Fishing with C.S. Lewis and Robert Barron: YL Catholic Relations & the Art of Catching Nones

A friend contacted me recently to ask my advice about a good C.S. Lewis book for her husband. That’s a lot like asking me for the best Henri Nouwen book. They’re all so good it’s impossible to pick one (so I recommended the complete compilation of C.S. Lewis signature classics, of course!). But it prompted me to pull my own copy of Mere Christianity off the shelf and refamiliarize myself. 

I was immediately struck by the description of Lewis’ original motivations to write what would become a timeless spiritual classic for Protestants and Catholics alike: “Ever since I became a Christian I have thought that the best, perhaps the only, service I could do for my unbelieving neighbors was to explain and defend the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times.” Somehow from the beginning, Lewis intuited that the world needed an articulate presentation of Christianity’s heart, not its peripheries, its center of gravity, not its disputed boundaries. 

His ecumenical instincts were beautifully attuned to the signs of the times. He rightly observed that disputes among Christians were, first of all, often matters of high theology suited only for real experts. But he also noted that discussions about controversial points hadn’t the slightest chance of bringing outsiders into the Christian fold. He chose to “fish” for men and women (Mt 4:19; Lk 5:10) with the proposition of “mere” Christianity, a term he borrowed from the oft-forgotten 17^thcentury figure Richard Baxter. By “mere” he didn’t mean minor or measly, but essential and foundational, the very core of the Christian tradition.  

Fast forward to the 21^stcentury and we meet another towering evangelical fisherman, Bishop Robert Barron. Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles and founder of Word on Fire Ministries, Barron’s effectiveness in proclaiming the Gospel to the postmodern generation can be aptly compared to Lewis’ influence on the generation of moderns before him. Like Lewis, who never hid his Anglican convictions, Barron is solidly Catholic, but he also knows that focusing on the divisions isn’t going to win any converts.

“You’re not going to get a lot of nones coming back to church if you’re ranting and raving,” Barron says. “You have to be more inviting, finding positive things in the culture you can identify with.”[1]Noting the influence of Saint Pope John Paul II, one of his heroes, Barron exhorts, “You should never be browbeating, aggressive, prideful, and all that. Never impose, always propose.”[2]

Why is this missionary strategy so effective (note Barron’s online videos have been viewed over 30 million times and his Facebook followers now number over 1.5 million)? It’s because Bishop Barron is sharply attuned to his audience. He knows that we are living in the age of widespread secularism, skepticism and unbelief. Like Lewis, Barron’s evangelical strategy begins with the kerygmatic core of Christianity, that positive, Christocentric message that Jesus Christ is the thing our restless hearts most yearn for. 

This same approach is at the center of the growing movement of Young Life Catholic Relations. Beginning with what Pope Francis calls “the essentials, that which is most beautiful, most grand, most appealing and most necessary”[3]we seek to address the startling rise of “the nones”, those who aren’t arguing about this denomination or that but who have no religious affiliation at all. How? With a winsome proclamation of Jesus Christ, with real relationships and a steady ministry of accompaniment, and with a spirit of partnership that stacks hands on that “center, rather that Someone, who against all divergencies of belief, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks [to us] with the same voice.”[4]

To find out more about how you can participate in this growing movement of unity and evangelization please click here.

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[1]Robert Barron, To Light a Fire on the Earth: Proclaiming the Gospel in a Secular Age (Image Books, NY: 2017), 124.

[2]Ibid, 115.

[3]Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), 35. 

[4]C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity found in The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics  (HarperCollins: NY, 2002), 8.

Gratitude

Two weeks ago my wife and I bought a house.[1] I can hardly describe the feeling of having a space of our own – awe, humility, delight, disbelief, thanksgiving. For our growing family, for the many guests we welcome into our home each month, for years of forming memories with friends and loved ones, this house is a real gift.

The gift of a home makes me mindful of so many other things for which I’m grateful – for an incredible wife with whom I can share life, for healthy children filled with innocence and wonder, for work that allows me to drop my nets and follow Jesus with everything I’ve got, for the many friends and generous benefactors that support this ministry of bridge-building and Christian mission for the sake of kids. Let me say THANK YOU for your encouragement, your prayers and your partnership in the gospel.

