BARCODE MINISTRIES

I was reading the Bible wrong. I know that real Christians aren’t supposed to admit it, but it’s true. I didn’t know how to read the Bible for many years, despite having every conceivable advantage. I grew up in a Christian home. I went to Bible college. I was lovingly nurtured as a child to appreciate the Good Book. I’ve been to (and led) countless Bible studies. I’ve defended the Bible, and to my shame, I’ve even weaponized it. But for all the hours I’ve spent between its pages, something wasn’t working. No matter how much I’d agonize over the Bible, it left me unaffected. My behavior wasn’t particularly good; my thought life no better. And my heart was just as it always had been. And yet there seemed no doubt that the Bible was able to invoke transformation in others. I had a problem: I was stuck.

I’m afraid that other Christians are in the same boat. At least it seems that way at my church. As it turns out, the problem is that many of us have been reading the Bible, when we should have been reading Scripture. This project investigates Scripture’s role on the path toward Christian formation, within the context of Christian community.  It may seem that the difference between a surface reading of the Bible and an active participation with Scripture is subtle, but it is not. The first leads to spiritual “stuckness” and the second gives birth to transformation and formation. The difference is the Holy Spirit.

The Bible is just the Bible. Regarded as the Church’s Holy Book, the Bible comprises of the 66 books in the Protestant tradition. But Scripture is the Bible energized by the Holy Spirit. It seems that it is easy to forget that the Word of God, although utilizing words, is more than just words. When “of God” is added to the phrase, the Word shakes loose from the page and breaks into our hearts. The Word of God seems to carry with it some agenda, whether it be any utterance that comes from God or is spoken on his behalf, including Jesus who is the literal word of God, encased in flesh (John 1:1-14). To read the Bible wrong is to ignore God’s agenda.  

My Journey

Like many children that grew up in a Christian home with parents who were key leaders in the local church, I became a Christian at a young age. I’m not sure I truly understood what this decision meant, or how my life was supposed to be any different. I thought that to become a Christian, all you had to do was feel bad for the wrong you had done and never do it again. Or at least try not to. From then on, I thought that being a Christian was about knowing the right things and being able to verbally regurgitate whatever the Sunday School teacher taught. But the story of the Prodigal Son showed me that I was wrong.

The parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 is so named because of the extravagant living he enjoys in a faraway land with his father’s money. But perhaps the story is better referred to as the Lost Son. It fits a little better with the two parables found immediately prior in the gospel about a lost coin and a lost sheep.

The story was this: A man had two sons, and the younger grew tired of farm life and started to itch for adventure. So he asked for his share of his father’s inheritance and made his way to a distant land. There he financed a party like none other. Soon the money was gone, and so were his new friends. He found himself alone.

His stomach began to growl with hunger, so he hired himself out to feed pigs. One day, while he was fighting the pigs for a morsel (and losing), he came to his senses. Maybe life under his father’s roof wasn’t so bad after all. Dad was no tyrant- even his servants ate well! He humbled himself and made his way home, rehearsing his speech of repentance.

The father, meanwhile, couldn’t believe his eyes. Off in the distance, he noticed his younger son shuffling up the road. He ran to him and welcomed him home. The son began the practiced speech but the father interrupted him with orders for the servants to adorn his child with robes, rings and sandals. And to fire up the BBQ! The father couldn’t contain himself- “My son was dead but is alive again! He was lost, but now is found!” The atmosphere was fully festive: Music, dancing, and food. The party got late and loud. The son was back and the father couldn’t be happier.

For me, this was the end of the story; at least it’s the point I quit paying attention. My spiritual journey parallels this rebellious son, who, although he causes great pain to his father, comes to repentance and makes his way back to safety. Mistakes were made and sins were committed, but eventually there was a change of heart.

The story is filled with hope. Jesus was reminding us that God leaves the welcome mat out for repentant hearts. And although we experience guilt and shame for our treasonous acts against him, he forgives and celebrates. Because that’s the sort of Father he is.

