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This is a serendipitous post. As Lay Anglicana is trying to have an increasingly global perspective, and thinking about the buzz many of us get from Greenbelt, New Wine and CNMAC, I thought the following post, which its author, Dr J R Miller has kindly allowed me to repost here, particularly interesting:
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When I was a teenager, One Way Camp at Jumonville, PA was the highlight of my summer—those camps gave me the most vivid experiences of God in my entire life. At the end of every camp we were treated to the message,
“This is a mountaintop experience. When you get back to the ‘real’ world you need to stay strong in your faith because your church is not like summer camp.”
But why? Why wasn’t my church like summer camp?
What made Jumonville so special that it could not be experienced at home?
Why was summer camp a powerful encounter with God and why was church so dry?
The answer is simple… summer camp was community as God designed it to be.
After all these years, I have come to the conclusion that these so called, “Mountaintop” experiences should have been held out as my ideal for church. I should not have been told to go home and settle for the same dry and boring church community. Those Jumonville camps should have been held-out as my model for “real” world church… instead they were set-aside as fond memories of warm summer days.
Each summer on that mountaintop we ate together. We played together. We sang songs of worship together. We prayed and studied God’s word, together. We laughed and cried… together. Every day, we experienced God together!
The message at the end of summer camp should never be…
“your experience here with God is only a mountaintop experience”.
“this is the way God designed you to live out church.”
“You experienced God at camp because you experienced His community of Faith in action.”
“Don’t go home and settle for a Sunday morning faith.”
“Don’e go home and settle for the self-centered life that typifies the average Christian experience.”
“Go home with faith like a mustard-seed and move this mountaintop community into your church.”
My days at summer camp should not have been the exception to my Christian life, they should have been the model for how to live my Christian life.. with, in, and around the community of saints!
After too many decades of status quo church, I have come to believe that “Mountaintop Church” is what we need every day.
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About Joe Miller
Dr. J.R. Miller is a church planter currently living in San Diego, California with his wife and three sons. He is an author and avid blogger. You can reach him at www.MoreThanCake.org.
By J.R. Miller, Mountaintop Church is What We Need | More Than Cake http://www.morethancake.org/archives/2470#ixzz25gGHZFUe
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives
Follow us: @jrmiller777 on Twitter
In this video, he preaches on Psalm 73
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The illustration is by Diane Brennan, downloaded from 12 Baskets under licence.
I’m always a bit suspicious of anything that says we should (or even can) have or expect ‘mountaintop’ experiences as a sort of ‘business as usual’. After the Transfiguration, Jesus took his closest three friends back into the mess and muck of the passion–and they didn’t know that resurrection was happening.
Living on the mountaintop means that we’re isolating ourselves from the world we’re meant to love and serve. It may be Christian community ‘as God meant it’ (although I’m not sure I agree with that), but it’s certainly not meant for this side of the eschaton.
There are varieties of “mountain-top experience” that aren’t offered at summer camp but which are, nonetheless, part of the Christian faith.
There is the mountain-top experience of the Sermon on the Mount, the time spent in prayerful study and quiet reflection on the call to deeper life with God and deeper service to our brothers and sisters.
There is the mountain-top experience on the hillside where 5,000 were fed, the experience of feeding those who are hungry and cannot feed themselves.
There is the mountain-top experience of pain and suffering and death on Calvary, the experience we all must go through in order to find Resurrection.
The Christian life is not all summer-camp fun-and-games, playing and singing and laughing and crying together with good friends. To suggest that it is and that church should always and ever be like that, or that it was meant to be, betrays the wholeness of the Gospel.
Between you took the words out of my mouth, Wendy and Eric. By definition, time on the mountaintop is transitory and to expect what can happen there to be normal day-to-day experience is not realistic. If I dare say so with my lack of expertise and authority, I think it falls short of an understanding of the theological message of the Transfiguration as narrated in the Gospel.
In my experience of the Cursillo movement, in which people often describe the Cursillo Weekend as a mountain-top experience, people need to be eased back into the reality of the world where their normal friends were not there with them, just as the whole congregation was not at Greenbelt, New Wine whatever and didn’t experience what they did.
And what is possible on a one-off occasion simply cannot be expected on a day-to-day basis. If one looks for that, one can becomes an itinerant thrill-seeker, going from festival to festival, conference to conference, as some people do, seeking the next buzz, which in a way has to be ever buzzier than the one before just to give basic satisfaction.
