While driving to work this morning I was listening to a preacher on the radio. He reiterated a common concern among church leaders. He said that the first generation of a church (or religious movement) has a hunger for God and for his Word, and labors to understand the scriptures and develop doctrines. The second generation defends these truths and doctrines and works hard to extend them. The third generation however is passive. They don’t value the doctrines because they haven’t worked for them. They seem to miss the whole point of church and have no zeal. While he didn’t do so, I’ve often heard the dilemma of the third generation described in terms of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or David, Solomon and Rehoboam – where in each case the spiritual life and character of the 3rd generation paled in comparison to the first.
How do you tell a man who has spent much of his life becoming “the” authority on scripture and systematizing doctrine that much of his efforts have been misguided? His purpose wasn’t to systematize truth and teach truth, but to live the truth, embody the truth, teach a love for the truth, and a desire for God. By becoming THE authority on scripture who has done all the seeking and searching for the next generation, what place is left for the young person – what unexplored territory exists for the young adventurer? If the whole world has been settled and is tamed how can you bemoan that there are no brave explorers in the next generation? Where’s the romance in memorizing a book of facts? The romance is in the digging, the searching, and the daring exploration.
Life in the spirit is not like scientific knowledge. In math, one explorer discovered algebra. Another person may have taken algebra and added Calculus. Another may have taken calculus and added trigonometry. And so each person’s work was built upon the work of those who preceded him. While that is how science progresses it is not how spiritual life works. Spiritual life isn’t about knowledge – it’s about a relationship with God. A young man may see a beautiful girl and ask all his friends about her, but he will never know her unless he takes a step toward her and speaks to her for himself. Should he choose to love her and make it his life’s ambition to cherish her and know her, no amount of books could convey the truth that is their relationship together. Every person must explore God and embark on life’s adventure with Him for themselves.
Another part of the problem is that when we systematize truth into theology is can become a straight jacket to the next generation. It becomes a series of fences that we don’t want them to cross, and a box that we don’t expect them to think outside of. Therefore they can never hope to go beyond us. Yet the scriptures are much more vibrant, deep and even ambiguous than our theology. But what if we missed something? What if God wants to take them where we ourselves have not gone? Perhaps we should teach the next generation a love for the scriptures and an appreciation of our theological discoveries, rather than a love for our theological discoveries with an appreciation of the scriptures.
Lastly, the third generation can become intimidated by the “greatness” of our stature and the length of our shadow. Yet when we started out we had no greatness or shadow - just humility, ignorance and a hunger for truth and for God. Perhaps we could build God up more and ourselves less. Ultimately its really about introducing each generation to God, and not about passing on our own legacy.
2 comments:
Always, there is something more.
The Truth Itself cannot be described, and so any theology is by definition incomplete. The balance of passing on "facts" vs "how to learn" is also present in spiritual instruction. You want to ground the student, but also equip them to explore and learn for themselves.
Yes. Well said.
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