Rethinking Spirituality
Moving Past Confusion and Culture
I opened my last post with the question,
“How can we grow spiritually?”
Or, phrased another way,
“How can I keep growing in an authentic walk with God that meaningfully impacts my life and my world?”
In my first post, I shared my personal journey, which leads us to a significant challenge I’ve observed across various cultures.
Navigating Spiritual Confusion
The challenge I see is confusion because of the disconnect between what we see and what is good.
I don’t mean the disconnect between what is good and what is happening in wider society. We expect to see that. This is disconnect is explicitly part of God’s wider story and what He intends to overcome. It’s no surprise that there is plenty of brokenness and ugliness around the place.
The confusion comes when we see the disconnect between what God desires, and what happens in ‘Christian’ lives and ‘Christian’ culture. A lot of people don’t have a framework for processing that disconnect, and it drives them away from Jesus. This is true for people with a Christian religious background as well as those without.
They want to grow spiritually. They are willing to listen to Jesus and engage with the Bible. But what they are hungry for is not what they see when they look at Christians. So they conclude that there are no answers in that direction.
Wine and Wineskins — The Root of the Confusion
I believe part of the problem is confusion between ‘wine’ and ‘wineskins’.
Jesus came with an invitation to a certain kind of spirituality and relationship with God — the wine. The main language Jesus used to talk about this wine, was ‘the Kingdom of God’.
Wineskins are used to carry, or store, the wine. Wineskins include physical things like architecture and clothing, and non-physical things like prayers/liturgy, symbols, leadership systems, language, and ideas.
Essentially, the wine got stored in particular wineskins that were strongly connected with a particular culture (we’ll call it ‘European’). As the wine was passed around the world, the wineskins stayed largely the same, often backed by political and military power. As a result, those wineskins are now pretty universal.
For a long time, the wineskins didn’t appear to be a problem — at least for those using them. In recent decades, however, there has been a growing sense of disconnect between these wineskins and the people they are seeking to serve. (Arguably, the political and military power behind those wineskins has weakened dramatically over the same period, certainly in the West.)
Yes, there are many who seem to be well-served by these wineskins — that’s great.
AND those wineskins have been consistently rejected by the majority of the world’s population over many centuries.
AND they are increasingly being rejected in the cultural contexts that birthed them (ie the culturally christianised West).
AND they are increasingly being rejected, even by many who identify as Christians.
What This Disconnection Really Means
Has God changed? Is God dead or inactive in these communities?
God’s story says that God is consistent. That He is close to people from every culture in the space where He placed them. That He is working tirelessly and actually communicating with people out of His goal of drawing them into a relationship with Him. This suggests that God is actively at work, and His goals are the same in any community.
Is there a problem with the communities that have rejected/are rejecting the European wineskins?
God’s story tells us that every living person is both made in God’s image AND falls short of His goodness. It also says that He deliberately placed people in their unique families and cultures so that they might reach out for Him. That spiritual hunger is likely, but not assured, in any given community. This suggests that all communities are essentially the same — regardless of culture or wineskin.
What I observe is that many people are hungry for God and/or authentic spirituality. Every culture, family, and individual wrestles with some type(s) of brokenness in their story that they want to overcome. As they lean away from brokenness and towards wholeness, they’re leaning towards the way God wants things to be.
Most are NOT hungry for western religious culture or tradition. They want the wine, but not the wineskins.
A Path Forward
‘European’ wineskins have their place, but many have said ‘No’ to them. I believe that authentic and meaningful spirituality is possible in other ways that may be much more life-giving.
In my next post, I will unpack how I think the title of this blog charts a possible way forward.
What about you? How does this sit with what you have seen and experienced?
My hope is that our conversation ‘on the road’ will spark fresh possibilities for people who want to deepen their spirituality, and bless others around them who want the same.
