Better Felt

We've come full circle.  Over the past three months, we have considered the notion of our Christian faith from three different perspectives.  First, we talked about the importance of knowing for certain what we believe as we move further into an age of uncertainty.  Next, we talked about the importance of having a common vocabulary in declaring our faith.  Last month, we looked at the requirement of agreeing upon our vocabulary definitions.  This month I want us to consider drawing this discussion together with one more essential requirement for our Christian beliefs, especially as it relates to holiness.

A belief system with a common vocabulary and set of definitions will always top the list of requirements for articulating our Christian faith.  However, more than just talking about what we believe, we must also experience it.  Without personal experience, our belief system remains sterile and academic.

Last week will go down in my personal life as a high water mark of my experiences with God.  Olivet Nazarene University hosted a Holiness Summit for our educational region.  Nearly 1000 people drove, flew, or road a train to our campus for this monumental event.  I've never experienced anything like it in my life.  Both the format and the spirit of the services challenged my faith.  As to format, we participated in nine services from Sunday to Tuesday evenings.  That means we attended two services in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening.  The awareness of God's presence in the services was felt by all who attended.

What made God's presence so real to us?  I've given that question a lot of thought in recent days.  I suppose we might note that the line-up of speakers was solid.  Each speaker approached the subject of holiness from a different perspective.  Dr. John Bowling, president of ONU, said it was like holding a diamond up to the light and seeing its many different facets.  I suppose we might note that the music was outstanding.  Everything from the congregational singing to the special music was God-ordained and lifted our spirits heavenward.  But, the speakers and the music alone do not capture the essence of what made us so aware of God's presence.

Several weeks prior to the Holiness Summit, we called on believers from across our educational region to pray for this event and expect God to come and speak to all who attended.  So, a symphony of prayer made its way to God's ears asking Him to visit us in ways we could understand.  Perhaps because of that longing in the hearts of those who prayed for the event, believers came to our campus hungering to hear from God.  They came into the services with an appetite in their hearts.  They waited; they listened for God's voice.  And, I am happy to report that they heard God's voice in every aspect of the services.

So, how does this report of the Holiness Summit in March, 2009 complete the circle of our conversation over the past three months on this Epworth Pulpit page?  It's an important reminder that ultimately what we say we believe must be experienced in real life.  John Wesley knew the importance of experience.  That's why he placed so much emphasis on the personal testimony of his followers.  That's why he interviewed so many of them to hear their stories and look for the common elements in them.  It is from those common elements that he found the building blocks to complete his theology.  With Scripture as his foundation and ultimate authority, he attempted to craft a way of believing that lined up with tradition, reason, and common experience.

I work every day in a university classroom passing the faith on to the next generation.  What an awesome responsibility!  I use as many carefully chosen words as I can employ.  I illustrate with as many comparisons, metaphors, and stories as I can find to convey Christian truth.  But, words, comparisons, metaphors, and stories all by themselves are never enough.  Left in isolation, they can be sterile and academic.  They're like checkers placed on a game board and used to play a game.  Once we're finished with the checkers we put them back in the box and go on with our day.  We never use checkers to add value and meaning to our daily lives.

Words, comparisons, metaphors, and stories are meaningful to our faith only as we add them to our experience and take them into our work-a-day world to add spiritual value and meaning to our lives.  That reminds me that my job in the classroom - passing the faith on to the next generation - is never complete until my students experience for themselves what we talking about in class.  That happened at the Holiness Summit.  I could not have been more pleased as an event planner and professor at the way our students came by the hundreds to hear and respond to the message of holiness.  They experienced for themselves how the doctrine of holiness feels when applied to their lives.

One student's comment gave me a chuckle and warmed my heart at the same time.  When I arrived 45 minutes before the first service of the Holiness Summit, the parking lot and sanctuary were both filling quickly.  One of our students arrived right after me, saw the parking lot and sanctuary and remarked, "I had no idea holiness was so popular!"  I'm glad students saw that holiness really does matter to our people.  It matters not only as a doctrine but also as a lifestyle.

I guess what I'm saying is like an old preacher at the church I grew up in used to say, "It's better felt than telt."  You see, we can talk about Christian belief systems all day long.  Our words, however, remain hollow until they are applied to life in the form of personal experience.  My students experienced holiness last week in ways I could never have explained to them in class.  What a joy to hear their reports: "Now I know for myself what holiness means."  "I had no idea I could know God in this way!"  "I've learned more about holiness in the past two days than any other time in my life."  Hearing those testimonies from my students made every effort at planning the event worthwhile.

Students weren't the only ones changed by the event.  Pastors, Sunday School teachers, board members, and district superintendents all sent me emails in the days following the Holiness Summit reporting the changes God had made in their lives.  The outpouring of God's Spirit on those services left all of us forever changed!

That leads me to comment on a notion that I ponder often.  It's a controversial idea so fasten your seat belt before you read on.  I'll admit right up front that I can't prove my point.  I guess it's more of a personal observation than anything.  Here's my thought.  In recent years, many of my Christian friends, including folks from my church as well as pastor friends, have offered challenges and objections to the notion of full salvation being realized in this life.  By that I mean, they doubt that, beyond forgiveness of past sins, God can transform believers into new creatures who consistently live above sin as they are conformed to the image of Christ.  My friends are okay with talking about this as a life-long process; they get nervous, however, if we speak of watershed moments in time when God does a definitive sanctifying work in the hearts of His followers.

Here's my controversial idea.  I have a hunch that the reason my friends oppose this idea in theological conversations is because they have never experienced it for themselves in their own personal lives.  It's awfully difficult to affirm something you have no personal experience with.  We can get so caught up in theological "what-ifs" that we forget that our faith talk must always find its way into everyday life.

Sometimes faith conversations work better when they come from the other direction.  That is, sometimes it works better to experience God first then try and put it into words that capture the essence of our experience.  It reminds me of the testimony of the blind man that Jesus healed in John 9.  The religious authorities tried to get him caught up in a web of theological explanations.  He cut right through the web of questioning and went straight to his experience.  He said it plainly, "Whether he [Jesus] is a sinner of not, I don't know.  One thing I do know.  I was blind but now I see!"  It always comes down to that essential personal declaration - "one thing I do know." 

I'm thankful for last week's Holiness Summit.  As long as I live, I'll never forget it.  Long after the words of the songs and speakers have faded from my immediate thoughts, I'll bask in the afterglow of the undeniable presence of the Lord that we felt in those nine services.  And, I'll relish the memories of those students and guests who experienced the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit for themselves.  Even as a trained theologian, I declare the truth of my old pastor friend when he said, "It's better felt that telt!"