I had a conversation recently with a friend. He is considering moving his church calendar from being ordered by the American calendar to the Christian calendar. He is not trying to celebrate all the feasts and days of saints, but to get away from the influence of the American civil religion and the consumerism that accompanies it, and ordering the church around the Christian calender, which in effect orders the church around Jesus.
Our church moved that way last year. I have moved to using the lectionary for preaching and I talk about the major emphases that come with the Christian calendar. We celebrated Ascension day last week and I used the lectionary texts to talk about the theological importance of the Ascension. We will deal with Pentecost this coming week.
In our discussions, I told him that he needs to know that moving in this direction, utilizing a prayer book, ordering your life and the life of the church around the Christian calendar, and employing resources and readings found in other denominations could lead you to being something other Southern Baptist. Part of that has to do with a complete lack of engagement by Southern Baptists with the Christian calendar and the theological meaning behind it, as well as the historical implementation of it by the early church. Another reason is that you have to go outside of Southern Baptist thought to find good, Christ-centric resources for spiritual formation.
I described my own journey through that process. The Christian calendar forms you and the church by centering your life around Jesus. It does not center you life around the gospel or the scriptures, but around Jesus. That is by design. And when you center your life around Jesus, you begin to see and think about things differently than what exists in most denominational frameworks.
I described for my friend a conversation I had with my coach in which he challenged me on where I was theologically. I told him:
- I am not Methodist (or other forms of Weslyan theology) because I believe in eternal security and I still believe in immersion as the mode of baptism.
- I am not Charismatic because I don’t believe in a second blessing or that tongues are required for salvation.
- I am not Presbyterian because I do not believe in infant baptism.
- I am not of the more liturgical denominations because I do not believe the sacraments convey grace.
- And I am not a typical Southern Baptist, or should I say the current mode of Southern Baptist, because I am far too flexible in my relationships with others who center their life around Jesus, not a specific, hardline, Baptist theology and practice. I would like to think I am a historical Baptist connecting with the historical church of the first four centuries and helping my own church find a similar connection.
But I have no problem celebrating Jesus with people from each of these different backgrounds.
So my friend asked me, as I described my own journey, “Where do you end up?”
I said to him, “you end up where the Spirit takes you. And he always takes you to Jesus. And he wants to form you into a reflection of Jesus.” That is always where a Christo-centric shaped spiritual formation takes you. It always takes you to Jesus.
Those led by the Spirit are the Sons and Daughters of God. We are part of a new people being formed into the image of Christ by the Spirit. As such, our lives to be Christo-centric, not gospel-centric or kingdom-centric, or social justice-centric. We order our lives around a relationship with Jesus.
Whether you are Methodist or Baptist or Presbyterian or something else, when you order your life around Jesus and not denominational practices, or esoteric ideas, you end up talking and thinking and acting like Jesus. And that’s not a bad place to be.
