Volume 4, Issue 2

Crown & Cross Columbia’s Journal of Christian Thought

Who Are We

by Afua Addo - 10

Coming Home

by Mark A. Wyatt, Ph.D. - 17

The Burden of Tradition

by Lucas Didrik Haugeberg - 21

A Letter from the Editors Thousands of years after it began, the global church continues to matter a great deal today. The Christian faith will inevitably be diverse and, with nearly two million proselytes worldwide, exceedingly potent in its engagement in the world around it. Should the church be as fractured and factioned as it is? How do Christians deal with the frustrating realities of church history and the modern struggles we have amongst ourselves? And what role do local churches play in local communities?

As we recently marked the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, where exactly is the church today?

No single piece of writing, be it a poem or a full-length doctoral dissertation, could encapsulate the breadth of angles we could take in this millennia-old conversation, but we at Crown & Cross wanted to delve more deeply. So, while we did not aim is not to provide a "final answer" for these topics, we did seek a collection of compelling, creative approaches to the many levels on which we can interact with them. After months of preparation, we are now prepared to explore “The State of the Church” with our readers.

In response to the aforementioned questions and more, this issue’s contributors have written thought-provoking essays and compelling poetry that reveal different facets of the locus of the modern church. In “Coming Home,” Dr. Mark Wyatt explores what he calls the “re-Reformation” of the Protestant church. Tiffany Li, in “On Nondenominationalism,” discusses the merits of nondenominational churches in an era of countless denominations. Sean Kim speaks to the devastating effects of infighting on a church body in “Brokenness Within the Church.” And Titus Willis interviews Matthew Hoskinson, pastor of a 250-year-old Upper West Side church, about the joys and travails of leading a New York congregation.

We welcome people of all backgrounds and beliefs to join us as we contemplate God’s calling on our lives. We do not claim to cover all that the global church entails, but we do hope to shed some light on its significance to us as Christians and prompt further discussion about the Gospel itself. Our dedicated team has worked tirelessly and joyfully on this issue, and we hope you will find something in these pages that resonates with you.

The Columbia

Crown & Cross Volume 4, Issue 2 STA F F

C ON T RI BU TOR S

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

STAFF EDITORS

Titus Willis CC ’18

Bryan Lee CC ’18 Nathaniel Wyatt CC ’20 Nadine Wagner CC ’19

MANAGING EDITOR Tiffany Li SEAS ’19

LAYOUT EDITORS

WEBMASTER Young Jae Ryu CC ’20

BUSINESS MANAGER Michael Yitayew CC ’19

Lina Tian CC ’19 Mollie Bayer BC ’19 Daniel Kim CC '20 Myles Zhang CC ’19

E S S AYS

Lucas Didrik Haugeberg CC ’18 Sean Kim CC ’20 Bryan Lee CC ’18 Tiffany Li SEAS ’19 Titus Willis CC ’18 Mark A. Wyatt, Ph.D.

P OE M S Afua Addo CC ’20 Callum Kiser CC ’21

ONLINE EDITORS Clara Monk CC ’20 Pauline Morgan CC ’18 Sean Kim CC ’20 Benjamin Jaimes CC ’21

If you are interested in getting involved, e-mail us at columbiacrowncross@gmail.com Check out our blog and print issues online at crowncross.org Like our Facebook page: facebook.com/columbiacrowncross Special thanks to the Collegiate Network and Christian Union

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Essays 5 On NonDenominationalism Tiffany Li 13

17

500th Aniversary: Commemoration by Love Bryan Lee COMING HOME: The Re-Reformation of the Christian Church Mark A. Wyatt, Ph.D.

21 The Burden of Tradition Lucas Didrik Haugeberg 25

27

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A Response to Brokenness within the Church Sean Kim A Conversation with a New York Pastor Titus Willis

Columbia Crown & Cross

Poetry & Art 10 WHO ARE WE Afua Addo 24 Visiting the Sea on Christmas Evening Callum Kiser Back Cover Myles Zhang

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On Non-Denominationalism

O

ver my past three years at Columbia, I’ve attended services at many different churches in New York City. This was partially a result of accompanying friends to churches that they regularly attend, or happening to be in a particular area of the city and visiting a church there, but a larger factor was my search for a new church to attend regularly at the beginning of my freshman year Before college, I had only been to nondenominational churches, including my primary church back at home. It isn’t devoid of interaction with other churches—formed partially as an expansion of another church, it continues to collaborate with a few churches nearby, through exchanging pastors or going on retreats together. But the church is firmly non-denominational, emphasizing membership at a local level and relying upon a list of core beliefs on God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, man, redemption, churches, and eternal life, which do not follow directly from any denomination’s beliefs.

