love many contemporary worship music styles and we use them at our church. But have we become uncomfortable in silence? In the history of Christianity, there are many different uses of silence in worship. Silence as preparation to hear from God, silence after the reading of Scripture, silence as a time for prayer, silence as a time of quiet and preparation before the Lord's Supper, confession. I love the way the Taize worship movement has accentuated silence throughout the movement of the worship. At Life on the Vine, after we exchange our greetings, love and commitment to one another in the “peace” … we go into silence. There we are, a small huddled mass of people, just waiting in silence before the Lord before we enter into worship. A psalm is read. The art work points us toward His reality is silence. Nothing need be said. It can be uncomfortable. The little kids sometimes get restless but soon they also have come to get it. There is a sweetness to this silence. Ironically, it is this silence which often prepares the way for celebration in a rock concert fashion later in the service.

As new emergent churches spring up engaging the modern malaise of our day, it seems necessary to me that we recapture in some way the monastic practices of silence in our worship. Likewise, to all of us sojourners in Christ, as the New Year begins, let’s find some space for silence in the next several days as we naturally seek what God would do with us in yet another new year. We can do this because in our silence God is there. There is no vacuum to fear. Here’s hoping, that the next several days will provide the space for God to speak to us all. “Be silent before the Lord God, For the day of the Lord is at hand; the Lord has prepared an offering, he has set apart his guests.” Zeph 1:7

The problems with propositional views of language have been revealed by writers as diverse as Wittgenstein, Derrida, Lyotard, Ricouer, Lindbeck, Pickstock and the evangelical Kevin VanHoozer (whose book The Drama of Doctrine is a much appreciated step forward on this issue for evangelicals). Basically, what we have learned is that a hard propositional view towards Scripture turns the Bible into a dead textbook of inert information, it separates truth from the living of life, and does not resolve the question of interpretation i.e. given the truth of the text, where does authority lie for its interpretation? This is the evangelical quandary amidst these postmodern times when the worlds we live in and the languages we speak fully acknowledge the problems of propositionalism and/or positivism. I subscribe to referential truth (sentences refer to something external to them). I can buy even a correspondence theory of truth. But none of this solves the problems of hermeneutics and interpretation for evangelicals. And these notions of propositionalism create even more problems for how we are to preach.

I have said in the Great Giveaway, that us evangelicals have allowed our propositionalism to guide our preaching to the point where we allow our preaching to commodify the text into helpful information to be distributed lecture style (or on tapes and Mp3’s) to isolated selves who use it for their own means. In essence, we make the preaching of the Word another “goods and service” to be distributed thereby stripping the Word of its power because we can only be transformed by the Spirit when we are in submission to the Spirit and the Word, not consuming it for our own purposes. We must then go beyond seeing Scripture as a collection of truth propositions that need to be scientifically dissected, inductively sliced, and distributed to Cartesian (rational autonomous isolated in-control) minds sitting in the pews. We must proclaim the gospel out of Scripture describing the world as it is under the Lordship of Christ, redeemed and transformed by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We must then call for not intellectual digestion from our parishioners as listeners to sermons, but for confession, re-affirmation of truth, submission in prayer, obedience and commitment to what God is calling us to. All of this requires a community of the Spirit in ways I cannot explain here, but will certainly address in future posts.

My chapter on Expository Preaching in The Great Giveaway where I outline some of these ideas is entitled “The Myth of Expository Preaching: Why we must do more than wear scrolls on our foreheads.” I argue for an approach to preaching and Scripture that leaves Cartesianism behind and seeks to work out interpretation within a history, tradition and on going life of a community. In response to this chapter Paul Edwards asserts “My view thus far is that Fitch trades one fleeting culture for another, rather than pointing us to an eternal, unchangeable standard.” I can certainly see how Paul might feel that I am replacing modern modes of interpretation with ones based in postmodern analysis and I thank him for e-mailing me and entering into the conversation. My response is that I do not desire to declare allegience to either modernism or postmodernism as a cultural context. Instead I intend to articulate how we must go on in our preaching in light of what post or latter modern revealings about language and interpretation have clearly revealed to us. So I appreciate Paul Edward’s concerns but I prefer Darryl Dash’s response to the chapter. To those interested in this subject take a look at both.
I am open for comments but won’t be able to respond for two weeks as we leave for out of the country to adopt our child.

Until then, Blessed Advent and Joyous Christmas.

