![\"\"](\"https:\/\/theamericanjesus.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/abandoning-evangelicalism-part-6.jpg\" "\\"abandoning")
<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nThe following is the final installment in a series of posts on why I believe the church must abandon evangelicalism.\u00a0You can find\u00a0<\/a><\/em>part 1 here<\/a>,\u00a0part 2 here<\/a>,\u00a0part 3 here<\/a>, part 4 here<\/a>, and part 5 here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t begin to tell you how many times I\u2019ve gone down to an altar and \u201cgiven my life to Jesus\u201d.<\/p>\n Growing up in an evangelical denomination, especially one with roots in the revival movement, a church service doesn\u2019t go by without an invitation to \u201ccome down and lay it all on the altar.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s true for church camp too. You may spend the day playing ultimate frisbee, swimming in the pool, or finding your next significant other, but once service begins in the old outdoor tabernacle it\u2019s time to get down to business. It is time to make sure you have \u201ca personal relationship with Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure that there is anything more\u00a0intrinsically\u00a0attached to evangelicalism than a \u201cpersonal relationship with Jesus.\u201d \u00a0Today it seems so fundamental to the faith. In order to be a Christian you must have a personal relationship with Jesus. However, historically speaking that hasn\u2019t been the case, at least not in the way we speak of it today. In fact, it was American Evangelicalism that gave birth to the modern notion of a personal relationship with Jesus. The phrase itself is found nowhere in the Bible. Now, is the idea of humanity having a relationship with their Creator in the Bible? Abosolutely! It\u2019s written across every page and is the very reason for the Bible\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n However, I believe that the relationship between God and man, between us and Jesus, that we see described in the Bible is very different that what we in evangelicalism describe as a \u201cpersonal relationship with Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n For starters, \u201cpersonal\u201d is a very American phenomenon. Our country exists because men and women wanted to live and worship how they \u201cpersonally\u201d saw fit. This isn\u2019t always a bad thing. However the American, and with it the evangelical, concept of \u201cpersonal\u201d is a concept\u00a0foreign\u00a0to both the Bible and the Christian faith. When we speak of the \u201cpersonal\u201d today, we are usually talking about\u00a0individualism, our own personal taste, beliefs, preferences, desires, etc. Personal is what I what to do, what I want to believe, what I like. In other words, \u201cpersonal\u201d is primarily about \u201cme\u201d and doesn\u2019t require the input of or interaction with anyone else. So, when we talk about a personal relationship with Jesus we are describing an internal, individual relationship that is confined to our own prayers, meditative thoughts, and the occasional act of worship (by which we mean singing songs).<\/p>\n While maturation as a person is usually part of this equation, the primary goal of the \u201cpersonal relationship with Jesus\u201d is heaven. We are sold on the need for a personal relationship with Jesus because it will get us out of hell and into heaven. We \u201caccept\u201d Jesus as our \u201cpersonal\u201d Savior so that we can get to heaven. And we make sure we never screw up too bad so that our personal relationship with Jesus will continue and we\u2019ll make it into heaven.<\/p>\n Though this all might sound good, it\u2019s actually not very Christian, it\u2019s certainly not very Biblical, and it\u2019s actually not Christ-like at all.<\/p>\n To begin, the individualism that defines evangelicalism\u2019s personal relationship with Jesus is antithetical to concept of the \u201cpeople of God\u201d and the \u201cbody of Christ.\u201d The Bible is a story about God\u2019s chosen people<\/em>, not individuals. God chooses Israel the nation, not just one man. When Jesus arrives on the scene, not even the Son of God walks around alone. Instead, he surrounds himself with others. When the church is established, it\u2019s not a bunch of individuals saying prayers alone by their bed at night. It\u2019s a family of faith that is constantly interacting with one another and inviting others to participate in that community.<\/p>\n This community is but a reflection of the God she serves. When we speak of God as Triune, we mean that God is in a community of relationship. Just as there is no such thing as \u201cJesus and me\u201d, there is no such thing as just \u201cJesus and the Father\u201d. We often forget about the Spirit, but the Spirit plays a critical role in both the Godhead and in our own lives. It is the Spirit that is the breath of life. It is the Spirit that empowers and emboldens the church to go out the very ends of the earth. And it is the Spirit the calls us all together reminding us that, like God, this is not a one-on-one relationship. We are one Body with many parts. So, despite what the famous Footsteps<\/em> poem may claim, Jesus wasn\u2019t the only one carrying you on the beach. The Father, the Spirit, and the Church were there too.<\/p>\n Perhaps most importantly, and this is probably going to sting a bit because it\u2019s the core tenet of evangelicalism, but Jesus did not die on the cross for \u201cyou\u201d or \u201cme\u201d. He died for \u201cus\u201d. Are you and me are a part of that us? Absolutely, but when we individualism salvation, then the faith becomes primarily about us. In the process, we turn inward, putting our own needs, wants, and desires before those of both the church and rest of the world. In short, when salvation is about \u201cme\u201d, when Christianity is exhausted by \u201cI\u201d, then it becomes a form of idolatry in which we make Jesus into our image and transform him into a personal servant we call upon whenever we need something fixed.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say that a personal relationship with Jesus isn\u2019t important. It\u2019s absolutely fundamental to the faith, but we must understand what that personal relationship looks like. To do that, we have to look no further than the Gospels. There we learn that a personal relationships is not something that happens inside your heart. They are something which is embodied.<\/p>\n Jesus has numerous personal relationships with people in the Gospels, but none of them are defined by inward thoughts and emotions. The personal relationships that happen with Jesus in the Gospels are something that happens on the outside, between people, not inside their individual selves. For the Gospels, a personal relationship with Jesus was something incarnated. It was dynamic. It required someone to reach out beyond their own \u201cperson\u201d and love, embrace, and care for the other.<\/p>\n Clearly, Jesus doesn\u2019t physically walk the earth today, but that doesn\u2019t mean we are exempt from participating in this same form of relationship. But to do so we have to understand that despite what we have been told our entire lives, Jesus does not live in our hearts. I know that may come as an intolerable shock to your system, but Jesus never said he would dwell there and it is not until the advent of American Evangelicalism that this idea becomes orthodoxy. What does dwell within us is that which Jesus promised to give us, the Holy Spirit. He gave us the gift of the Spirit that we could be empowered to encounter and embody him. And where do we do that? In our relationships with others.<\/p>\n Jesus says very clearly, \u201cwhen you do these things to the least of these you do them to me.\u201d In other words, our personal relationship with Jesus happens when we reach out to love, embrace, and care for the least, the lost, and the dying. Simply put, it is impossible to have a personal relationship with Jesus that only exists inside your heart. Through the power of the Spirit, you must incarnate that faith, so that in your relationships with \u201cthe least of these\u201d you encounter and befriend Jesus himself.<\/p>\n Additionally, this sort of person<\/em>al relationship must exist among the persons<\/em> who make up the body of Christ. As I have quoted here many times before, the hand cannot say to the Body \u2018I don\u2019t need you\u2019. Likewise, a person cannot say \u2018I have Jesus in my heart, so I don\u2019t need the Church or anyone else\u2019. There is no personal relationship with Jesus apart from our personal relationships with his Body and the people he came to serve\u2026.<\/p>\n \u2026.which makes the\u00a0evangelical\u00a0obsession with \u201cgetting out of here\u201d and on to heaven so problematic.<\/p>\n