A few years ago, a friend introduced me to an artist who’s life changed in a little coastal town in northern California. Louie Schwartzberg recalled, “I didn’t have much money, but I had time and a sense of wonder.” So he started shooting time-lapsed photography of flowers, an art that so gripped his soul that he has been doing it non-stop, 24 hours a day, for the past 30 years. The images are stunningly brilliant, filled with all the playfulness, creativity and freedom of the God who created them. “To see them move is a dance I’ll never get tired of,” he noted.

In this month of Thanksgiving, I want to share with you a project Schwartzberg put together called “Happiness Revealed,” something that has always put my life in proper perspective before God. Take 10 minutes and lean into the glorious mystery of life that God has given us. I pray that it will fill your heart, as it has done mine, with a profound sense of gratitude.

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[1] Thus the two-week hiatus in writing. I can honestly say I’ve never ripped out more carpet, pulled more staples, painted more walls, raked more leaves and spent more sleepless nights than I have over the last 14 days. And my body’s letting me know! 

Discipleship and Basketball

No matter how much one dribbles and passes, no matter how many fancy cross-overs or flailing shots one might take, if the ball doesn’t go in the basket then the game of basketball is hard to win.  Drawing on this analogy, we might say the same thing about Christianity.  Surely, Christian faith is not a game, but bear with me.

Jesus taught that the whole idea of Christianity is to make disciples.[1]  This, of course, means a lot of things – the Great Commission alone explicitly lists baptizing, teaching, and obeying the commandments of Jesus – yet sometimes I get the funny feeling that we, like those in the cartoon, are missing the point.  Worse yet, it seems that our Christian traditions haven’t even made it clear to us what that point really is.

Catholics have a very strong tradition of catechesis, that is, teaching the faith.  The average Catholic, by the time they are confirmed, have endured a virtual fire-hose treatment of Catholic doctrine, history, morality, etc. (now let it be understood that I’m writing as one who loves this stuff).  Yet our Mass attendance alone (hovering around 23%) suggests that our strategy has not produced vibrant, life-long disciples.  We might say that many Catholics have been “catechized but not evangelized.”

Eastern Orthodox have a strong liturgical and sacramental tradition (the same could be said for Catholics).  Yet the Eastern Orthodox Church also faces widespread nominalism and a similar limp in church attendance.  Eastern Orthodox theologian, Brad Nassif, has noted that many Orthodox Christians have been “sacramentalized but not evangelized.”

Evangelicals might look at this and say, “Well of course, you’ve missed the whole point!  It is about making a personal decision to accept Christ as your Lord and Savior.”  And in one sense they are right.  Personal faith, for all Christians, is both essential and indispensible.   Christianity, one might say, is not a spectator sport.  Rather, faith is personal and revolutionary.  It changes one’s life in real and tangible ways.  Pope Francis recently exhorted an audience at the Vatican, “A Christian who is not a revolutionary today isn’t a Christian.”[2]  Christian faith gives people “a heart that loves, a heart that suffers, a heart that rejoices with others, a heart full of tenderness for those who bear the wounds of life and feel like they are on the periphery of society.”  We share this passion with our Evangelical brothers and sisters!

Yet many are surprised to hear that the Evangelical emphasis on getting people to “make decisions” may also be falling short of the gospel’s call of discipleship.  While close to 90% of Evangelical Christians have made personal commitments to Christ, only 20% continue to live a “revolutionary faith.”[3]  Evangelical theologian, Scot McKnight, makes this startling contention:

There is a minimal difference in correlation between evangelical children and teenagers who make a decision for Christ and who later become genuine disciples, and Roman Catholics who are baptized as infants and who as adults become faithful and devout Catholic disciples.[4]

What?!  Really?!

The emerging problem with the Evangelical tradition is not so much that it makes faith personal.  This is something that we all need to do.  Rather, the problem that is surfacing is that many Evangelicals have reduced the gospel to “a statement about Jesus’ death and its meaning, and a prayer with which people accept it.”[5]  Evangelical theologian, Dallas Willard, has called it “the gospel of sin management,” a view of salvation that takes away your sin and destines you for heaven but has no connection to discipleship and spiritual transformation.  The data suggests that this personal plan of salvation - when severed from revolutionary story of Jesus Christ, the announcement of his kingdom, and a life-long commitment to ongoing discipleship - is no more effective than the Catholic or Orthodox practices of merely sacramentalizing and catechizing.

