The Little Things that Matter

Ordinary by Michael Horton Part 3

So, how have you found Michael Horton’s ‘Ordinary’? Was it ordinary – it’s funny how that word has become a term of disparagement, hasn’t it? I think I’m going to try and redeem it. Reading this book has helped me to have a taste of the contentedness that Horton is talking about. It’s not that I haven’t experienced it before – but it always seems to get eroded again by that sense that I’m not doing enough, that my times are falling through my hands and I haven’t done anything ‘worthwhile’. I now feel more able to call that what it is – worldliness, idolatry, a fixation on my own works, an impatience with what God is doing.

I have loved how Horton contrasts a covenantal way of thinking with a contractual way. In our market-driven, economic rationalist culture, I think many of us have begun to think of ourselves and our relationships in a contractual sense – am I getting ‘value for money’? But the covenantal model of relationships is based on the bedrock of God’s gracious promises and His faithfulness to us. Resting in this, we are able to take our place in the ‘local expression of that concrete economy of grace instituted by God in Christ and sustained by His Word and Spirit’. We become part of the ‘gift exchange’ – we can see ourselves rightly, not narcissistically inflating our own importance, but being grateful to God for the joy of being able to do genuine good to our neighbours.

Our neighbours – those people who are often hard to love. As Horton points out, it is much less burdensome to care for ‘the needy’ than to really love the difficult person God has put right in front of us, sometimes our own family members!! Being a parent in our time is really tough (obviously not in the same way as it is for parents who are struggling to put food in their children’s mouths) because in our culture, as Christian parents, we are swimming against the tide. We feel the pressure to maintain a frenetic schedule of activities to make sure our children have the opportunity to ‘fulfil their potential’. Many women feel the pressure to work outside the home, to maintain a professional identity and further support the standard of living that we and our children have come to expect. So the normal things that allow family life to run smoothly get pushed to the margins. We are stressed and cranky when we are at home, since that is the only time we can let the façade down that we are ‘coping’. And then church comes along on Sunday….

I really liked Horton’s analogy that the Sunday gathering should be like a greenbelt in our collective week. Sometimes it does feel like that to me. But a lot of the time, that isn’t the case. A lot of the time, my husband and I are feeling the pressure to get our children ready and out the door early because we are rostered on to serve. Often, my children have not wanted to go to their group, so there have been arguments in the car on the way, tears at the door. I have the feeling that we are not the only family struggling with this, but I’m not sure exactly what the answer is. From Michael Horton’s discussion, it could be that we need to simplify what we do at our Sunday gathering. He seems to be advocating a ‘less is more’ approach to youth ministry, which would see the whole church engaging together far more, with children participating in the service alongside their church family, rather than being sent off to age-segregated groups. This is something that has been lurking in my mind a lot recently – is what we do at church strengthening families in their Christian walk, or fragmenting families? Have we allowed ‘popular youth culture’ to dictate what our church culture looks like?

One of the things I have really appreciated about this book has been the depth and breadth of the biblical treatment. Horton’s argument is so thoroughly immersed in God’s Word, from the details of pointing out that we are ‘receiving’ a kingdom (not building it), to the larger view of the agricultural analogies that are mainly used to describe God’s work. In Reformed circles, this biblical scholarship is probably not rare, but we sometimes still have blind spots and, in seeking to reach the lost, we begin to allow ourselves to be formed too much by the worldly culture around us. Our society puts so much emphasis on individual freedoms and personal choice, and as I read ‘Ordinary’ I really felt how, as a church, we have pandered to that somewhat, and been swept up in it. How jarring it is - everyone imagining they’re on their own unique personal journey - against the actual narrative of the Bible. Without question, God is at work in each of us. But it has been wonderful to remember the big vision of what God is doing, and to remember that my part is simply to live daily as a disciple of Christ in the circumstances in which he has placed me, striving to imitate Him in ‘the little things that matter’.   

About this month's contributor, Kristen Butchatsky

 I am a wife to Pete, a mum of three girls, and a music teacher. I am a long-time member of the wonderful church family St Aidan’s Anglican in Hurstville Grove, having come to Christ through a youth group ministry at age 14. I love singing, reading (obviously!!), walking my dog, Ned and going to see plays, movies and musical theatre.

Church: Where God Does His Amazing Work

Part 2 Ordinary by Michael Horton

“How was church this morning?” It’s such a normal question for us to ask. But what do we mean when we ask it? How was the sermon? Was the music up to scratch? Did you have any good conversations?

What is the measure by which we answer that question? For past generations, it may have been a baffling and unlikely question, as Michael Horton points out in Chapter Three of Ordinary: their understanding of church, and their expectations of what they would ‘get out of it’, were most likely substantially different. I wonder how many of us 21^st century Christians have struggled with dissatisfaction with church? I’d hazard a guess it would be a fair percentage of us. I’ve known a number of people who have moved on from gospel-centred, loving churches because of an indefinable dissatisfaction – “there’s nothing wrong with the church per se, I’m just not growing here, so I should try somewhere else”. It wasn’t that these people were superficial Christians with a consumer attitude to church – far from it. At the time I hardly blamed them. I wonder now, though, if a mindset of waiting for ‘the next big thing’ was underlying their frustration. It’s a mindset I can recognise not just in others but in myself - an impatience with the ordinary means of grace that God has provided through the ordinary local church. 

