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By Root 1553 0

at every turn. At many points we will be tempted to give up, certain that change is impossible and pretty certain that we must be as nutty as others are telling us we are. We should never underestimate our own power to be wrong and to do or say something amazingly stupid at the worst possible moment. Every great endeavor in the biblical narrative goes like this, it seems, from Moses whacking a rock with his stick to Peter whacking off someone’s ear with his sword. All this helps us not take ourselves too seriously, and it reminds us that the old sage Gamaliel knew what he was talking about: this thing will survive and thrive only if God is in it. And God will only be active in “it” if God is active in us, and that reminds us, once again, that a new kind of Christianity must be embodied in both individuals and communities who practice it both in movements and institutions. Yes, that’s messy. Yes, that’s slow. But there’s an old African proverb that says it well, I think: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

22

Conclusion: A New Kind of Christianity

On my way through adolescence to adulthood, I caught something, and I haven’t been able to shake it since. The symptoms developed gradually, so I can’t point to a single moment when it began for me. I do clearly remember the people from whom I caught it. First there was Tom, a shaggy and bearded recovering druggie, and then there was Dave, a clean-cut college student. Then there was Rod, a clean-cut high-school teacher, who, with his wife, Judy, started taking in shaggy and bearded recovering druggies. Then there was another Tom, a wild musician. And through the years there were others too—two more Daves, Larry, Doug, Tony, Chris, Rob, John, Brad, Jo-Ann, Kenzo, Richard, Peter, Claude, René, Walter, Phyllis, and Diana. From each of them I got a little more infected, and then we all started reinfecting each other with more complex and incurable strains. The infection was a good thing, a kind of an anti-infection, really, because the worse case of it you had, the better, healthier, and more alive you became.

Tom, Dave, Rod, Judy, and all the others were so different in so many ways, but so alike in their aliveness, their passion, their simple love for God and neighbor, and their shared ambition to live life in a way that would make God proud and happy by making their neighbors better off. I didn’t realize it at the time, but from each of them I was catching a good case of a new kind of Christianity. There are signs that the infection is spreading, and some fear (and others hope) this could be the beginning of a major pandemic.

I do not expect, if this infection spreads, that it will lead to a sudden outbreak of mass agreement on the answers to these questions. I hope for something even better: that we can agree that these questions need to be asked, and that they invite us into reverent and respectful conversation and even friendship, whether or not we ultimately agree on the answers. And even better: I hope that this conversation and friendship can unite us in a quest to receive and participate in what Jesus called God’s kingdom, life to the full. As we’re moving forward in that quest together, I believe God’s Spirit will continue guiding us into truth, as Jesus promised.1 And as a result, while we continue grappling with these ten questions, other urgent questions will no doubt beckon us, and new light will be given to us as we need it.

What might the next round of questions include? I’d like to suggest a few by sharing a somewhat painful and embarrassing confession. In 2008 and 2009, some friends and I organized a speaking tour around the issues raised in what I feel is one of my most important books, Everything Must Change. In the book, I described four global emergencies that we face today:

1. The crisis of the planet, which I called the Prosperity Crisis, since our way of pursuing prosperity is unsustainable ecologically.

2. The crisis of poverty, which I called the Equity Crisis, since the gap between rich and poor is growing,