Cultural Christians Slow Read: Happy Ohioversary to Us--and Thoughts on Chapter 9
On making friends and definitely not quitting the local church
On July 10, 2023, we signed a whole boatload of paperwork, and just like that, a beautiful house in Ashland, Ohio became our new home. We bought the house based on a virtual tour while still living in Georgia, so for me, at least, closing day was the first time I ever saw it in person.
Beautiful flowers in bloom greeted us as we walked up the stairs from the street and to the front door. A gift of beauty for which we did not toil. All ours now.
I know nothing about plants, so we’ve done little to take care of the garden apart from some minimal weeding and cleanup. No toiling still. But the flowers are back in full force this month, reminding us that it’s been a full year—happy “Ohioversary” to us! (I’m a terrible photographer, so the above doesn’t do justice to the beauty that surrounds our home right now.)
Moving is strange, surreal even, as the brain and the heart struggle to catch up to reality—that when I walk out of the front door, I will see something other than those familiar wild onions struggling for dear life. That when I put my feet on the floor in the morning, jumping out of bed, I will feel smooth hardwood, not the shaggy carpet of our old home’s upstairs. That the beautiful old stairs of this early 1940s home wind around upwards, and there are still some boxes tucked away in spots—and some not quite tucked away, but just sitting along a wall (I wrote a few months ago about our books problem and how the move had forced us to confront it).
Moving also meant having to find a new church, which is never easy. In fact, statistically, moves and life stage transitions are when people are more likely to leave church, at least for a time. And besides, there has been over the past decade a growing number of people who say that they love Jesus but not the church. As it happens, this phenomenon has some precedents in antiquity.
If you’re new here (and there are a lot of you who are new—welcome!), we’re close to wrapping up the Slow Read of my book Cultural Christians in the Early Church. In Chapter 9, I consider people in antiquity and today who have been bothered by all the sinful people in church and decided that maybe quitting church—and maybe even society in general—was a good solution.
It makes sense in some way: if everyone else around is such a terrible sinner and is distracting you from holiness, might you not be better off just quitting church (and people) and pursuing holiness on your own?
Common Good Magazine ran an excerpt from this chapter of the book a few months ago, so if you do not have the book and are interested in checking out this excerpt, it offers some idea of my argument in this chapter about why quitting church is not a good idea, even if churches in antiquity, just like today, have been filled with sinners. Just like you and me.
Even the Desert Saints, the people who were clearly exceptional, proved unable to avoid sin by departing to live apart from other people. Sin, it turns out, comes with us anywhere we go. “I’ve been alone for twenty years, and I still struggle with anger,” one Desert Saint mused in depressed wonder.
And so, the solution for most of us, if we want to pursue sanctification in this life is, ironically, to spend more time (not less!) with all these other sinners—serving, praying, caring. Make joyful friendships—in your community and especially at church.
A recurring thought in my mind this past year, as we’ve moved and tried to keep up with old friends and make new ones: The best gift that God gives us (other than Himself) are the people in our lives.
Reading Questions
1. What is the significance of the story of Symeon Stylites, the Pillar Saint (and an all-around weird dude)?
2. What was the pagan Roman grand tour like? What was the point of it all?
3. What did the Christian version of the grand tour of the empire look like? What kinds of sights and wonders did tourists expect to encounter?
4. In what ways were desert saints cultural Christians? What cultural parallels from the Greco-Roman world suggest that they were deeply influenced by the surrounding culture?
5. What is lost when we live as modern-day hermits, or even decide that we can practice our faith without attending church?
Well, this is almost the end of the Cultural Christians Slow Read! I’ll post another Williams Family Summer update next week, and then we’ll come back to discuss the conclusion of this book and wrap up with some takeaways.