But the story doesn’t end there. In the second half of the parable, we pick things up from the older son’s perspective, and it’s here that we discover that perhaps the story isn’t aptly named “The Lost Son” after all, but instead should be “The Lost Sons.” Although the younger son’s heart led to his outward rebellion, the older son’s heart isn’t aligned either. In their own way, both were lost.

The older son heard the commotion of the party and inquired. When he is told that his younger brother had returned and that the father’s response was not condemnation but celebration, he became indignant. His judgmental spirit expressed itself as anger and he refused to go in.

The father begged him to see it from his perspective, “I had to celebrate.” His love compelled him.

But the son wouldn’t hear it. He back-talked back to his father: “I have known the right things. I have done the right things. Where is my celebration?” In the moment, the older son was stuck. He couldn’t see beyond himself. His claim of proper theology and proper practice were acknowledged, but because his heart was not aligned with his father’s heart, they were discounted. Standing outside the party in the dark, with heart unrenewed, the older son stubbornly remained lost.

My spiritual journey parallels the older lost son as well. It is easy to get caught up in monotonous routine, as the heart drifts further from the Father. This is the harder lost-ness to get found from. There is no pig-wrestling crisis. The passion just slowly fades and life becomes dull. Perhaps we only feel stuck when we realize we haven’t moved in quite a while and that its been a long time since we’ve even tried. That’s been my story more often than I care to admit.

As a child I was led to believe that the solution to my “stuckness” was simple. The familiar Sunday School song laid out the plan:

Read your Bible, pray everyday

Pray everyday, pray everyday.

Read your Bible, pray everyday

And you’ll grow, grow, grow.

You can imagine my frustration when this didn’t seem to work. I had turned to the Bible for help but felt that the simple act of reading the Bible was not altogether satisfying. I needed to read beyond the words on the pages and fully immerse myself in the story of Jesus. I needed more than just words. Incidentally, the same was true for my prayer life. Merely saying words at God didn’t help me to grow. Although I couldn’t have articulated it at the time, I needed the Holy Spirit to help give the words meaning. I knew that I wanted to grow spiritually, but I wasn’t even sure what that meant.

There are several helpful terms for growth that are often used interchangeably, but that in fact carry nuance. “Christian formation” is being formed into the likeness of Christ. We are formed (shaped, molded) by all sorts of influences, but here I refer to that which nurtures us as “little christs.” The “discipleship process” is the process of following Christ or being his disciple. It is similar to Christian formation, but is usually oriented more toward action, and it suggests some kind of progression or journey. “Spiritual growth” is, in a general sense, a movement towards Christlikeness. We become like Christ when our imaginations, commitments, motivations, attitudes, values, and understandings are aligned with those of Christ’s.

Naming the Issues

Over the years I have noticed that I was not alone in this quest for a deeper spiritual life.  I have counted it a privilege to be invited by others to walk with them on their spiritual journey. I have come to realize that the work of Christian formation is a long, slow process that requires engagement with both the Holy Spirit and caring community. The Christian suffers a shallow spiritual life when deprived of the encouragement found there. The deeper spiritual life is then limited to an immediately and temporarily satiated one.

Sadly, the practice of faithfully slogging along seems to be missing in the church, too. I am convinced that it is clear that God intends for his people to grow and mature in Christ. People throughout history have witnessed an ache for something more, as I did. Perhaps it is a desire to do more, or be more, but it is an ache nonetheless. That ache, also described as an inner groaning, has been used by the Holy Spirit to strengthen God’s people, using Scripture and Christian community.

God’s people will be formed as Christians to the extent that they engage Scriptures and the Christian community by the power of the Holy Spirit. As a pastor, I have seen some unfortunate patterns of poor Christian formation. It seems that some people do not want to be formed, thus they reject the Holy Spirit. Others do want to be formed, but they seem to be interested in everything but Scripture. Still others have given up on community and have left the church altogether, often due to past hurts, trying to go it alone.