When I began college and started to look for a church in the city, I found that what largely defined—or at least played a large role in ruling out—people’s choice of church was denomination. Many of the upperclassmen I knew attended denominational churches, which they would recommend, yet I was hesitant to attend a

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Tiffany Li

denominational church because I was looking for a church similar to my home church, which I assumed would mean a non-denominational church.

But of course, non-denominational churches vary.

After all, “non-denominational” is a broad, umbrella term to describe people or organizations that lie outside of any specific denomination, and when applied to Christianity, usually refers to churches outside of traditional Protestant denominations. Any two nondenominational churches could have almost nothing in common beyond being churches. As I visited a few non-denominational churches in the city, I experienced substantially different beliefs, environments, and practices—making the search for a church a difficult task.

What I really looked for in a church was not denomination—or rather, lack of denomination—or even the cultural environment. For instance, as my church at home was mostly Chinese, with many of the sermons in Chinese, I was open to that component changing; I didn’t have much of a preference on the type of music or worship style either. Rather, I was looking for the church’s primary beliefs and the practices that followed, within the service and beyond. To an extent, denomination is a reflection of a church’s beliefs and practices, but there is still so much room for variation

—even my friends who were Baptist, Presbyterian, or another denomination struggled with finding a church, visiting many churches before settling on one.

As an example, consider the Eucharist. In Christianity, the Eucharist—also referred to as breaking bread, communion, or the Lord’s Supper—takes on a vital role, although its specific interpretation varies from church to church. For instance, there’s a historic divide between Lutherans and Calvinists about transubstantiation versus consubstantiation, or whether Christ is physically or spiritually present during communion.1 The practice of this act also varies substantially, even between churches with the same interpretation of the Eucharist.

“Non-denominational” is a broad, umbrella term to describe people or organizations that lie outside of any specific denomination, and when applied to Christianity, usually refers to churches outside of traditional Protestant denominations.

My church back home performs communion with the help of ushers, who walk down the aisles to pass around metal plates containing small pieces of matzo, followed by platters with small cups of grape juice; we would eat whenever the items came to us, perhaps after a prayer. Another non-denominational church I attended in Flushing had a similar routine for the bread portion of communion, but for the cup portion, spoons would be passed around the congregation, followed by a jar of grape juice. We would all take our spoons, dip it in the juice, and drink from our spoons. I’ve also experienced variations on the bread—communions where the bread is not matzo, but leavened bread, which would often be dipped into a jar of grape juice—and this would usually be done at the front of the sanctuary, which we would walk to one by one, rather than remaining in our seats.

The point of this aside is that there are countless little things that can differ from one church to another, and they’re not unique to non-denominational churches. In fact, I encountered that last iteration of the Eucharist at a Presbyterian church, but then at another Presbyterian church, I experienced the same iteration as at my home church. Of course, whether the bread is dipped in the wine or taken separately might be seen as insignificant, but there are other practices within a given church service that can undoubtedly and substantially alter the

service’s impact, and a church’s practices tend to be a reflection of the church’s underlying beliefs. Perhaps this can be an extension of Paul’s words, about works being a reflection of faith.2 To reiterate, as I was visiting churches freshman year, I soon realized that I shouldn’t limit myself to non-denominational churches, because the categories of non-denominational and “belonging to a certain denomination” are so broad and can overlap significantly. My knowledge of denominations in high school was limited, so I started to look into them more, to better understand their structures and beliefs.

After all, it’s important for prospective regulars to any church to understand the church’s core faiths—both those looking to attend a church of a denomination they are unfamiliar with, and those attending nondenominational churches, which do not follow the guidelines of any particular denomination and may be less familiar.

But my understanding of non-denominationalism in high school was also limited and oversimplified, neglecting the many complexities surrounding the origins, commonalities, and recent growth of nondenominational churches—the last of which makes further study and understanding especially important.

Non-denominational churches have gained attention recently because of their dramatic growth— and within America in particular. According to a Gallup Poll, 50% of Americans identified with a specific Protestant denomination (Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, etc) in 2000, while only 30% did so in 2016.3 This is partly because of the declining number of Americans 2

Galatians 3.

Frank Newport, “More U.S. Protestants Have No Specific Denominational Identity,” Gallup, July 18, 2017.

