A New Christianity For a New Age

Unless you have been totally absorbed in other pursuits, it has been hard not to notice the rhetoric, both pro and con, debating the need for or the validity of an emerging Christianity, a change in the paradigm, a change in the direction of the wind, a new Christianity, which in some cases is a return to the old Christianity that existed during the first three centuries before the advent of the “universal” church and the nearly 1100 Protestant and Catholic sects that have evolved from that original institution over the last 1700 years. 

Brian McLaren the author of Generous Orthodoxy writes:

“Often I don’t think Jesus would be caught dead as a Christian, were he physically here today. … Generally, I don’t think Christians would like Jesus if he showed up today as he did 2,000 years ago. In fact, I think we’d call him a heretic and plot to kill him, too.”

“……I am aware of another and quite different Christianity……. When I wrote “A New Christianity for a New World,” I tried to spell out what that different Christianity might look like.”

Bishop John Shelby Spong

The new religion of the future is the one that honors and recognizes all religions and all spiritual paths, for they all lead to the same place.

From the book Soul Psychology

by Dr. Joshua David Stone PhD.

How did this emerging church movement come about?

A man of vision, the Reverend Ernest Steadman first spoke of this “emerging” church of the future in his book “Path Way To The Stars” which was originally published as “Sic Itur Ad Astra” in 1982. Twenty years later he founded an e-mail discussion group as a place of fellowship for those that shared his opinions and vision, this group evolving into a bona fide church in 2002, and which soon gained acknowledgment at the time as the latest denomination of Christianity. In “Pathway” Reverend Steadman writes;

“But we must be able to embrace Christianity as our Lord and Savior originally intended. Like a sea of souls, owing allegiance to no one except our God and government, we must somehow break the yoke of institutionalism if we are to save ourselves from Balaam and from the destruction of our government. We see how the modern church strangles the very fabric of our existence, how it dictates the ability of our government to meet the needs of its citizens by denying it a just compensation for protection and services rendered, how they cry against everything new or different from what they perceive as just or right, how they consume wealth of the land and give little to God’s work, and ultimately go the way of Balaam seeking to enslave the people and shadow the way of truth.”

This modern church that Reverend Steadman speaks of is the church that many see as that which has largely grown out of the ashes of World War II, an institution that has little resemblance to the churches that existed prior to that tumultuous era. It became a commercial business, one more concerned with the bottom line of financial exploitation of the faithful, than it was with attending to the spiritual needs of the individual. One more concerned with bringing its dominion over the government so as to advance it’s (the organization) needs and agenda, an agenda that obviously is contradictory to the teachings of Christ.

Some of these same Saintly institutions evolved into little more than mind control cults using guilt and the threat of the individual being ostracized resulting in the loss of family or friends should an individual the seeker of truth, question their (the institution’s) false doctrine.
The public face of this false Christianity is what Bishop Spong was referring to when he wrote;

“The public face of Christianity in America is already something with which I do not want to be identified. So many people who call themselves Christians are aggressive, hostile, closed minded and insensitive to anyone with whom they disagree……………. Yesterday the public face of Christianity where I grew up was pro-segregation and anti-black.”

For more than a generation, people have been disenchanted with what the church has become and left in search of light and truth, freedom to seek out direct communion with God through the Holy Spirit.

Each and every day we receive e-mails from readers stating that they never knew that christianity could be other than what they have recognized as un-christian in other churches.
Does this sound like what you are seeking? A church that seeks to follow Christ, a church that applies more emphasis to his teachings and the worship of God.  A church that seeks out the beauty and mysticism in the divine instead of creating a divine social club? If so contact us to find out how to be a part of the Lighthouse family.