Shawn Anthony complains about Rebecca Chopp's definition of church as a “constitutive community of emancipatory transformation.” Among other problems, he doesn't like the words used.
Those words strike me as 6th or 7th grade vocabulary, but then again, I was learning about Special Relativity and uranium decay chains in 6th and 7th grade. Yes, I recognize the words are a bit unusual. At least they're not "church words." We've got a lot of jargon in the church.
Jargon is used by a community to communicate concepts peculiar to that community. At a high power rocket launch, words like "CATO" and "shred" are used. Everyone's hoping they're not used two often, as they're examples of bad things that can happen to that rocket you just put out on the pad that costs an order of magnitude more than you told your husband or wife. But jargon makes it hard for outsiders to join in. Bloggers have their own set of jargon. At the last Blogfest, I caught the waiter looking a little puzzled at some of the snippets of conversation he overheard.
Christian jargon defines who "is" a Christian and who "isn't," acting as a shibboleth. The word "shibboleth" itself is from a Bible story, where the ability to say "shibboleth" vs. "sibboleth" was used to by Gileadites to kill off the Ephraimites. That's the problem with shibboleths: they're used to kill people, either literally or metaphorically. If you don't want outsiders to become Christians, then the more Christian jargon, the better. They get frightened by it and think we're nuts.
Shawn simply defines the church as the "Body of Christ." That's a nice definition that assumes a working knowledge of the books of Paul in the New Testament. It doesn't tell the outsider what the church does. It's Christian jargon. Granted, it's useful and saves time and conveys a lot in a little, which is the purpose of jargon. But what if you're explaining th church to an outsider?
I've been thinking about how to rephrase Rebecca Chopp's definition. I think it's got a point. "A church is a united community with the power to free people from the things they're enslaved to." That's wordy compared to the original, but let's face it, I'm addicted to "wordy." As I rewrote the definition, I too have the same problem with the definition that Shawn did: there's no mention of God. "A church is a community united in the death and resurrection of Jesus, empowered by the Spirit to free people from sin and the damage caused by sin, and to support each other in the life the Father has prepared for us." Even wordier yet, and it's pretty obvious I'm a Trinitarian, but I like it. In my second definition, I use some words that are "suspect": resurrection, empowered, Spirit, and Father. We live in a society in which the majority do not know the basic stories and concepts of the Bible — what would be called in "emerging church" jargon a "post-Christian society." Resurrection and empowered are known through other uses — characters in science fiction (almost called it SF — more jargon) and fantasy are "resurrected" by magic or medicine and empowered by spider bites or cosmic rays. Spirit might need some explaining; I'm old enough to remember when people still said "Holy Ghost" in my church and others complained that it conjured images of someone in a bed sheet. I know enough people who come from broken situations that the basic concept of "Father" as good, steadfast, and nurturing is one I think of as foreign to most folks, though it wasn't in my case.
At some point, you have to explain some terms, I guess. Of course, Nancy has forbidden me to ever teach genetics again to anyone without at least a degree in biology.
There's something pithy, though, about Chopp's definition. Make it "God's constitutive community of emancipatory transformation" and I'll probably use it at the Youth Group Leader's meeting tonight.Hey, I've got a reputation as a writer to uphold. Occasionally coming up with something incomprehensible is part of the schtick.
BTW: I think I caught all the typos. For some reason, my brain isn't adapting to this keyboard. Forget trying to use the number keys in touch-typing mode. If I missed any errors, I'm sorry and am trying to do the best I can.
Hey Rob! Great response/article! If Chopp’s definition was “A church is a united community with the power to free people from the things they’re enslaved to,” then I might have had less trouble accepting it. Her’s read: “constitutive community of emancipatory transformation.” Her’s is loaded. Now, given her background, I could assume a lot about the definition, as it is. I would probably be fairly correct too, as far as my assumptions are concerned. I spend lots of time with people who use such definitions. They are crafted with extreme precision. These sort of definitions say more about political affiliations than they do the Church of Jesus Christ or Christianity. So, my point isn’t so much the words, or jargon used, but what the words and jargon ultimately point toward, specifically. I have my assumptions, and they are probably very accurate, but I would like to hear more.
That said, I for one absolutely agree that Christian jargon should be minimized for the benefit of those who are not familiar with it. I’m as missional as the next guy. I’m not so sure that defining the church as “The Body of Christ” is really a “shibboleth,” as you say. If it is, well then we are in a bit of a fix. I mean seriously, do we really want to tilt church so far toward society that it becomes indistinguishable from it? Do we really want people confusing church with common mall gatherings? I’m all for reaching people, but when it becomes detrimental to simply refer to the church as the “Body of Christ” then I think we need to step back and think hard about our mission and purpose.
Thanks, Rob. Great thoughts! Great discussion!
Thanks for commenting! I misunderstood you. Sorry about that. I guess I’m still carrying scars from teaching chemistry to firefighters and paramedics. They weren’t stupid and dumbing down the material might cost someone their life, but jokes about SN2 reactions just don’t work in that situation.
With the recent “Jesus’ Tomb” brouhaha, I’m afraid the general public thinks something far different when they hear the term “Body of Christ.”
A couple weeks after Pentecost, did the disciples talk about the “Body of Christ”? Pretty much the way it would be talked about now — “It ain’t in the tomb!”
To use it as a definition of the church begs the next question, even among those who laugh when you quote from 2 Opinions: What does it mean to be the ‘Body of Christ’?”
It used to be, reading your blog drove me nuts. You were far more liberal than I, far more liberal than I was completely comfortable with. Now, I’m getting the idea you’re far more conservative than I’m completely comfortable with!
“Emancipatory transformation” is a phrase that resonates with me, that speaks to my experience. I see people around me enslaved to sin, enslaved to mind-altering substances, enslaved to culture, enslaved to the economy, enslaved to stereotypes, and even enslaved to a church culture that enslaved itself to political conservativism.
Once I too was a slave; every once in a while I learn that there are ways in which I still am. Simply unbinding the chains isn’t enough, I need to be transformed to move beyond a slave mentality. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit, and very often mediated through the church.
Funky D. says my review of Black Snake Moan fails. He’s probably got a point. What he can’t see in my review, and what astonished me in that movie, was the image of the Church in action, the Church involved in Transformation, the Church making Jesus’ redemptive power available to those in chains, no matter how revolting they might seem to the “good people of the town.”
I should probably read up on Rebbecca Chopp to learn more, but I’m already up to my tucas in stuff to do. Maybe after I get the garage cleaned out. In other words, don’t hold your breath — it’s not a priority item.
You wrote: “With the recent “Jesus’ Tomb” brouhaha, I’m afraid the general public thinks something far different when they hear the term Body of Christ.”
LOL! You may be right, my friend! I didn’t think about it from that angle.