Life Together: Dietrich Bonhoffer, Chapter 1

            In the beginning of chapter 1, Bonhoffer states, 

“It is by the grace of God that a congregation is permitted to gather visibly in this world to share God’s Word and sacrament. Not all Christians receive this blessing" (180). 

 I really appreciated that he stated this, because it is a very true statement. Between high school and college, I had the privilege of participating in a gap year program called STEP through the Brethren in Christ church denomination. This program was very similar to YWAM, but much smaller. I was able to serve as an intern and ESL teacher in Thailand for six months. During this time, I learned a lot about what it looks like to practice my beliefs outwardly and not be afraid of what others might think of me while doing this. While Thailand does not necessarily discriminate against Christian’s, about 98% of people living in this country are Buddhist. Those who were Christians that I spent time with were first generation Christians and grew up with a Buddhist background. This means that they receive a lot of persecution from their friends and families because they are not practicing Buddhism. The area that I served in is called the Isaan region of Thailand, and many people also practice animism, which is heavily focused on “good” and “bad” spirits, very similar to witchcraft. The way that the Thai Christians worshiped was unlike anything I had ever witnessed before. they were so excited to have the privilege of knowing who God was and what it looked like to serve him, that they had no fear of speaking about their experience with God to anyone. They did not care if their families disowned them, because they knew they were safe in God’s hands, and He would guide them. Fast forward six months to when I came back to the States and participated in an American church service after spending so long amongst Christians who were truly thankful for the freedom to worship God and praise Him for all the ways he had blessed them in their lives. I have to be honest, the American church service was the biggest reverse- culture shock that I experienced in my return home. People did not seem to care that we had the privilege to worship God freely without our friends and families persecuting us for this action. As I looked around the church, I noticed that people were on their phones texting, moving their lips to the songs but not understanding what they were saying, and barely in a state of worship at all. I can honestly say that the house church of six people that I attended while in Thailand was louder and more excited to worship Jesus than the 300 people combined that attended my parents church upon my return home. all this being said, When Bonhoffer say’s we are lucky to be able to freely worship the Lord with everything in our being, he’s right. So often we take our freedom to worship for granted. There are so many Christians being persecuted, or even killed for their obedience in worshiping our savior. Why is it that American’s often lose sight of this truth and take our freedom for granted? I wish I knew the answer.

Machen Chapter 7

            This chapter of Machen’s book “Christianity and Liberalism” is about the physical church, and different perspectives on the church depending on one’s standing between Christianity and liberalism. I have to be honest, I struggled getting through this chapter, because I think I tend to lean more towards the “liberal” Christian that Machen often disagrees with in his book. Up until this chapter, I was able to see his perspective and take it mostly positively. However, this chapter was one that I found myself getting frustrated for what seemed as though he was making assumptions and “lumping” all liberal Christians into one small box. The part of the chapter that I struggled most with was the majority of page 140 and 141.

         

         In this part of the chapter, Machen states 

“If a man believes that salvation from sin comes only through the atoning death of Jesus, then he cannot honestly support his gifts and by his presence a propaganda which is intended to produce an exactly opposite impression… if the liberal party, therefore, really obtains control of the church, evangelical Christians must be prepared to withdrawal no matter what the cost” (141). 

There are a few issues I have with this statement. First, I’m beginning to question what Machen truly means by “liberal” at all. Throughout this book, he has never really explained what a liberal (to him) is, other than using negative condemnation to identify them. Machen also makes it seem as though a liberal person simply cannot be an evangelical Christian. Whether this is what he meant to imply, I’m not sure, but that is how I read it, and I have a problem with that statement.

            I guess because of my frustration with Machen’s assumptions with liberals, I should explain my standing with liberalism. There are a lot of extreme liberals that I wouldn’t say I agree with. One major issue conservative people have with liberalism is the issue of pro-choice. I completely disagree with abortion and would never even consider this as an option if I were to become pregnant, so in this sense, I would say I lean on the conservative side. However, when it comes to issues with church and state, and conservatives often arguing that taxes shouldn’t be a thing, I would say I lean on the liberal side. Taxes are often used towards community resources for people who are living in poverty and can’t afford these resources without the help of their community. Because I am a social work major, my job will be to constantly seek out resources for people in need to utilize. If there were no taxes, unfortunately a lot of people would be out of resources that they need. Some people see those in poverty as lazy individuals who want to mooch off of everyone else for “free money”. While there most definitely are people like this, the majority of those living in poverty are trying their best to make ends meet for themselves. All this being said, because of my major and my future job in advocating for people who are often unable to advocate for themselves, I consider myself more of a “liberal” than “conservative” evangelical Christian.

If I’m being honest, I think all churches need both conservative and liberal views. I feel like this brings perspective from both sides to the spectrum. Machen seems to argue that liberals need to back down and conservatives need to take over the evangelical church. To me, this seems like it goes against what the Bible says about loving each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. I have no issue with having a conversation about beliefs on what is “right” and “wrong”. I would rather be able to have a civil conversation with someone who has disagrees with me, than push them away and never talk because I don’t agree with them. I think God wants us to wrestle with these issues of the church. Unfortunately my take from Chapter seven was that Liberals need to “withdrawal” (141) and conservatives need to take over.

Machen Chapter 6

Machen talks at the end of chapter 6 by saying 

“… the Christian man may not simplify his problem by withdrawing from the business of the world, but must learn to apply the principles of Jesus evening to the complex problems of modern industrial life” (130). 

Through this, he explains the importance of combining our “modern” lives with our life of love. While I completely agree with the concept Machen telling his readers to do, I can’t say that it’s always easy to do. I think that it is really easy for us as Christians to separate our “modern” lives from our “church” lives. Something that is important to wrestle with is why we do this.

I’m not sure there is one correct answer to this, but I’m going to discuss and wrestle with why I might do this. At school, it is easy to combine the principles of Jesus with modern life because I attend a Christian bible college that forces me to do this without much effort. Even classes that aren’t Bible classes are engrained with spiritual principles and apply the teachings of Jesus in our lectures. However, I work in an agency that is not faith based, and very few strong believers work with me. Sadly, sometimes it is “easier” for me to go to work and not combine the teachings of Jesus with my work life. My sinful nature sometimes runs with the lies that people will not accept me or like me if I try to talk to them about my spiritual life and the fruit that comes with that.  

In contrast, I have found that when my heart turns away from those lies that people won’t accept me, I have been able to have fruitful conversations with people about Jesus and what he has done for my life. LBC has actually been a conversation starter for me as I discuss biblical principles and teachings of Christ. During my first week at my job, one of the caseworkers came up to me and said she heard that I go to Lancaster Bible College, and excitedly said “I’m a Christian too!!”. Through this quick conversation, we were able to go out together to do some work, and do a prayer walk together for the families we serve. We also attended a seminar together by circuit riders. If she wouldn’t have stepped out of her comfort zone and approached me on this topic, we would not have been able to create the relationship we have today.

Through this friendship that I have created at work, I have found that stepping out of my comfort zone and allowing God to do the talking and work for me. This friendship has allowed for me to do things that i wouldn’t have thought about or been comfortable doing before. for example, while we were driving to a home visit, we saw an Islamic sign stating something about the “messiah” coming, but not Jesus, an Islamic messiah. She asked to pray about the sign, not only that people would believe in Christ instead of this Islamic messiah, but that we could have hearts of understanding for people who might believe in it, so that we can have conversations about it. I have never prayed about a billboard that I saw while driving before, but this moment was so meaningful for me. this is a small example of combining my work life with my spiritual life.