Radically Happy

I think my dream is about revival:

Dream: Glory to God / Avenger Christmas

At least, I will interpret it as clues about what I subconsciously expect from revival. Which is not necessarily what God wants — though I hope it is close!

A. Inspiring Culture

Why was a secular singer parodying Christian worship? And why did I see that as a good thing?

Because parody is a tribute the marginal pay to the mainstream. It implies something so noteworthy that the singer felt inspired to respond directly to it, rather than simple create.

Of course parody is close to mockery, which is how high-status keeps low-status in their place. But that wasn’t how it felt.

B. Embedded Witness

The venue feels like the marketplace. I am there because I have a job to do. The Queen Latifah character is someone excited about God, not necessarily a Christian. But we rejoice together.

I am convinced this is where true revival will form. There may be seeds sown in traditional churches (or Christian schools). But the new wineskins will take shape in marketplace fellowships inside secular institutions. Where they are actually more free to focus purely on glorifying God, rather than sustaining the institution.

C. Two Faces of Church

So what becomes of the church?
It will be built on two pillars:

1. Corporate acts of mercy (represented by Santa)
2. Celebrating heroic expressions of Jesus (represented by the Avengers — and Santa)

I believe we have fundamentally misinterpreted Acts 2:42’s comment about “apostle’s teaching” through the lens of Calvin’s sermonization of Christian gatherings. Calvin was a great man who struggled mightily with the enormous challenge of trying to rediscover the gospel amidst the corruption of Christendom. He was as much political as spiritual leader, and that necessitated enforcing rigid intellectual conformity.

Yesterday’s brilliant innovation
Is today’s clever hack
And tomorrow’s embarrassing legacy

But the Jerusalem apostles weren’t academic scholars giving three-point Pauline sermons. They were ragtag friends of Jesus who had encountered a risen Messiah. I believe their “teaching” was primarily telling stories about their experience of Jesus (i.e., what became “the gospels”) to people who didn’t know him that way.

And that is what I think the “front half” of church must become again. A place for ordinary, uneducated “fishermen” to tell stories (usually against themselves!) of how and where they met Jesus. Where everyone can see the wires and safety vests to know they are really mere mortals like them, held up by Something Greater.

And maybe the moral authority to hold it all together is not an intellectual impresario inculcating imperial inheritance, but the Chief Compassion Officer (Santa). Whose heart is demonstrably big enough to sustain a structure that engages with the brokenness the world refuses to face.

D. Closer to Jesus

The last section is rather embarrassing, as I am literally hectoring a guy named Hector (about DBJ). But what seems to finally get through to him is the idea that a healthy relationship with Jesus must simultaneously be:

• Emotional
• Intellectual
• Practical

Every Christian tradition (and the ministries within them) seem to emphasize one over the others. While that is to some extent necessary given their role in God’s kingdom, the tragic consequence is that we worship a fractured Jesus through the lens of earthly leaders. To the point where we can’t distinguish their calling from their brokenness. Or ours.

Maybe revival will only be complete — or begin? — when Jesus transcends my brokenness to help others transcend theirs.

Maybe revival will only be complete — or begin? —
when Jesus transcends my brokenness
to help others transcend theirs.