At the risk of sounding like an even worse sectarian (than some critics claim I am), can I plead for all evangelical Christians to quit threatening Target and Wal-Mart with a boycott, if they don’t put “Christmas” on their advertisements? Us U.S. Americans can’t seem to come to grips with the reality that we have given away our culture, i.e. we are not the majority, and Christmas is a secular holiday. Christmas is not a Christian holiday in the United States or Canada. On my neighborhood walk yesterday I counted on the front lawns one crèche versus 24 blow up thingies of snowmen, Santa Claus’s and other assorted objects neutered of any religious meaning. By coming to the realization that U.S. is no longer a Christian nation we evangelicals might be forced to be witnesses to what it means to be Christians at Christmas. And this would mean to disavow ourselves of the association between Christmas and buying stuff. So for the sake of our witness to the birth of Christ, let’s boycott the stupid shopping craze entirely and let’s not associate Christmas with any advertising having to do with going to malls, Target or Wall Mart. And let us ask target and Wall-Mart to not desecrate the word “Christmas” by using it to advertise stupid stuff and entice people to buy things. And let the church be the anti mall. Instead of going to buy stupid things nobody wants, let us figure out how to gather and make thoughtful inexpensive crafts as expressions of joy and hope and then give them away, let us bring food, clothing and stuff we can’t use because we bought too much stuff last year, and give it to those who are broke. Let us advertise this as Christmas. Please don’t think we at Life on the Vine have arrived at this stage yet, I’m just thinking about how to make this into a great Christmas liturgy. Merry Christmas …

As Jordon Cooper has recorded and Scott McKnight rightly reminds us, it is not just the mega churches that are canceling church on Christmas Sunday. There are a large percentage of all evangelical churches doing the same. The reason? - our people want to be with their families. That means traveling or staying home. When you don’t see time as shaping you, but rather as a quantity to be used for maximal efficiency it makes sense to stay home on Christmas and use the services during the week to have maximal impact for both for information distributing (sermons) and evangelizing. Of course there’s a reason why we meet on Sunday - we are rehearsing the resurrection of our Lord every first day of the week. But we evangelicals have no sense of rehearsal, re-living, of ordering and time. The ancient church year rehearses the life of Christ, God’s Coming (Advent), Revealing (Epiphany), Suffering and Redeeming (Lent), Victory (Easter) and New Life (Post Easter) and giving of the His Spirit and the forming of His People (Pentecost). Its rhythms and movements shape us into His life and where He is taking Time and History. We evangelicals don’t get this. I am an evangelical who grew up never having a sense of time … my raging life desires and impulses never had any place to be ordered into another order and pattern that truly invited me in to submit everything, my body, soul, family and future into His Time.

So believe it or not, I am saying let’s get off the mega churches! And those of us emerging, can we seek ways to invite people into God’s Time? I recommend Robert Webber’s Ancient Future Time.

Saturday night, our congregation got together and had a party. It has been the same liturgy now for four years, since the beginning of the church. On Friday night, we get together, turn on the boombox with Christmas music, pull out the decorations including the decrepid old fake Christmas tree, we hang up lights, set up tables, set up the dance floor squares we made two years ago, eat pizza, take breaks and talk. It is a marvelous night for me. Then on Saturday night, the whole church gathers to have the mother of all potluck dinners. Everyone brings their favorite dish (Rae Ann (my wife) has brought her now famous meatloaf for 4 straight years - I can't even get a piece of it by the time I get to the food tables). We "share the peace" of Christmas, we pray "thanks to God for His Coming." We eat, talk, have some good conversations, share some toasts (which is what the baptists used to call "testimonies"), then we have a program of about 7 entertaining, joyous performances from the talented ones in our midst. The children did some musical numbers, we had some hilarious comedy (Tim Phlug did his Napolean Dynamite immitation with a Santa hat on), we have the annual Life on the Vine Christmas Poem, we had some serious Christmas musical performances (way to go Michele!). Then we sang carols and prayed for God to Come again into our Midst this Advent, this year. THEN WE DANCED! It is the grandest, biggest potluck of the year. It sets the tone for potluck celebrations all year.

Can I suggest that we evangelicals who seek to manifest God in Christ before the world might have to learn how to "party." We need to learn how to celebrate in the midst of the narcissism and despair of our culture culture. We celebrate not to escape but to truly revel in God's working, His Coming to us in acts of wonder this past year. In this way the Mennonite potluck dinner is truly a liturgy that forms us and shapes us yet invites the stranger in to see what marvelous life we have been given in the coming of Christ, his death and resurrection. It shapes us to see God at work both in the past and the present and in the future. And so as Mark Thieseen-Nation reminds us, the potluck truly is a powerful experience producing liturgy. It is also exactly the kind of evangelical practice I have emphasized in The Great Giveaway.

I know Advent season is supposed to be a little more somber, contemplative, waiting and longing. We are not supposed to party really until Christmas, I think? But given the cultural habits we all have to deal with where people desert the churches and travel on Christmas, we have had to put this grand time on the Saturday night before Second Sunday Advent. Will Bob Webber give us a break on this one? For us, it has seemed to make sense to do it on this night. Anyways, can I encourage all of us evangelicals, especially emerging ones, to learn the skill of "party" so that we can truly be formed into joy and share that joy with strangers to the gospel through hospitality. Is there an "amen" out there on this one?

Peace and Blessings to all in this great Season of Advent