The church’s best days are still ahead,” said CamÂÂeron Trimble. I shared a conspiratorial smile, as I often do when with her. She is executive director of the CenÂter for Progressive ReÂnewal, where I am a consulÂtant. She was telling me about ConÂvergence, a network that she is dreaming up with a group of people, including authors Brian McÂLaren and Diana Butler Bass.
As Trimble talked about Convergence, I imagined her standing in that long pattern of creation which reverberates through our ancient texts. God spoke into the chaos, and the words formed order as they gathered waters, brought forth vegetation, gave rise to animals, and molded humanity. The birth of Jesus Christ, the answer to longing prayers, is described as the Word made flesh.
We see creation in these grand narratives, and we also watch it unfold in our everyday lives. A 13-month-old toddler has not begun to speak, so she stands before the refrigerator, with her arm out and her tiny fist grabbing at air, and grunts. The guttural noises let her parents know that she wants. Eventually her “meh, meh, meh” will become “milk.” When her parents deliver the magical liquid, longing becomes word, and word becomes object.
The arrogance is breath-taking. I sometimes criticize American evangelicals for a “BOBO” (Blink off – Blink on) ecclesiology: that about AD 100, the church went Popish and only recovered at the Reformation, or at Azusa Street, or in the 1960s. But this piece doesn’t even grant the early apostolic church priority; only [i]now[/i] with the sainted McLaren and others, are we finally [i]starting[/i] to grow up.
And what is the “Church’s New Foundation”? Anything other than Jesus will be an idol.