3

1

Gregory S Brown, “The Reformation (1517-1560s),” University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

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who are religious and who identify with a Christian religion, which does inflate the 20% decrease, but there is still a decrease in denominationalism after adjusting for the numbers lost to declining numbers of Christians: in 2000, 9% of Americans identified with a non-specific Protestant denomination, while this number increased to 17% in 2016.4

Non-denominational churches have gained attention recently because of their dramatic growth—and within America in particular.

Why has there been such a growth of nondenominationalism? It’s hard to say. Perhaps it’s because of people’s growing dissatisfaction with being associated with a set of rules, hierarchy, or a label that has a negative reputation somewhere—there are parallels to the growing number of people who choose not to be defined as Republican or Democrat.5 Others have attributed the decline to the simultaneous growth of evangelicals,6 many of which identify with non-denominationalism—a growth that has been both lauded and criticized heavily in the past

year, with the election of Donald Trump.7 Dr. Ed Stetzer distinctly links the rise of evangelicalism with the rise of non-denominationalism, rather than attributing the former to increases in evangelical denominations, such as the Southern Baptist Convention, whose membership has been falling consistently for the past few years.8 There is a definite truth to his argument—the growth of evangelicals in America cannot be denied, but it’s a little more complicated, as not all non-denominational churches are evangelical. (It also doesn’t directly answer the initial question, as it brings up another question of whether it’s the growth of non-denominationalism leading to a growth in evangelicalism or the growth of evangelicalism leading to a growth in nondenominationalism.)

The reality is simply that not enough has been done to understand or even acknowledge the existence of nondenominational churches. Even though many of these churches have been around for decades, denominational churches have occupied most of the spotlight in the past few hundred years, as the significant growth of nondenominational churches is a recent phenomenon, as well as a distinctly American phenomenon.9 A recent report by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research 7

4

Ibid.

5 Samantha Smith, “5 facts about America’s political independents,” Pew Research Center, July 5, 2016.

6 Leah Libresco, “Evangelical Protestants Are The Biggest Winners When People Change Faiths,” FiveThirtyEight, May 19, 2015.

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Josh Dawsey, “Why evangelicals love Trump,” Politico, October 13, 2017.

8 Ed Setzer, “The rise of evangelical 'nones',” CNN, June 12, 2015.

9 Scott Thumma, “A Report on the 2010 National Profile of U.S. Nondenominational and Independent Churches,” Hartford Institute for Religion Research.

states, “no single social scientific research project has focused on these independent, non-affiliated churches as an area of study, until this present effort” and even concludes: Much more research needs to be undertaken on this relatively unknown segment of American religion. If, as many religious commentators suggest, the nondenominational sector of U.S. religion is growing, then it is absolutely necessary to continue to explore this group of churches.

This initial study reports some interesting commonalities between non-denominational churches—it even goes into patterns of music—but rather than reiterating them, to get a sense of the bigger picture, let’s consider both the origin of nondenominational churches in America and then some criticism that they’ve received, as there is a substantial amount. Most European countries have a statesanctioned church, but America was created with no such church, leaving Americans free to connect to “their denominational preference with less coercion” and more individualism, as explained by Dr. H Bruce Stokes.10 Stokes goes on to explain in great detail the start of evangelical churches with the “Fundamentalist –Modernist controversy brought about by modern science,” which contributed to many divisions and soon a deep fragmentation within America. Eventually, with the 1960s, an “anti-establishment mindset” permeated many denominations and led to traditional churches seeing “their identity as a burden and chang[ing] their name and worship style toward this new eclectic and non-denominational approach.”

The reality is simply that not enough has been done to understand or even acknowledge the existence of non-denominational churches.

Stokes then explains a range of problems associated with non-denominationalism, such as becoming “shallow and inconsistent” in doctrine and practice and leading to an absence of meaningful community. Dr. Roger Olson also expresses some hesitations, stating that ignoring denominations can leave “a ‘lowest common denominator’ spirituality that is often little more than ‘worship’ and ‘discipleship’ devoid of cognitive 10

H Bruce Stokes, “The Problems of Non-Denominationalism,” Disciple Center.

content.”11 Another common criticism is that every nondenominational church is actually denominational— mainly Baptist—because many fundamental tenets, such as the autonomy of the local church, are the same.12 Many of these criticisms can be easily refuted, perhaps as too generalizing: non-denominational churches can sustain strong communities, within the church and with other local churches, and they can also have consistent, serious doctrines, perhaps more than some denominations.13 But the greater problem is that these criticisms don’t take into account the more nuanced reasons for the creation of these churches, which often comes with their uniquely American beginnings. What must not be ignored is that many non-denominational churches exist not because of a dissatisfaction with tradition, rules, or establishment but because of the need for a specific cultural facet or environment that is difficult to fit within a traditional denomination. My home church, a distinctly Chinese church, has benefited from the flexibility of being denomination-less to build itself without a restrictive mold, and there are many other ethnic churches, which have likely benefitted from the same freedom.

