"Northwestern College endeavors to provide education that is grounded in the truth of the Bible and in God as the Ultimate Reality. Through the Word of God and a relationship with Christ, knowledge can be interpreted. The Bible and theology is the foundation upon which all other disciplines rest. When the truths of an academic discipline conflict with the truth of God's Word, we put our trust in God's revealed truth in the Bible."
If the above paragraph made you fall asleep or want to put a pencil through your eye socket, you're not alone. Last Friday, Northwestern college had their annual academic convocation. This is the ceremony where the incoming freshman class is inducted into the institution and given the opportunity to commit to academic integrity, pursuit of excellence, and an understanding of the origins and foundation upon which their academic school year will be grounded in. I look forward to this ceremony every year. I love seeing all the faculty in their academic regalia, knowing that my institution is committing itself to another year of teaching grounded in truths that stand the test of time. Sadly, I am in the minority on my campus of "higher learning" Apparently this ceremony is to boring for students to sit through. I have heard comments over the years ranging from, "[the convocation] provides a great opportunity to nap," to "they need to spice it up, like make the teachers do a dance or something!" Now I could chalk reactions like these up to the notion that students have always acted like this toward any formal ceremony. But I wouldn't be the annoying historian if I didn't search for a deeper more historical reason behind such reactions.
I believe the answer lies in the reformation. Since the reformation denominations have opposed most forms of ritualism and ceremony, and for good reason. When Luther posted the 95 theses, on that fateful day of October 31, 1517, the Catholic church was filled with corruption, due in a large part to rituals that took the place of true genuine worship and a heartfelt faith. But I must put forward this claim. I believe the pendulum has now shifted. We as Evangelicals, the heirs of Luther's legacy, have become so engrossed with anti - ritualism, that we can't participate in one without crying afoul. Ever since the reformation, Evangelicals have wanted as little to do with rituals and ceremonies as possible. And now, more than 500 years later, it's gone to far. If this problem were limited to anti - catholic forms of worship, than the damage could be controlled. Unfortunately this antagonism has permeated to every form institutionalism, traditionalism, and ceremony in existence. When a Christian doesn't want to partake in something because it's to old fashioned, its outdated, its not fun and lighthearted, there is something wrong. We need to stop rejecting the legacy of our fathers and see that there is a middle ground. You don't have to be completely ritual or completely free and emotive. You can choose to recognize rituals and ceremonies for what they are, a way of remembering the past and traditions that great men and women of the faith used to express devotion to their creator.
4 comments:
I liked the ceremony this year. Maybe it took the 4th time around for me to think, "Hey, this is actually good stuff, I am glad they repeat it every year so it would sink into my thick skull."
Last year, I saw a freshmen who was standing for the convocation as they were being inducted and he was texting while being spoken to by the president. You wrote one of your first blogs about how our generation sucks. I agree thoroughly. This boy (and I am using boy instead of man) raised my blood pressure a little that day.
I would love if we had a mandatory courtesy class or something. Or maybe if NWC had an exam that would measure the courtesy of each student prior to admittance... I am only day-dreaming, of course.
-- Your anonymous commenter
i suspect some of your assessment of evangelicalism and the pendulum swinging from the reformation to the present to be a bit mixed with american evangelical cultural influences. the truth is, anti-ceremonialism (if that's a word) is really just another form of ceremony and some ceremonies are sought by the same people that are rejecting this particular one you're speaking of. think of the american wedding. thats is a highly popular ceremony and i would suggest that it is such because its meaning and significance is well known. my conclusion would be that if we value a ceremony, or if a ceremony has value (ie communion/baptism) than we must be extremely diligent to impress upon people it's importance and if it is not important, we do a disservice to the important ones by overcerimonializing...
my two cents, off the cuff, cause you asked.
i like your writing and your thoughts, keep posting/thinking (but maybe not in that order - hehe)
But Micah, even your example the wedding ceremony hasn't been kept safe from anti ritualism. A lot people try to make it more fun and put there own spin on it, and they don't take seriously the solemn commitment before the Lord that they are making.
Great post brother! (PS I have to start calling people that more than I did before because I am SBC now hahaha jk but not really.) To make a further comment, a reason in my observation and guess to how the majority of protestantism, that is the evangelical church, reached this point of extreme lack of an observance of anything was done to us by ourselves, as you stated. We recognize the sacraments of the Lord's Supper and so forth but in an attempt to not over glorify them we minimized the numerical amount that we did them. The fear was and is a fair one to have yet I would argue that the response is an unhealthy one and leads to the situation we are discussing, a lack of observing anything and further without any reverence or godly fear in the off chance that we do. Rather we ought to make these events a common occurrence, preferably more than once a month or whatever in regards to communion, but instead of running from them, truly educated our congregations about these wonderful sacraments and traditions.
I agree with Micah keep it up Choir Crush!
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