It has been fascinating to read Horton’s thesis that the culture of revivalism, which was so significant in the development of the evangelical church in the US, has contributed to an expectation that something thrilling should always be happening, whenever we meet together. The point could be made that this is peculiar to American churches; obviously the evangelical church in Australia has had a different set of stories. But I think for Sydney evangelicals at least, perhaps that expectation centres on the idea of remarkable Bible teaching. Brought up on a diet of big conference events with gifted Bible teachers expounding God’s Word in an engaging and powerful way, might we start to believe that those less talented servants who teach the Bible to us week in, week out at our Sunday services are seriously lacking? We see their lack of giftedness as their problem and critique their sermons after church, bemoaning why they can’t use better illustrations or hold our attention with their ‘wise and persuasive words’. Horton argues, however, that the age of apostleship is over. What our leaders should now be doing is simply passing on the baton, keeping the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ at the centre, sticking to the truth of his Word and faithfully seeking to shepherd the people under their care in their walk with Him. In doing this, they may not be glorifying themselves, but they are certainly glorifying Him.

It reminds me of the passage (1 Kings 19) where Elijah runs away from Jezebel and falls into complete despair, and God speaks to Him, not through the earthquake or the fire, but in a still, small voice. He reminds Him that although things look dire, He Himself is still at work in ways that Elijah doesn’t even know about (vs18). We just get so caught up in what we have to do – we imagine that we have to be extraordinary for God to be able to work. No, He is extraordinary, and He is doing extraordinary work, but we just need to do what we’re told! I found Horton’s standpoint on the benefits of traditional church structures very biblically grounded and wise in view of the dangers of charismatic individuals setting themselves up as leaders who provide an ongoing ‘mountaintop’ experience in the Christian journey. Even putting aside the issue of false teaching, I wonder what happens to the faith of those under their care when that leader is no longer around, or when times of testing or just plain boredom come. Will their faith in Christ (as opposed to their faith in their pastor) be mature enough to enable them to stand firm?  It is making me very thankful for my ordinary, faithful community of believers, with our elders and pastors serving in unspectacular ways to enable the everyday ministry of the gospel to continue, as God does His amazing work.

About this month's contributor, Kristen Butchatsky

 I am a wife to Pete, a mum of three girls, and a music teacher. I am a long-time member of the wonderful church family St Aidan’s Anglican in Hurstville Grove, having come to Christ through a youth group ministry at age 14. I love singing, reading (obviously!!), walking my dog, Ned and going to see plays, movies and musical theatre.

Contentedness and Complacency

Ordinary by Michael Horton Part 1

Sitting under a huge old pine tree next to the bay in a rare few minutes of quiet time to myself, I cried as I read the first chapter of Michael Horton’s book ‘Ordinary’. I felt that God was calling me to repent (again) from an idolatry that has niggled at me – namely a narcissistic obsession with my own significance. In early life I started to develop an expectation that my life would not (should not?) be ordinary. Even through the mundane reality of years of staying at home with young children, living in the same suburb I grew up in, and doing nothing outwardly impressive or exciting, that mentality has stubbornly clung on, leading to times of despair, resentment, angst & frustration.

But clearly I’m not the only one struggling with this!! And apparently loads of people are now starting to feel disillusioned & burnt out by a culture of individualistic striving for significance. Michael Horton’s argument is that a culture of ‘impatience and disdain for the ordinary’ has well and truly permeated the evangelical church, and is weakening our ability to grow as a Christian community and shape mature disciples across generations. In this book, he is calling us to stop trying to be Christian ‘superstars’ and refocus on what it means to live the Christian life as ordinary people within ordinary churches, reliant on God’s ordinary means of grace for maturing in Christian character. In other words, to learn what it means to be content in the situation in which God has placed us.

Contentedness. We all want to grow in that area – to get rid of selfish ambition, greed and envy. But what is the difference between contentedness and complacency? Couldn’t this be construed as just an invitation to remain firmly within our comfort zone? I found chapter two (“Ordinary isn’t mediocre”) very helpful in elucidating the concept of excellence: that we can embrace the ordinary and still be working towards the goal of glorifying God and loving our neighbour. I liked his description of the fruit of the Spirit as the picture of what true excellence would look like. And it is true that the people who are right under our noses need our help and love just as much as anyone.

But where would worldwide mission be if everyone was content just to stay where they found themselves? We had a global missions prayer day on Sunday at church, and sang “We go to all the world, with kingdom hope unfurled…” I felt a bit conflicted about whether the attraction I feel to mission is legitimate, or simply a need to feel like I’m ‘doing something big for God’, as well as to fulfil my travel dreams in a non-self-indulgent way. I feel the pressure of a culture which says that you’re not really a proper well-rounded person unless you’ve experienced life in another country. So when I’m thinking about mission, am I really just attracted to the idea of becoming a more interesting person, having a more exciting ‘life-narrative’? Horton acknowledges that there will be some for whom mission is a genuine calling. But how do we distinguish a genuine calling?   

About this month's contributor, Kristen Butchatsky

 I am a wife to Pete, a mum of three girls, and a music teacher. I am a long-time member of the wonderful church family St Aidan’s Anglican in Hurstville Grove, having come to Christ through a youth group ministry at age 14. I love singing, reading (obviously!!), walking my dog, Ned and going to see plays, movies and musical theatre.