Clairborne calls us to not give up on the church. He quotes Augustine: "The Church is a whore, but she's my mother" p354.
And reminds us
"that altar calls originated during the fiery revivals of nineteenth-century evangelists like Charles Finney. The reason they gave them was to register new converts for the anti-slavery movement. They were not simply calling people forward to become believers; they were calling people forward to join a movement of ordinary radicals" p357.He points to Geez Magazine (which is Canadian) as an example of folks who are
"calling themselves an "alter" call on the fringes of the faith, cleverly inviting restless and overchurched souls to create alternative ways of living" p357 fn5.He quotes Emma Goldman's saying: "If I can't dance, then it's not my revolution" p313. I have used an article by John Fischer [I think it was an excerpt from Real Christians Don't Dance, published in Christianity Today in the late 80's] on dancing as an expression of the life of Christ in us. Whenever I used it, the "??" [not sure what descriptive word to use] condemned me. One church I pastored was really into Southern Gospel quartet music and they hosted a "Spring Sing" [why it was called that I don't know... no one except the performers sang]. I am not known as a fan of this style of music [that's a bit of an understatement] but even I could not resist clapping and tapping my foot to some of the music. But than as I looked around the biggest "fans" of southern gospel, sat their motionless. Not quite as bad as the folks in Babette's Feast but close.
As Clairborne says, "the Jesus movement is a revolution that dances. Celebration is at the very core of our kingdom" p313-314.
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