Doing a New Thing

Interrupted: An Adventure in Relearning the Essentials of Faith by Jen Hatmaker

I finished this one more than two weeks ago and still am having trouble formulating my thoughts.  It's one that makes a person think, for sure!  It doesn't help that I read it right after reading The Prodigal God and in conjunction with watching A Path Appears (a documentary about sex trafficking).  I'm filled with this urge to DO something, but I don't know what TO do!

I don't agree 100% with Jen's thoughts, but there is still a lot worth pondering--and really, even pondering whether I agree with each idea and WHY (or why not) is worth the read.

She made me evaluate my tendency to be "immersed in my niche tribe" (which I tend to call "my people" and where I am most comfortable) and wonder if I'm "cut off from the fresh spiritual wind blowing all over the place" (xix) within the first few pages of the book.  I think it's tempting for all of us to settle in with people we know, doctrine that we take for granted as truth, and where we are comfortable.  And I think it's really, really good for us to be shaken up, to be challenged, so we'll examine our beliefs against Scripture.

At the same time, I am wary of doing a "new thing" just for the sake of doing a new thing (just as I am wary of doing something different just for the sake of being different).

Let me preface this with the admission that I love a "new thing" just as much as the next person (and likely more than some persons!).  I am a starter (and not such a great finisher).  I like to come up with new ideas and try new things, go new places and meet new people.  I like to consider new thoughts.  I'll confess I even get bored with doing the same old thing, being with the same old people, considering and discussing the same old thoughts.

So I get Jen and her excitement over doing this new thing.

But coming up with a "new" church?  Austin New Church?

She references several scriptures (Mt. 9:17, Mt. 13:52, Mark 1:27, Rom. 6:4, Rom. 7:6, Gal. 6:15, and Eph. 4:20-24) in support of their doing a new thing.  But the new thing of the scriptures was a change from the old law to the new law.  The first century, not the 21st.  As much as we all want to "do a new thing", it's time to do an old thing.  The New Testament lays out the pattern that Paul admonished us to follow way back in the first century, and I'm leery of statements that imply she has figured out some great new thing that no one else has come up with in the last 2000 years.

If you look up the above-referenced scriptures, you'll see that (taken in context) they are referencing a few different "new" things:

• The individual as a new creation, a new self, a new life.  
• The overall change from the old covenant (with the Israelites), or the old law, to a new covenant in Christ as the way for humans to be reconciled to God.
• The new teaching is one that came with authority.  Authority is key here.

I can't find anything in her referenced scriptures that give the needed authority for her passion for this new thing, this new church.  It might not be such a big deal, except she focuses on it so much and even names their church after the idea of doing a new thing.  It seems to me it would be better to examine the pattern set forth in the Bible of the church of the New Testament and see how we could more closely conform to that pattern when we are looking to be shaken up and draw closer to the Lord, rather than coming up with a new thing.

Coming up next:  Helping the Poor