Posted on 02/08/2008 1:32:50 PM PST by fgoodwin
The Future Lies in the Past -- Why evangelicals are connecting with the early church as they move into the 21st century.
Many 20- and 30-something evangelicals are uneasy and alienated in mall-like church environments; high-energy, entertainment-oriented worship; and boomer-era ministry strategies and structures modeled on the business world. Increasingly, they are asking just how these culturally camouflaged churches can help them rise above the values of the consumerist world around them.
For younger evangelicals, traditional churches are too centered on words and propositions. And pragmatic churches are compromising authentic Christianity by tailoring their ministries to the marketplace and pop culture. The younger evangelicals seek a renewed encounter with a God beyond both doctrinal definitions and super-successful ministry programs.
So what to do? Easy, says this youth movement: Stop endlessly debating and advertising Christianity, and just embody it. Live it faithfully in community with others--especially others beyond the white suburban world of many megachurch ministries. Embrace symbols and sacraments. Dialogue with the "other two" historic confessions: Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Recognize that "the road to the church's future is through its past." And break out the candles and incense. Pray using the lectio divina. Tap all the riches of Christian tradition you can find.
This is the road to maturity. That more and more evangelicals have set out upon it is reason for hope for the future of gospel Christianity. That they are receiving good guidance on this road from wise teachers is reason to believe that Christ is guiding the process. And that they are meeting and learning from fellow Christians in the other two great confessions, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox, is reason to rejoice in the power of love.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
the rector taking over a vibrant church in this town made one of the 11AM services a month contemporary. The contemporary service attendance was probably down 20-25%, each time. The traditional ones remained well attended. That rector is no longer there - for other reasons. All services now are traditional.
Yes, we had an older couple visiting. They were forced to go all the way down near the front to get a seat. (Rude to not save seats in the back for visitors). As soon as the contemporary music started, they immediately stood and left, never to return.
So are you implying that Catholics (or perhaps Eastern religions) practice differently than protestants? Help me understand your point.
So they'd prefer a Catholic or Orthodox church? Not likely.
No. They are called monks and hermits and devote their lives to prayer and fast. Many of them have been proclaimed saints.
Yes, appalling isn’t it? that people are so willing to fall for this and unable to see the error.
The point is that lectio divina is a ritual and rituals really don’t give you more ‘spirituality.’ Rituals are fine if they give you structure and organization to your life but the way lectio divina has been promoted in our ex church (the Evangelical Covenant denomination) which you can read about here:
Habits of the Heart:
http://www.covchurch.org/cge/departmental-ministries/evangelism—prayer/habits-of-the-heart
it quotes from THE ANCIENT TRADITION OF LECTIO DIVINA by Diogenes Allen
An ordained Episcopal.
Another thing they’ve been doing is promoting labyrinth prayer walking and other meaningless rituals. Centering prayer, etc. These are useless and only give people an illusion of ‘spiritual maturity’ and a ‘feeling’ at best.
They also promote ‘entering the silence’ which is a great way to introduce yourself to demonic influence. (even the practicioners/promoters admit this).
This kind of mysticism all flows from the same source/attitude — that the Word of God is not sufficient to sanctify us and preserve us in the one true faith. We have to have MORE — we think we have to have rituals and ‘tradition’ (nothing wrong with them if kept in perspective) or something we DO to make us more ‘spiritual.’
Lectio Divina is not the same as 'proper hermeneutics' and 'proper exegesis.'
The Emerging Church is just theological liberalism with a new name.
Re: credentials of presenters at Wheaton theology conference: I was the author of the article. The presenters are respected academics, mostly from Protestant seminaries and colleges in the U.S. and Canada. Almost to a person, they do not identify themselves with the Emergent movement.
It seems to me that if lectio divina is now being classified as New Age, or as it it were somehow to be comparable to labrynths, and/or centering prayer, then lectio divina has been hi-jacked, so to speak.
Lectio Divina is nothing more or less than meditation upon Sacred Scriptures. It is the reading of a text in scripture, reflecting on it as if every word was intended for oneself and as if every text is speaking of Christ, and is Christ speaking to oneself through Scripture. In this way of reflection and seeking the Lord in His written word, prayer becomes a time of conversation with Christ, a time of seeking in prayer, of repentance and of resolution.
Any text from Scripture may be chosen, for one is free to do that. But, for me as a Catholic, it is helpful to use the Scriptural texts from the Mass of that day—the same readings that fellow Catholics all over the world may be also meditating upon that day. And it has always been that the Divine Office (now known as the Liturgy of the Hours) is ideal for the prayer of lectio divina—from the Scriptural readings at Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer. Those readings are primarily from the Psalms with an additional text from the OT or NT.
Praying the Scriptures by way of lectio divina, if done in the ancient and proper way, helps Scripture to be ever in the heart, and on the mind and the lips of the one who chooses this way of meditating on God’s Holy Word.
It should not be classified as the same as or as opposed to
‘proper hermeneutics’ or ‘proper exegesis’.
Lectio Divina is a mystical meditative practice that hijacked the repetitive mantras and mindset of the far east, replacing the words with Scripture, but accomplishing the same thing. It is not Christian meditation which means to think and study and pray (with your mind rather than emptying the mind).
See my last post above.
This is an empty, unsubstantiated claim besides being, from the onset, a false and greatly exaggerated understanding of a form of prayer that is quite simple and straightforward.
In a word, lectio divina is “meditating on the word of the Lord day and night”.
It’s lamentable that it has to be presented as anything else.
It’s regrettable that there are websites out there that have twisted lectio divina into something other than what it truthfully is.
Lectio divina is one person sitting with Sacred Scriptures in his hands, reading passages from it, letting the Holy Spirit give him understanding and counsel from God’s word and letting it enter into his heart and mind, that he may better live in the Presence of God.
What a pity that it should be called “repetitive mantra” and “replacing the words of Scripture”.
What a pity that there is lack of discernment to distinguish the true act of Scripture reading and the false use of something that is essentially right and good.
So then what is, by nature, a good thing is called bad.
“An enemy has done this”.
There are indeed times when opinions become nonsense, and worse yet, present falsehoods.
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