Wanted: Explorers, not Talkers

Imagine that you are living in New York in 1675. Since your arrival, the city has been in the hands of the Dutch (New Amsterdam), the English (New York) then briefly back under Dutch control (New Orange), and now, in 1675, it is once again under British rule. You and your Dutch neighbors have quarreled about who is the rightful head of state, though none of you even considered the Lenape who were here centuries before you arrived.

Besides arguing about who rightfully owns New York, its citizens entertain themselves with the stories of the wild places to the west. It is rumored that there are enormous lakes, rivers filled with fish, and fertile valleys that yield rich crops of wheat and barley, maize and beans. Sheep and cows graze unmolested on the rich grasslands.

You pay little attention to these stories; the people who tell them have never been ten miles west of the Hudson. One friend is forever talking about the fertile land along the Delaware River. He says that he will strike out one day soon to stake his claim in that wonderful land, and he wants you to go with him. You listen politely, but you are really not interested. It is just a fantasy.  

Then one day, a man passes through town. He is looking for passage back to England. He intends to gather up his family in Exeter and bring them to America. He has one hundred acres, deeded to him by the Lenni Lenape, along the Delaware River, where he can grow anything. The weather is moderate. The people are peaceful.

When your friend was talking about the Delaware River, you never paid much attention. But when this man, who has lived there, speaks about his experiences, you listen. He has seen it. He has touched it. He has met its people, raised its crops, and endured its winters.

First-hand testimony is convincing. One of the weaknesses in contemporary Christianity is there is too little first-hand testimony. I know a woman in her thirties who, after twenty years of Christian profession, has left the faith and declared herself an atheist. She blames the church for its failures to live the love it professes. It talks, like the imaginary neighbor in 17^th century New York, but it doesn’t practice what it preaches.

But there is more to it. For twenty years, she professed to be a Christian; what experiences did she have over those decades? Did she have encounters with God in her life and world? Did she practice what she preached?

When someone starts talking about “spiritual experiences,” people get nervous. Is he suggesting that faith is unnecessary? Is experience being elevated over God’s revelation of himself in the Scriptures? Are we expected to take unverifiable reports of subjective experiences at face value?

Questions like these deserve answers, for there are spiritual charlatans out there, whose marvelous stories mesmerize the sheep while they fleece them. Even when people are sincere, there is a real danger of supplanting the authority of the word of God with the transitory experiences of human beings. An individual’s experiences, however genuine, are not authoritative, though they may be instigative. They may inspire others to seek God.

The world needs an experiential Christianity. The church needs men and women with first-hand knowledge of God’s grace and power in their lives. Explorers, and not just talkers, are needed: people who, guided by God’s word and in the company of other believers, have set out from the comfortable confines of a longwinded Christianity to search for God. 

This kind of experiential Christianity will always be characterized by prayer. And not just the prayers of individuals, but the prayers of churches that are united around Jesus as Lord. They “want to know him,” not just words about him. They are determined to experience “the power of his resurrection,” even if that should mean joining the fellowship of his sufferings.

When people live for Jesus in the Jesus way, they see answers to prayer. They have stories of God’s faithfulness. They “speak of what they know” and “testify to what [they] have seen.” They do not merely talk about the Kingdom of God; they live there.