So who exactly is the kid in the cartoon who is saying, “Why has this been kept from us?”  Looks like the answer is . . .  all of us.  When it comes to Christian discipleship, we all have a lot to learn about “getting the ball in the basket.”

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            [1]  Mt 28:19.

            [2]  Cindy Wooden, “Pope calls for ‘revolutionaries’ to change hearts, share God’s love,” The Catholic Messenger, Vol. 131, No. 24 (June 20, 2013), 1.

            [3]  Scot McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011, 20.

            [4]  Ibid.

            [5]  N. T. Wright, in the foreward to Scot McKnight’s King Jesus Gospel, 13.

Silently Comes the Kingdom

“But [Jesus] was silent and did not answer.”

Mark 14:61

Heinrich Suso was a Dominican holy man who lived in the fourteenth century.[1]  An itinerant preacher of the gospel, Suso had acquired a far-reaching reputation for godliness.  One day a scheming woman left her newly born babe on the doorstep of Suso’s house and spread the rumor that he was the father.  Seemingly unphased by the accusation, Heinrich took the child, caressed it, saying, “Dear child, I will take care of you, for you are God’s child and therefore mine too.  So long as God gives me a single mouthful, I will share it with you to the glory of God; and I will bear patiently whatever may happen to me on your account.” 

Heinrich faced harsh criticism from all sides, even from his own friends who were all too ready to point scornful fingers at him and mock his reputation.  He was ridiculed, scorned and abandoned.  Heinrich withstood the accusations with serene silence, caring for the child with gentle devotion.  Not until the accusing woman lay at death’s door did she confess that Heinrich was not the father.

Sometimes silence is the loudest answer.

Jesus too showed remarkable poise in the face of false accusation, even if that led to his own death.  The above passage marks one of the few occasions that Jesus’ only response to a question was silence.  “Have you no answer?” shouted the chief priests.[2]  “Have you no answer?” Pilate exclaimed.[3]  Jesus was silent. 

But why?  He was unjustly accused!  An innocent man!  Why not stand up and declare your righteousness?  Point your finger back at them!  Jesus knew His equality with God was not something to be grasped.  His was a mission of servanthood, humility and obedience.  Inspiring countless others throughout history, like Heinrich Suso, Jesus knew that only God could right all the wrongs of a fallen humanity.  Only God could heal our blindness and reveal His true nature in the Suffering Servant.

A priest friend of mine recently reminded me that if you want to follow Jesus, “you gotta look good on wood.”  The reconciling work of God’s kingdom is far from easy.  As quickly as you build bridges, there will be those eager to tear them down.  Your work for unity will meet those who’d rather focus on the divisions.  Your commitment to justice may earn you some real enemies and false friends.

The question is, how will you respond?  Are you of the same mind as Christ Jesus?  Are you quick to defend yourself or point the finger?  Would you be willing to sacrifice your own reputation (and perhaps your own ego) for the sake of the gospel?  Are you ready to follow Jesus in all things, silently going about the work of the kingdom?

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives;


Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;


Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;


Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight.


Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;


Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;


Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;


Give the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis it is between you and God;


it was never between you and them anyway.

~Mother Teresa

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            [1]  Heinrich Suso was a German-born mystic and priest of the Dominican Order.  Trained in the Rhineland school, Suso’s writing is considered some of the finest fruits of German mysticism.  His feast day is celebrated on January 23^rd.

            [2]  Mark 14:60.

            [3]  Mark 15:4.

The "Missional Moment": Young Life & The Catholic Church

Last week I was able to speak to Young Life area directors from across the country about the exciting “missional moment” that we’re currently experiencing.  More than ever, Young Life is dedicated to a strategy of evangelization that is sensitive to Catholics.  We need to help Catholic kids be the best Catholics they can be, calling them into the highest ideals of Catholicism (see my last post on “Evangelical Catholicism”) and welcoming the manifold gifts the Catholic tradition offers.  In addition, we need to partner with Catholic parishes, parents, priests, schools, colleges and social service agencies to ensure that “even kid, everywhere” has the opportunity to know Jesus Christ and follow him.

