In my recent attempts to redefine myself, which have included getting bangs, joining a gym, doing my laundry every two weeks (rather than every three), and learning how to maintain my own vehicle, I also got myself a new phone which also serves as an MP3 player. So now I'm one of the cool chicks at the gym with her earbuds in as she sweats away on an elliptical machine. But the joke's on everyone else. I'm sweatin' to Boston, Regina Spektor, and The Black Eyed Peas.
I'm still working on jobs for next year. Right now the one that's acting most interested is the position with Rehoboth - I interview again with them tomorrow. Apparently this one is going to be more formal? I'm nervous. But I'm still holding out for the KC job, and Justin Van Zee has recently offered me an opportunity to take my business to Korea, so we'll see what happens. As I sit here in my bedroom and sweat under the influences of a swamp cooler because it's already 95 out here, I'm coming to realize that I really can't stay in Tucson forever. Love love love LOVE the place, but it's not somewhere that people come to do great things with their lives. It's more of a place where people come for a while and figure out what great things they could be doing with their lives, then go do those things elsewhere.
This morning my church had a meeting to decide what our future direction should be. We've gotten to the point where there aren't enough members to really financially support the church, but more importantly we the members are divided on how this church could move forward, and so no progress has been made in several years. My parents project, and I tend to agree, that there really isn't a happy ending. Most likely we will have to close our doors and walk away with our heads up, unless people decide that it would be better to continue to drag ourselves along until we're forced to acknowledge the truth and give up, with a last rattling breath and death twitch.
My parents and I were talking about it with some friends over lunch today, and it is remarkable how relatively ineffective the Reformed denominations have been in Arizona. It's obvious in CRCs in Phoenix and ours in Tucson, in the fact that there are not any other expressly Reformed churches in Tucson, in the fact that most Presbyterian churches are simply absorbing each others' leftovers, rather than bringing in new believers, in the limited impact the Reformed University Fellowship on the university's campus is having, in the fact that most graduates from Reformed colleges are not going to Reformed churches down here... It's a little puzzling, because, and one of our non-Reformed friends said it this afternoon, Reformed theology is a huge comfort. It's solid and well-organized and Biblical. But Reformed denominations are working on making themselves completely irrelevant in a world that is becoming more and more like Tucson, Arizona. Everyone is moderately transient, multi-cultural, self-involved, and lonely. The Reformed churches have nothing for these people, even though Reformed theology holds a great deal for them. It's sad, but at the same time it's a challenge to the young (in age or in heart) of this tradition to find new ways of making a Reformed perspective in life matter to the people they have around them. Where to start? I'm not quite sure yet.
I'm going to go fix myself some creamy potato soup I made myself yesterday because I'm either sick or have allergies from hell, and regardless I feel like shee-yet. Then maybe I'll pour myself a giant rum and Dr. Pepper. Who knows! The sky is the limit.
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5 comments:
Bethany - I'm so, so sad about your church and especially for your parents - 25+ years of commitment is hard to turn away from. I've been talking to someone from Phx CRC and it appears they are doing better than most - trying to lose some of their Dutchness, he says. I may visit since I'm not satisfied with the dearth of opportunities at my own church.
Love you, G-Mom
Is Milwaukee a place where people do great things with their lives?
I think you can do great things with your life wherever you are. Especially if you need to rock the Reformed churches in Tucson...in a good way.
Either way, I wish our vocational decisions brought us closer together, but even if they don't, I've been praying for you.
And to quote my dad's most recent email to me:
"God sees the beginning from the end and is in control of the present. So we have great hope."
Besitos!
your comments about the reformed church very much echo my thoughts about it lately...there are so many things about the core of reformed theology that i think are excellent, but it's hard to feel that way because it often seems to be almost vacant from the actual churches. granted, i'm a bit of an idiot on theology. sometimes i wonder if "reformed" churches should simply go away and someone should take the theology, give it a different name, and start a new denomination. but hey, i'm no better...
I've been out of touch with the CRC for a while (technically our URC in Escondido doesn't count, I guess), but I was really surprised at first about your comments.
Between John Piper and Al Mohler (and conferences like "Together 4 The Gospel") Reformed theology has been seeing a huge resurgence in America. I first started noticing this back in Fall of 06, when I saw a Christianity Today and the cover had a picture of a kid wearing a t-shirt that said "Jonathan Edwards is my homeboy." The point of the article was that a lot of non-Reformed, non-denominational church-goers (hungry for deeper theological meat) are turning to Reformed theology, really by the thousands.
Now, I guess that doesn't mean anything for the CRC per se. Some of the older Reformed denominations might end up disappearing because they're too ethnically centered (expect for Presbyterians, of course, who are too stubborn to ever disappear). But at least it shows that it isn't our theology that is turning people away, or that there isn't any effective means of communicating Reformed theology in an attractive way.
I guess because I didn't join a Reformed church until after the split, and it was already a URC, I don't feel any particular affinity for the CRC. But at the same time it's really sad to see a denomination with such a rich theological heritage die out. As far as I can tell, the URC is currently growing, but I have a feeling that we're mostly getting former CRC-ers who are jumping ship because the CRC is quickly becoming liberal and abandoning its heritage (in some places at least). Also, part of me wants to say that denominational affiliation shouldn't matter at all, as long as sound theology is being taught. In fact, I'm currently going to an EV Free church where both pastors are ardent Calvinists. But at the same time, tradition is something that should probably be preserved as much as possible.
So, I think all of this was a very round-about way of saying I have no answers for you, but take heart, because Reformed theology is alive and well and going strong. And if that doesn't give you hope, consider this: Biola used to be the arch-Dispensational, anti-Reformed university. It was very much in the tradition of Finney and Moody (and did I mention very Dispensational?). Today, I think every undergrad Bible prof is a Calvinist, and the chair of the Bible department is from Trinity (and Talbot Seminary currently advocates a position called "progressive dispensationalism" which is a more moderate version that incorporates some elements of covenant theology). So one way to look at all this is not to view it as the death of the Reformed tradition, it's simply changing hands! :)
CRC? Sounds like a 60s rock-n-roll band.
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