It's worth clarifying that non-denominationalism is not a necessary answer to cultural diversity. Catholicism, 11

Kate Shellnutt, “The Rise of the Nons: Protestants Keep Ditching Denominations,” Christianity Today, July 20, 2017.

12 “Non-Denominational Church Exposed As Undercover Baptists,” Babylon Bee, August 31, 2017.

13 Caleb Joseph Celeste, “In Defense Of The Non-Denominational Church,” March 28, 2016.

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the largest “denomination” of Christianity, has followers all over the world, and its structure has been organized to allow for cultural recognition, with local bishops in each diocese14 who are well-equipped to understand the needs of their people. Additionally, arguments that the Bible supports non-denominational Christianity more than denominations, through its emphasis of unity and one church, are questionable. There are many passages, particularly in Paul’s letters, that argue for “no divisions among you” or unity in the Lord Jesus Christ,15 which might imply that denominations should not exist.

Paul’s purpose in writing, however, was to remind the Corinthians, who were falling away from Christ, of the “overshadowing primacy of the Gospel,” not to forbid denominations, which did not even exist at the time.16

What must not be ignored is that many non-denominational churches exist not because of a dissatisfaction with tradition, rules, or establishment but because of the need for a specific cultural facet or environment that is difficult to fit within a traditional denomination.

14

“Bishops and Dioceses,” United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, January 2018.

15 1 Corinthians 1:10.

16 Jason Todd, “Why We Need Denominations,” Relevant, October 21, 2013.

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My point here is not that denominations are good or bad; I certainly don’t have the expertise to make any overarching statements about their role in Christianity.

But I do want to emphasize that both denominational and non-denominational churches have their merits, and to reiterate the need for further understanding of nondenominational churches and why they are growing so dramatically. And, I can speak with personal experience about attending a non-denominational church for most of my life, which has allowed me to grow spiritually, with clear, defined doctrines and practices, and a meaningful community of believers.

To end, I eventually found a church in New York City, a denominational church that I attend today. There are still components of the church’s beliefs that I disagree with personally—infant baptism, for example—but the main beliefs, of God, Jesus, the Spirit, the resurrection, and salvation, are the same, reflected in the sermons’ content and effective delivery, which have inspired me to stay with the church. The non-denominational churches I’ve attended have sometimes been even more dissimilar from my church at home. Regardless, finding a church in the city has been a huge source of growth—and I am sure I will visit many new churches in the future, many of different denominations, which will continue to be informative and enjoyable experiences.

Tiffany Li (SEAS ’19) is a biomedical engineering major from northern New Jersey. She enjoys art & history museums, long walks throughout the city, and finding the best bubble tea spots.

WHO ARE WE Afua Addo WHO can look through the glass and see a life worth living? See a world where people ARE most concerned with that which stares at them blankly on the other side, masking the very pain WE feel. The doubt that ensnares our lungs and shields our eyes TO prevent us from experiencing the very love that can save us. When will we DECIDE that enough is enough. That the only image that matters is that of Who made us in His likeness.

That WHAT we say is beautiful, or worthy, or enough in this life is A sinking stone. One that seduces us to pull others underneath the waves, and further from the light that gives life. What is a CHRISTIAN, but yet another person who is knowledgeable of his faults, who is disgusted by the ugliest of her thoughts, who is marred by their own selfish ambition, their own greed and shortcomings?

When will We look at the big picture, and see that we are not in fact the big picture, that we are simply glimpses of the beauty and peace that SHOULD be given to all. To some, we may be the first or only reflection of God’s love that he has ever seen, that she has ever felt.

LOOK. See what you have done. You have taken pride in your Christendom and trampled on the diversity of the likeness of God. So now we have decided what God should look like? What his children should look LIKE? Have you forgotten about the power of the image that deceives you in the mirror? The image that beckons you to think that you alone are the church, that you alone embody it?

