The Next Spiritual Awakening

The Next Spiritual Awakening in the CoTN, if there is one, will come as we finally face

the collapse of our long term viability as a union of individual churches focused upon spiritual formation alone. The only question is wether such a renewal can transcend the multiple influences that shape and divide us, including:

1) Cultural (urban/rural), and;

2) Theological (American revivalist/European

Confessional) and;

3) Worldviews (Modernity/Post-modern)?

Are we capable of drawing from the best inside these streams shaping us? If so, communal prayer will be key.

In North America we are a faith community dependent upon an evangelical experience in search of meaning. We are caught in a fog between cultural and world view shifts, in an environment conflicted about the purpose of individual salvation, in search of communal salvation; no longer defining the human good only as committed integrity, instead favoring communal service.

To thrive, the Christian faith has always required three inter-connecting realities; Spirit, Communal and institutional shared experience and an outside danger. Remove any one of these supporting pillars and the whole edifice over time collapses on itself.

Today, in the North American church we are weak in Spirit, yet diverse in our communal experience and stronger for it. The greatest danger is our distrust of one another as unworthy partners in the search for meaning. Two of three pillars are in stress and hence, we are generally in decline.

I have noticed a shift in my Naz faith as practiced around the coffee bar away from feeling to reason, from internal to external salvation, from optimism about an awakening of the Spirit transforming society in positive ways to a pessimism about humanity’s restoration and hope now centered in another time and place—far away from this planet. It is a splintered picture needing a unifying theology of “meaning.”

That meaning is as ancient as the Church and as fresh as our Wesleyan beginnings—in search of:

1) Loving God 1st, as no other, and;

2) Loving our neighbors—the very ones Christ introduces us to.

These twin principles cross the divide. The difficulty and promise will come in two challenges:

1) The experience of personal salvation in the late 19th century in the heights of rationalism and order will look very different in a post-modern world of fluidity carried along by communal narrative, and;

2) A renewed definition of neighbor compelling enough to heal the cultural/political divisions that envelope all of us.

The Divides

Urban versus Rural

The CoTN is a rural church rooted in the timeless, neighborly, grounded space of rural America. Modernity as “objective, reliable” laws of nature and natures God still hold cultural sway. Character, including the firm grip of a handshake are valued above all; salvation seen as restoring God’s image expressed in a character free of the compulsions of our sin nature, strong enough, good enough to prosper and generous enough to come to the aid of any neighbor, who looks very much like ourselves. Urban culture Is fully post-modern; a mosaic of inter-acting communities each rooted in their familial narrative, yet adrift, vulnerable in the politics of power—searching for a safe place to simply be.

Capitalism appears chaotic, like a turbulent stream rewarding those who are practiced riding it’s waves, sucking far too many under, tossing and turning till lost on the streets. For most, the wealth of the market glistens in the lights of a city magical, it’s theaters and art and consumerism keep the music alive even as the promise of future equity provides hope of a soft landing.

The cherished value, above all else. Is community; a place where no one is excluded because of the inner turbulence of their fluid identity—be it gender or orientation or cultural heritage; only intolerance is not tolerated. MAGA versus Sanctuary

Making America great Again only deepens the urban/rural divide. Part of it is clearly the temperament and use of immigration as a prejudicial class of persons by President Trump. That political divide is rooted in the invested promoters in each camp, left and right, demagoguing “the other” as traitor, as un-American or racist. We see it asserted as President Biden demagogues the several states who in response to perceived confusion in mass ballot mailings and harvesting of same, both broadened access to mail in balloting and pre-election voting while tightening verification rules. The President called it Jim-Crow 2.0 and indicted anyone in favor of these efforts to broaden access and limit cheating as a traitor, a new Strong Thurmond or Jefferson Davis.

This political, social schism is particularly insidious when the political camps are chasing the spiritual for partners in power and the Church confuses its message of announcing the Kingdom of Loves Reign for the American Empire’s Renewal. In that moment it is our love of Country that is supreme not our love of God and our neighbors knocking on our doors.