If that sounds negative… a special occasion, like going out for celebratory meal, would quickly lose its interest, its joy, its ‘specialness’ if we did it every day or every week.
On one fundamental, though, I do agree with the writer, that there is every reason why we should challenge our churches to adopt good practice where we see it elsewhere. Yes!
Adopting good practice–yes. But unless we withdraw from ‘real life’, we can’t expect unadulterated mountaintop experiences.
Remember that it’s often the most dangerous people who promise that–that’s what Jim Jones of the Peoples’ Temple did, and that’s what Marshall Applewhite of Heaven’s Gate did. And where are most of their followers now?
I had to preach the Sunday after the Heaven’s Gate Suicides were discovered–I had a sermon all ready to go, then a day or so before, the Rector phoned and begged me to say SOMETHING about this. So, a lot of revamping quickly. It turned into developing a simple test for ‘good religion’. The Rector actually used to preface his sermons with a phrase from the Litany of Thanksgiving from the Prayer Book of the Episcopal Church:
Minds to think, hearts to love, hands to serve.
If you’re missing any of that, it’s not good religion.
Yes I know and agree Wendy. Didn’t the main part of my comment show how much I agree on that score? Or did my final comment, which was meant to be a broader generalisation unrelated to mountain-top experiences, leave you with a different impression?
And yes, Eric–we often forget that the crucifixion did happen on a mountain (or at least a hill). THAT isn’t usually on offer at summer camp.
Wendy, Eric, Matthew, thank-you all very much for responding to this.
I am not the author, of course, so I cannot fully speak for him. I can only say, as far as the editorial decision to include this piece goes, that I did so without deeply exploring the metaphorical mountain-top, which is a problem I think (see below).
Dr J R Miller followed me on Twitter, and I followed back. He suggested that I look at his blog, in particular this post, which I did.
It resonated with me, for what I suppose were quite shallow reasons. I have sucessfully avoided Greenbelt and New Wine, which would fill me with a sense of dread, so unenthusiastic am I about forced jollity in the mud at the wrong end of summer. However, CNMAC was different in that I did feel a real sense of elation and left wondering how there could be a crisis in the Christian Church in Britain with that degree of enthusiasm and commitment.
Dr Miller has not yet commented here, but I suspect that the problem in his blog post is that it was not attempting to say anything more complicated than that at these gatherings we tend to feel a surge of ‘something’, whether it is that we are imbued with the Holy Spirit or simply carried away by the group dynamics. When we return to daily routine, it is hard to keep that going, particularly if our ordinary church services are lacking in ‘oomph’. He wonders if there is some way of injecting the same enthusiasm we found in our group gatherings into the everyday.
I think he has a fair point, which is why I asked if I might reblog his post.
There are two difficulties, first as Ann Fontaine implied on Facebook, human beings simply cannot function on a permanent high. Life is not like that. Also, speaking as a middle-of-the-candle Anglican, the thought of outwardly-expressed enthusiasm in a church service is something we were brought up to disdain. Pas trop de zele and all that. My personal ideal is perhaps rather cerebral worship, if possible redolent of the cloister. But when I see the Charismatics I wonder whether I should feel a desire to join in.
The second – and major difficulty for us, perhaps – is that mountain-tops play a significant part in the Bible and the monastic life which it is hard to detach from talk of summer camps.
Can I ask you to try and dismiss all the associated echoes from ‘mountain-top’ and just consider the simpler point that Dr Miller was making – how can we maintain the enthusiasm that these gatherings engender? Or should we learn to live without enthusiasm?
I do hope to use this blog to explore unfamiliar ways of ‘doing God’. It is possible that it is difficult to have blog-type conversations with those whose response to the message of Christianity is an emphasis on emotion; the straightforward Anglican tradition has discussion in its DNA.
I think that crisis can exist alongside commitment and enthusiasm, depending on the person describing the situation.
If I’m reading you correctly, Laura, CNMAC is the Christian New Media Awards Conference. And if you’re a sort of ‘representative’ (in the sense of being typical) participant, there’s a lot of individual energy and drive on your part, without necessarily a lot of institutional input.
From the more institutional side, there is a decrease in attendance, financial support, the church as a life priority, all of which is real. And dealing with that means change, and to institutions, the need for massive change usually is interpreted as crisis.
