I Remember When Life Was So Simple!

Times sure have changed! The Winans brothers recorded a song in the 80s entitled “Yea and Nay.” Here are some of the lyrics: “Bring back the days of yea and nay / when we could plainly see the way ... caught in the midst of complexity / we search for yea and nay.” The Winans brothers were yearning for the simplicity of days gone by.

I don’t know if Marvin Winans was inspired to write the song because he saw a sister in church wearing a skirt that was too tight or a young brother who wasn’t wearing a necktie. I don’t know. But I do know that the Winans captured the sentiments of a whole lot of Christians who grew up in the church and see how things have changed.

I grew up in a small conservative church where things were simple. The people were simple. The town was simple. And the rules were simple. Our faith was defined by what we didn’t do. (We didn’t eat certain foods. We didn’t go to the movies. We didn’t dance. We didn’t wear colorful cosmetics and jewelry. If it wasn’t on the “don’t do” list you could do it as long as you didn’t get caught! You know I’m being facetious, don’t you?) My point is that things were simple!

Most of the young people in my church came from two-parent homes. The few single mothers that were in our church had unofficially signed onto being single and celibate. And if they weren’t, they sure didn’t advertise that they weren’t! These single mothers looked like mothers, not like cover models for Vogue Magazine. I remember when life was so simple! If you had a child, that child was your priority. Your goals and aspirations took a backseat to making sure that your child succeeded.

Things were simple. Men were in charge of everything. There were no women elders. There were no women pastors. There was never a discussion or consideration given to women’s sexuality.

No one dared wear jewelry to church. (I grew up in an African-American Seventh-day Adventist Church, so it wasn’t until some of our sisters from the islands transferred to our church that we even saw anybody claiming SDA wearing a wedding band!) Things were simple!

Maybe too simple. Maybe even shallow.

A lot of the young people are now gone from the church of my childhood. As I look back, well-meaning church leaders may have focused too much on keeping the simple façade even when the more complex realities of life lurked beneath the surface. Folk eventually figure, “If I’m never gonna get this religion thing right, I may as well quit playing the game.”

Last year two of my childhood contemporaries died. One was violently murdered. He lived “out there” and died “out there.” Another sista had lived the hard life of prostitution, which descended further into a life of homelessness, begging, sickness and death.

I am bothered that our response to their deaths is to only use them as case studies for why there’s nothing “out there” for young people. We never stop to examine ourselves and see whether or not we (as the supposedly mature Christians) are loving enough to keep weaker believers who stumble on the journey to spiritual maturity “in here” so they don’t go “out there.”

We value comfort and the façade of simplicity over actually being Christlike. When I say “we” I mean “we church folk” everywhere. We want everybody to look the same, eat the same. While we say we love Jesus we want everybody to hate the same people (gays, lesbians and Catholics).

Some of us need things neat and simple to the extent that we can’t even handle the truth about how our Lord sacrificed His life on Golgotha’s hill! Think about it. He is most often presented wearing a nice loincloth and some kind of glowing light is near his head.

What we really value is not Christianity; rather we value our construct, our idea, our impression of Christianity. Many of us took a Polaroid snapshot of what we thought was “The Truth” somewhere along our journey and we want THAT. Just like we don’t want to see images of a naked and bloodied Christ shouting in darkness to the Father as if forsaken, we don’t want a church where everybody ain’t behavin’ (at least in public) the way we think they should.

I realized a while back that because society changed, the church has two choices. One: sit around and cry about how the church has changed and long for the days when things were simpler (... and do nothing). Or two: realize that the unchanging hand of our immutable God can help us meet the challenges of presenting Him in these changing times to those who do not know Him.

The scale you see with this note was developed by James F. Engel. It shows the journey from no knowledge of God through to spiritual maturity as a Christian believer.

If you look at the scale and think back thirty or forty years, you will remember a time in the Black community when if you yourself didn’t go to church, you still sent your children to Sunday School with their grandmother or somebody! What did that mean? It meant that almost everybody at least knew the Lord’s Prayer, the 23rd Psalm and “Jesus Loves Me.” It meant that Christianity and the Bible were generally accepted as authoritative standards for right and wrong.

Hence, a Judeo-Christian ethic was very strong in our communities. People agreed that “shackin’ up” was “living in sin.” Dancing, gambling, smoking and drinking were considered “vices.” Because of that, people who didn’t go to church in their adult lives still had a grasp of the implications of the gospel (-5 on the Engel Scale).

But today things are different. Christianity and the Bible are no longer accepted as authoritative everywhere ... or haven’t you seen our sisters with their heads covered and our long-bearded high-water-pants wearing brothas who quote Muhammad before they quote Jesus Christ?

Many of the people we desire to reach for Christ are further down the Engel scale. They are at -7 and -8 instead of -4. We used to start our evangelistic efforts making the assumption that everybody agreed the Bible was right and that Jesus was the way to eternal life. Times have radically changed!

And now, Seventh-day Adventist Christian, look at the scale again and realize that much of the uniqueness of the tenets of your faith don’t even begin to register on the Engel scale until +3, +4, +5! Folk who come to us have a LONG way to go before they look and act like you want them to look and act!

Church, we have to be patient! Those God is sending to us are not starting where many of you got started on this journey. Notwithstanding, the Lord is sending them to us! There is a faint flicker of faith burning in their hearts. Will you fan that flame of faith into a mighty burning fire? Or will you blow it out? If you dare fan that flame, it will require something of you. You’ll have to make room in your heart for people who are growing in grace to make mistakes. That’s what babies, toddlers, children, adolescents, young adults and even older adults do! Our language is not always right. The culture of church is something that’s learned. If you would fan the flame of faith, it will require you to sometimes be uncomfortable so that you can make room for Christ’s maturing children.

Of course, the alternative is to go ahead and blow that weak flame out. Just go on and blow it out!We’ll watch the whisps of smoke ascend for a few seconds and then we’ll forget that the weak flame ever burned and get back to life like we like it. You know -- comfortable, clean and simple.