The Church and Israel before is called to be a sacramental Presence in and to the whole world; a blessing pointing toward the Shalom or restoration of human flourishing. It is a political, social and cultural message to be sure. It is centered in ”Sanctuary,” a Mosaic concept written into the heart of Israel that wether foreign born or of Jewish origin people need safe places, cities in this case, to run to. Places where they would not be hounded by the law or by prejudice and instead allowed a second chance, to start again.

Maga or it’s Democratic equal (BLM) is about power, prestige, our place in the pecking order. Sanctuary is about reverence, dignity, start overs. It is for a community who understands exile, what it is to be on the outside.

Character versus Missional Presence

It is time to take the “versus“ out. Loving God 1st and loving neighbor are twin sides of the same coin. Moderns would logically argue that that loving God is fundamental to loving our neighbor. Post Moderns would argue that Loving Others is loving God. Both would be correct.

I’m convinced that wherever love truly is, God is! Indeed, as Wesley understood, true love for our neighbors (including enemies) is the result of God’s gracious Presence with every human and person (Prevenient grace).1

I’m also convinced that people who love God have done and still do unloving things and support political and social outcomes rooted in ignorance and prejudice; The emphasis on neighbor being necessary.

What is not possible is to be a Missional Presence without listening. Listening is both interior and exterior. I cannot truly listen to another’s voice if I am formulating my response inside. That is argument. Listening is the ability to be with another as they are, not as we wish they would be. When that happens there is a “spirit” that rises between two or more persons. It is mutual respect, fidelity, love—a familial sense of one another. It is this quality that is at the very center of God’s invitation to enter into a Christ way of being. “In the same way, the Spirit comes to help our weakness. We don’t know what we should pray, but the Spirit himself pleads our case with unexpressed groans. The one who searches hearts knows how the Spirit thinks, because he pleads for the saints, consistent with God’s will“ (Romans‬ ‭8:26-27‬ ‭CEB‬‬). It is the church at its best.

I’m personally convinced that the next great awakening will, like those in the past, come from new Missional Places where sinners and saints gather around community and give; not from a place above, but as co-equals, friends with common needs—as those who take our justification as a treasure held by all.

Inside such communities the gift of being “entirely“ given over to the sanctifying presence of The Spirit will be self-evident and hence a renewal of it’s import is essential to being “fully” present in any Missional space, in every genuine conversation. But it will emerge not from dogma or theological exposition but from the actual needs of a given community, from a place of humility.

It is time to unite the European and American holiness streams allowing urban and rural faith communities to prayerfully pursue spiritual hunger—to allow very different paths according to their world views to the very same place; love God first as no other and all our neighbors as ourselves. It is time to take the us versus them out and thus become sacramental signs of Christ in our world.

Blessings! Terry :)

1 Naz theologian Ray Dunning, if memory serves, describes Wesley’s understanding of Prevenient Grace or the “grace that goes before salvation and given to all” will likely be the most radical of his teachings.

I think he is correct, especially when combined with Wesley’s equally compelling understanding that in the cross atonement is unconditionally applied to Adam’s originating sin and the human temperaments and wounds that flow to every daughter and son of Adam. This “initial justification“ given in Christ’s suffering removes any culpability for Adam’s original sin. This is profound and far reaching. Wesley understood that only personal sin is “provisionally“ forgiven, made real as is our justification as we respond with confession of need and repentance and works (grace assisted) which evidence our heart being purified.

This understanding of God’s restorative grace offered in Christ and to all humanity makes human love and good works both possible, real and salvific. This preventing and initiating grace means that salvation is not about a penal code but the restoration of God’s image in humanity. In the most complete sense, it is not sin thst is forgiven, but us. The only issue that remains is what we do with God’s grace, our personal sin or righteousness.

So much is made by some of how far from Wesleyan theology the Methodist tradition has fallen and by implication, so we, Nazarenes. I would suggest that it is not a failure (to the extent true) of “entire” that creates a danger of drift so much as a failure to appreciate what Wesley clearly did—All improvements toward becoming fully human is a result of grace and not the work of education or human ingenuity, but of God’s continuous efforts to minimize Adam’s wounds and maximize the healing and cleansing reach of grace at every point.