The Two Camps
May 6, 2008 by Jonathan Brink
I’m reading what I think will be one of the more important books written in the next ten years. My opinion. It’s Walking With God by John Eldredge. For those who haven or haven’t read John before, this is almost a complete departure from his previous works in masculinity and a return to his earlier works. Much broader in terms of spiritual formation. I’ll post a review when I’m done.
But in the Summer section he highlights an intriguing dialog on two traditional camps.
“The first is the the holiness or “righteous” crowd. They are the folks holding up the standard, preaching a message of moral purity. The results have been…mixed. Some morality, and a great deal of guilt and shame.”
This is the group I grew up on. Suck it up, dig in your heals and just do what is right. It was deeply shameful and full of a tremendous amount of hypocrisy. When someone falls (my pastor was caught in an affair) restoration is virtually impossible.
The other camp is the grace camp.
“Their message is that we can’t hope to satisfy a holy God, but we are forgiven. We are under grace. And praise the living God, we are under grace. But what about holiness? What about deep personal change?”
These two camps appear to mimic the fight or flight responses we see throughout humanity. One posits an unreasonable burden that we cannot possible accomplish on our own. The other simple abandons any responsibility for the self.
But as John points out, neither is wholistic. He points to a third way found in whole restoration that embraces grace but seeks wholeness. This is for me true spirituality, a grace that seeks restoration found in surrendering to His Spirit.
Which camp did you grow up in?
I grew up in the righteous camp. The emphasis was on all of the traditional “sins”, drinking, smoking, movies, music, etc. Of course I tried all of them, more than once
I agree about the third way. I believe that a true understanding of grace leads us to desire a holy life and submit to the Spirit out of gratitude to God. It is the Spirit that forms us into the image of Christ and makes us holy
Fred, I tried them once too. And they don’t work.
I am so grateful that I grew up in an atheistic home. Seriously, I’m grateful. When I came to know Jesus I was 25 years old. I didn’t have any religious baggage to get rid of as I knew nothing at all about God, Jesus, church, etc.
Since then, though, I’ve “grown up” in what I think is the most damaging of all: Places that seem to preach grace, but the law is hidden there under the surface. The message is that you’re forgiven and loved, but…. That “but” brings more confusion and condemnation than most of us realize. That’s why I’ve spent the last decade of my life clearing it out of my head!
Sounds like a great book. I know what I’ll be reading soon.
I grew up in the first camp, as did everyone in my family. Tracy said she is happy she had no “baggage to get rid of” - I certainly did (and do!). Going through college and getting my BA in Bible and Theology really helped deconstruct a lot of warped thinking. The reconstruction has been an amazing ride.
My dad was a pastor for many years and my mom, a backbone of the church in the eyes of so many, fell into an affair that ripped our family apart. Her story is like so many others who grow up in a church and are told they must think, act and feel this way or else they should be ashamed and when the fit hits the shan (as often happens in life) you can’t turn to the church because the church will frown upon you and only heap the guilt on you all the more.
I’m reminded of the Nazarene couple in Olathe, Kansas (Dateline did a special on them) where the woman killed her husband because she thought it was better in the eyes of her church to be seen as a widow rather than a divorcee. How tragic.
Some stories have happy endings. After a bitter divorce and a hell on earth for nearly 5 years, my parents reconciled and got remarried. That was my Red Sea moment and the moment I allowed God to take me and use me (quit job and went to school to become a pastor). My parents now teach marriage classes and speak nationally and my mom has written a book called Confessions of an Adulterous Christian Woman which tells her story. I’ve blogged about it here: http://chadholtz.wordpress.com/category/books/
I’ll have to check out Eldridge’s new book. I enjoyed his other works. This one sounds even better.
peace,
Chad
Chad, I remember the day I walked away from the first camp. It was my birth into the second and a fateful day. My journey to a more wholistic faith took another 15 years.
Tracy, I think there is a lot of value in not having to deconstruct the first camp. I think its hard to do because of tradition and relationships. Did you have a hard time leaving Atheism, if you were?
I did not have a hard time leaving atheism at all. No one had ever just sat me down and presented the gospel to me. The first time I heard it, it just made so much sense to me and I said yes on the spot.
I hear so many folks come to know Jesus when they’re at the bottom of the barrel of life, but that wasn’t the case with me. I’d just gotten married two months earlier and was as happy as a pig in mud.
Rich (my hubby) and I came to know Jesus at the same time, so that was doubly wonderful. We went home that night just floored–and deliriously happy! We’ve never looked back.