On the other side of the coin, this “missional moment” is seeing an incredible openness of the Catholic Church to embrace the very things that Young Life is so good at.  The “new evangelization” has been proclaimed as the central strategy of the Catholic Church for engaging the world in the 21^st century and beyond.  Going where people are, earning the right to be heard, proclaiming the truth in love, new methods, a new ardor – these are all things that the Catholic Church is talking about right now, with great fervor. 

Cardinal Donald Wuerl of the archdiocese of Washington, D.C. recently noted that the Catholic Church is in a position similar to that of the early church.  The rise of secularism means that modern disciples “bring the experience of the risen Lord to a world that simply doesn’t know what they are talking about. . . It’s introducing the experience of a relationship with God to people who are so absorbed in this secular culture that their horizon doesn’t reach that high.”[1]

What prelates like Wuerl and practitioners like Sherry Weddell have been calling for is a return to what is called the kerygma.  Kerygma is a Greek term that refers to the primary proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The kerygma is sharing Christ and inviting people to respond.  The first disciples preached the kerygma and the world is in need of the kerygma again.  Cardinal Wuerl continues:

Engaging secularism is going to be the major challenge. I think that is going to mean a return to a very basic kerygma. We sometimes get so caught up in one or another aspect of the teaching, we forget that if a person hasn’t been introduced to Christ, if a person hasn’t embraced the risen Lord and the church that’s an expression of that experience, what we’re saying just sounds like a bunch of rules or negative statements limiting their personal freedom. We have to get back to that core kerygma.[2]

The wonder of this “missional moment” is that the stated needs of the Catholic Church are precisely what Young Life is doing every day.  With great success around the world, Young Life leaders are proclaiming the kerygma of Jesus Christ in ways that counter the secularism of our age and transform lives, one relationship at a time.  This is simply what we do.  We’re good at it and we are primed to share it with the Church and the world over.  Just imagine the impact of 1.2 billion Catholics on earth, energized by the “new evangelization” and a fresh kerygmatic proclamation of Jesus Christ!  The impact would be colossal, world-changing, kingdom-building. 

Are you ready to embrace this “missional moment”? 

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[1]             John L. Allen, Dennis Coday and Joshua J. McElwee, “Wuerl: ‘Teach truth from the pulpit, then meet people where they are’,” The National Catholic Reporter, Feb 26, 2013 accessed 2/26/13 at: http://ncronline.org/node/46101.

[2]             Ibid.

Christ Our Foundation

It is hardly imaginable for me to speak about anything else this week but the surprising announcement that Pope Benedict XVI will be resigning at the end of the month.  He literally gave his two weeks notice.  People have responded in wildly different ways, of course, but the key element in this news has been surprise.

No one was perhaps more surprised than Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria (see video below).  He was sitting in the consistory meeting of bishops where the pontiff first broke the news.  Arinze is a fascinating character.  Born in Nigeria, Arinze was converted to Christ from African tribal religion at the age of nine.  He entered the seminary at age 15.  He became a priest and later graduated summa cum laude with a doctorate in sacred theology from Rome.  At age 32, he became the youngest bishop ever ordained in the Catholic Church. 

Perhaps even more fascinating is that Arinze could very well be the next pope.  There are no guarantees with this sort of thing, yet many Vatican insiders suggest Arinze is a frontrunner.  No matter who appears in St. Peter’s Square as the next successor to St. Peter, I found Arinze’s reaction to Pope Benedict’s announcement to be among the most beautiful and grounded:

Some people may be so shaken [by the news of the pope’s resignation].  But my hope and prayer is that it will help many to become more mature in their faith.  Our faith is not on the pope.  It is on Christ who is the foundation of the Church.  Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.  We all are servants.  We come and go.  Christ doesn’t come and go.  He stays.[1]

As we enter into the season of Lent, the ashes on our foreheads (today is Ash Wednesday) remind us that “dust you are and to dust you will return”(Gen 3:19).  Our lives are like grass, flourishing one day and gone the next (Ps 103:15-16).  Yet our common faith is not ultimately in priests or pastors, Young Life leaders or youth directors (however great they may be).  Cardinal Arinze reminds us that our foundation is not even the pope.  The hope that binds us all is in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is the same yesterday, today and forever.  In this we stand united.  In this the Good News is proclaimed.  In this God’s reign will endure forever.

The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Romans 10:8,13

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[1]             Cardinal Arinze’s comments were taken from an interview conducted by Francis X. Rocca of the Catholic News Service on February 12, 2013.