But crisis invovles a level of opportunity, as well as a mere fight for survival. It can mean questioning the way things have always been done (I’m sure you’ve heard the ‘seven last words of the church’ quoted as ‘but we’ve never done it that way’), a challenging of assumptions. For some, change is a threat to ‘the faith once delivered’ (which I sometimes question if any such thing really exists). And when you’ve got people who are not used to having their assumptions challenged, ‘crisis’ is an immediate word to go to.
I like the line you are taking, Wendy, especially as it is a separate strand (I think) to the one I am pursuing, and therefore enriching the discussion.
Wendy, yes, CNMAC is as you say an annual gathering organised by the (evangelical) Premier Christian Radio but open to all. I think you may be on to something, in that most of the people I met last year were doing individual things, rather than as representatives of large organisations or Churches. People like me, some with perhaps more of an official seal of approval than I have sought from the CofE, but many not. Mmmm. Room for more thought here…:)
Whereas in sundry places the blog speaketh unto us in acronyms, be it enacted by the Editor’s majesty, being (under God) the supreme governor of Lay Anglicana, that, regarding mercifully her humble servants, the readers thereof, a glossary be provided in a sidebar of the same, for our better understanding and to the greater glory of God.
Amen.
(That does mean ‘so be it’, doesn’t it?)
Do I have to do penance as well…
AMEN means Anglican Mendicants Evangelise the Nation, Laura. The were a breakaway group from the SSF in the 1930s, noted for using a Syriac version of the 1928 book as their Office book. Unfortunately, they were all killed by Franco’s troops in Cataluña, ministering to the likes of George Orwell (also known as EB – no relation to TB, though that’s what he died of). There is a monument to them on top of a mountain overlooking Barcelona.
SGs can normally obtain dispensation from penance.
SGs=’Silly Girls’ I take it:)
Both GQB and ER II (aka QE2) are offended by this slight on the high office of SG, and our longest-reigning girl-governor* is not amused.
*gee-gee
I think the problem with institutions, especially when they become large-ish, tend not to be able to tap into the surge of enthusiasm that often comes when an individual or smallish group spends a concentrated amount of time together in intense ways, getting to know one another deeply in a secluded and (let’s face it) controlled and artificial setting. Partly, that’s because it’s incredibly difficult to take the WHOLE institution away that way. Getting an entire congregation, even a small one away for a weekend, is usually close to impossible. Unless you ARE a cloistered community, there will be time and family conflicts that don’t permit it. You can’t make it ‘mandatory’ (unless you are some kind of weird cult, so see above for how well that works out). And you’ll almost never get a program together that actually works for everyone in a typical congregation. Small groups, such as those who go to a particular camp, or a particular conference, are pretty much by definition self-selecting. They can’t really be a model for Christian community.
The problem with individuals and small group initiatives is multi-faceted. Because people do disperse afterwards, and because the normal demands of life have a funny habit of creeping back in after the return home, energy and commitment for whatever it was you were doing (and distance from the people with whom you developed that energy and commitment) tends to evaporate. At a camp, conference or retreat, there is still the external discipline (daily prayer times, shared meals, definite programs), and for a time, however brief, it’s all you do. Once you get home, you are often separate from the people with whom you generated the energy and enthusiasm, the need to earn a living and take care of other bits of life, take over.
As well, catching the bigger vision that you get on your average camp/conference/retreat often raises questions of resourcing (money, time, talent, and a bit of good old sweat). When you come home, into a community that wasn’t with you to catch that vision (or may have had a different experience and caught a different vision), putting it into action as a small group or individual initiative is often a frustration. Especially if others have caught a different vision, and it becomes a ‘competition’ in the congregation to which one you pursue due to the lack of resources.
This is why I’m a big fan of ecclesial institutions well beyond the parish–for Anglicans, that can mean diocese, province, communion. When there’s a bigger pool to draw on, more can be accomplished.
The challenge, I think, is to find the balance where those smaller enthusiasms can be tested out, and the institutions can draw energy from them whilst resourcing the best of them.
I think that’s very lucid, Laura. Thank you. I think it reinforces in a way my final throw-in on FaceBook: ” To that, I would add that the idea that ‘mountain top experiences’ have to involve loud noise and festival dynamics negates the very special encounters that can happen equally in the still quiet places, whether an incense-filled church or, with Elijah in the cave, hearing the ‘still small voice’
I think the reality is that what is repellant to some (“must they keep banging on about ‘….’!”) has been life-changing for others. Isn’t a bit like books…. “You absolutely MUST read xxx – it changed my life” which leaves other people stone cold!
