My Annoying Little Question About Jesus

Michael Spencer July 28th, 2008

Ah, my annoying little question. I do love it.

What question is that? Well, first a bit of background.

My experience with evangelicalism has sent me on a project that I call Jesus Shaped Spirituality. That's not a book title….yet. It is a blog title, but more importantly, it's a way of conceiving as much of Christianity as possible in a way that…

Connects directly with Jesus as presented in the Gospels and in the rest of scripture.

Imitates what Jesus would do, as best as we can deduce such from scripture.

Applies the example and teaching of Jesus in the contemporary context in ways that are congruent with what Jesus did and meant in his context.

(C.I.A., in case you didn't notice.)

This is an impossible project, of course, but it is one that will occupy me for the rest of my life, and a good bit of that occupation will be annoying those who have disconnected their "Christianity" from any similarity to what Jesus says or does.

Oh…I am not being facetious. Jesus is the problem for a lot of people who claim his religion. He just tended to take things too far and make things too simple.

So what is my annoying question? About 5 years ago, I started using this question to gauge what I was saying, debating, doing, advocating, teaching, etc.

"If I were to spend three years following Jesus (actually with Jesus himself), how would it affect the way I feel about….."(fill in the
blank.)

Here are some of the ways I put that question to work in a blog post from several years ago:

“If you were to spend three years hanging around with Jesus as he is presented in the Gospels, do you believe you would come to the conclusion that the primary job of a pastor is to ensure a church gets as large as possible?”

“If you were to spend three years hanging around with Jesus as he is presented in the Gospels, do you believe you would present the doctrine of predestination the same way as contemporary Calvinists present it?”

“…do you believe you would come to the conclusion that without the right kind of music, your church can’t grow?”

“…do you believe you would come to the conclusion that systematic theology is as precise and as important as we’ve made it?”

“…do you believe you would come to the conclusion that Jesus is best represented by western, American, middle-class white evangelicalism?”

“…do you believe you would come to the conclusion that evangelicals are treating homosexuals like Jesus does?"

“…do you believe you would come to the conclusion that confessing Christians who disagree on the meaning of the Lord’s supper should disfellowship one another?”

“…do you believe you would come to the conclusion that the best way to describe the Bible is the word inerrant? And that those who didn't use that word are dangerous?”

“…do you believe you would come to the conclusion that pastoral ministry is primarily about defending our theology from those who differ from us?”

“…do you believe you would place as much value as we do on formal, school based, education?”

“…do you believe you would promote “family values” and the “culture war” as important causes that represent Jesus?”

“…do you believe you would identify with the Republican or the Democratic parties?”

“…do you believe you would come to the conclusion that it’s very important to read from one translation of the Bible only?”

“…do you believe you would come to the conclusion that Jesus would identify himself with the labels of your denomination or group?”

“…do you believe you would come to the conclusion that the Christian life as explained by evangelical evangelists and church leaders today is true to Jesus?”

“…do you believe you would come to the conclusion that the emerging church is unfaithful to Jesus and should be condemned?”

“… do you believe you would come to the conclusion that you are not one of the rich? Or one of the Pharisees-types?”

“…do you believe you would come to the conclusion that you are, now, a disciple and follower of Jesus? Not a fan, but a follower?”

“…do you believe you would come to the conclusion that the terms “liberal” and “conservative” are really helpful?”

“…do you believe you would come to the conclusion that the Reformation was the high point of Christian history?”

“…what kind of sermons would you preach?”

“…do you believe you would come to the conclusion that your current approach to prayer is similar to Jesus?”

“…do you believe your treatment of people would change?”

“…do you believe you would spend money as you do today?”

That's just a start. You should be plenty annoyed already.

Christians like to be people who believe things about Jesus. But what did Jesus believe that I should believe to? What did Jesus do that I should be doing? What attitudes did Jesus promote that I need to adopt?

And more importantly, what plain and obvious aspects of following Jesus have I exempted myself from?

I realize some Christians are experts at dividing up the Bible and inserting theology at just the right places so that we all can ignore the questions above. It's the kind of thinking that had some Christians refusing to seat blacks in their churches in the 1950's and 60's. It all looks pretty silly now. As it should.

Have a good time with my annoying question. I am a long way from letting it do everything in my life it can do.

Michael Spencer is a writer and communicator living in a Christian community in southeast Kentucky. He blogs at Internetmonk.com and most recently at Jesus Shaped Spirituality.

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 8:45 am and is filed under Christianity, Church, Jesus, Jesus Shaped Spirituality, Michael Spencer, Religion and Spirituality, The Internet Monk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.