Thus, I have also never been attracted to a mud-filled field, but I have had very special encounters on retreat and at Cursillo special (and rather loud and enthusiastic!) services. So not all things to all people, of course.
For me the real issue is a little more than ‘enforced jollity’ and more about the desire to get a ‘fix’ which MAY come from the Holy Spirit in spite of, not because of, the enforced jollity, but may equally actually be an emotional reaction related to group dynamics and expectation, unrelated to an encounter with God.
I don’t know which and I wouldn’t be foolish enough to stand in judgement of someone else’s experience.
Matthew, I do want to understand loud enthusiasm! Could you perhaps do a guest post for us on the Cursillo movement?
(Of course you are right that ‘enforced jollity’ is unfair).
(Sorry Laura/everyone – not quite sure what happened there – I only seemed to get the first para of your response first time round, and probably wasted everyone’s time with my last offering… sorry!)
(am getting a little sea-sick with double entry and copying-and-pasting across two locations)
I’m sorry about this, Matthew – I’m not sure why Ann only wants to talk on FB, but I do revere her so have been happy to indulge.
I’m sorry also about my earlier post originally only being half the length. To be honest I got fed up with the tiny square, so went to ‘edit comment’ to give me more space. Will try not to do this again!
There is a tiny triangle in the corner of the comment box, Laura, which you can drag outwards to enlarge the box, but you need to pretty accurate with the mouse to grab hold of it!
Eureka – I’ve found it! Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks….thank-you so much, Chris!
I think what came across to me from the post was not forced jollity (he wrote that they cried as well as laughed together) but rather an experience of community, with maybe some echoes of Acts 4. While this may not always be feasible, there may be something to be learnt.
I agree Savi, I am sure that is true.
Taking Laura’s gentle guidance, I think it is a difficult challenge, and hard to get right. I am inclined to get impatient with the twin theologies of a church can seem to be “I know what I like and I like what I know” and “As long as the church is there to bury me I don’t care what happens”. The trouble is that it doesn’t mean that it’s a God-less congregation, merely that you sometimes have to look pretty hard under the bushels, and can then sometimes be surprised by a very beautiful flame of faith that is burning.
But that measured realisation doesn’t stop me feeling frustrated if I have just come back from something energising and motivating!
Thank-you Savi – I too felt that there were some lessons to be learnt, even if they have to be teased out of the post…
Tell me how to write a guest blog and I’ll try to oblige!
Well, I know you know how to write!
500-1,000 words (more if you need to, or you could break it in two and do two posts)
Send it to me by email and I put it in a post.
Include illustrations if you have them to hand, or suggest ideas.
That’s it.
Any time…
Many thanks in advance :>)
Interesting comments all. As with any analogy, it can be taken too far and I fear some have decided to go beyond the focus of the post. The goal here, as specifically stated in the post, was to emphasize that the the camp experience was about being a community beyond 1 hour a week. Of course I am not suggesting we live in communes, but simply that we, the church, learn to live life together to share our joys and sorrows and do more than spend 1 hour a week listening to a sermon.
I should hope we can all agree with that.
Blessings.
Sorry if I misconstrued your intentions, Joe, but I honestly did see it as a plea for institutionalising one-off experiences into the day-to-day
I’ve been in a number of churches of various sizes, and NONE of them was ‘1 hour a week listening to a sermon’. Much higher level of commitment than that, and a much higher level of service to the world outside. Far beyond simply ‘living life together to share our joys and sorrows’.
I would never want to be in a church where that was the main focus, because that is such a watering down of what Jesus was about. So, no, I would hope that’s something we could NOT agree with.
@Laura,
Thanks for the opportunity to guest post here. I can see you have your hands full with a very engaged group of folks.
@All
Some of you have made some good additional points of what the church should do beyond the 1 hour Sunday experience (which is still a valuable part of Church) so thank you for your contributions.
I am glad my simple post has sparked such a great discussion of about the church.
As usual I’m late to the party here, long after others have moved on to fresher posts. I think the comments above illustrate how varied our experiences of church are – and our vision of church is largely shaped by personal experience. I’m something of a pew-filler, revelling in my (currently increasing) sense of belonging, but happy to let others do the hard work. There have been times in the past when I have been more actively involved, but never to the extent that Wendy describes.
They also serve who only stand and mutter the familiar responses? Possibly.