A uniform church cannot fulfill that purpose of God

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WHO created all things to be uniquely crafted and formed. So how can we with our smallest of minds and limited ways of thinking say that this mirror is correct? We ARE to blame. Perhaps we are reminded of our own failures and are hard on others because we still have not come to terms with why we are here, why we have been gifted with this opportunity to share in the riches of love, why WE have been adopted into this family. But imagine what things would be like if we just remember the power of image.

Imagine the wounds we can heal if we say TO every person that has ever been cast away from society or otherized, that they are welcome. That we are no better and that true equality can be found here. Because when we assume that he will not listen or she is too far gone, we are SAYing another thing. We are saying that we define what is acceptable in the eyes of God, THAT we have the whole picture. A church should be more than just a place where people are talked at and told what to believe. It should be a place where HE or she can question the foundations of the Christian faith for themselves and come as they are. In ORder for this hope to be fulfilled, it is time to stop focusing on what type of people we think are entering the church doors and start thinking of how

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SHE has probably already been judged, or how he has experienced persecution in a place that promised to offer love and community many times before. We CANNOT say that God is all-loving, and then proceed to slam the door in people’s faces. What kind of God will we create?

Yes, for some who have never even heard the name of God, we create the image of God they will BE welcomed or shunned by. It is through our actions and the way we love, that some may first come to know who this Christian God really is, and those who are CALLED show people that love, have a responsibility. They have a responsibility to lift up those who have been tossed TO the bottom of the lake and say, that you too, you too are welcomed into THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. Perhaps we are more afraid that we do not measure up.

Afua Addo (CC '20) is a Neuroscience Major with a passion for the outdoors and good music. In the future, she hopes to find ways of traveling around the world and learning many languages while also pursuing her work in the medical field. She was born in Massachusetts, and her love for God is something she hopes becomes clear in her writing and everyday life.

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500th Aniversary: Commemoration by Love Bryan Lee

I

n January of last year, Pope Francis delivered an apology speech in the annual vespers service in St. Paul’s Basilica in Rome seeking forgiveness: “As the bishop of Rome and pastor of the Catholic Church, I would like to invoke mercy and forgiveness for the nonevangelical behavior of Catholics toward Christians of other churches.”1 This was largely a reaction to Lutheran leaders’ announcement the previous year of their desire to fully heal their past and divide with the Roman church, in preparation for the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. It was a moment of joy and an end to what might be a frustrating question for outsiders as to why the Catholics and Protestants can’t seem to get along despite their teaching of love for one another under one God with Jesus Christ as our Savior.

This past October we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. For some, the Protestant Reformation symbolizes righting the wrong; for others, it is simply a historical event from which Protestantism was born. This event should not be taken lightly or overlooked. Prior to the Reformation, Christianity 1

Richard Palmer. “Pope Apologizes for Killing Protestants.” The Trumpet. Feb 3 2016. Web.

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was less divided and largely under the authority of the successors of Peter. The Protestant Reformation tore this constellation and posed one of the biggest challenges to all Christians; and even larger, to the world.

On 31st of October 1517, Martin Luther, a German monk, allegedly nailed the 95 Theses to a German church door. This event marked the start of a century of religious, intellectual, political, and violent historical developments that swept across Europe. The positive effects that arose out of the Protestant Reformation are quite spectacular. To cover just some of the fringe external effects: Max Weber, hailed as one of the founding fathers of sociology, writes in his work “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” how the Protestant ethic was a crucial factor in the rise of industrialization;2 other prominent sociologists in recent times have also linked the Reformation’s rise with increased education around Europe.3 With the Bible translated to several vernaculars and mass copies made available through the advent of 2

Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. 1905.

Print.

3 Becker, Sascha O. The effect of Protestantism on education before the industrialization: Evidence from 1816 Prussia. Elsevier: Economics Letters. May 2010. Print.

the Gutenberg’s press, knowledge became available to a wider range of classes that were previously inaccessible.

Furthermore, the examining of the Christian doctrines and the intellectual debates that took place with biblical scholars such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Huldrych Zwingli and the end to Scholasticism shows that the Protestant Reformation was also highly influential in the rise of the Age of Enlightenment.

This event marked the start of the next century of religious, intellectual, political, and violent historical developments that swept across Europe.

Thus the time and place of the major persecutions contributing to the 50 million figure have been determined with reasonable confidence. It remains to estimate numbers killed in each of these persecutions and show that they add up to 50 million. Although it is not yet possible to give a full accounting, one can assign reasonable totals to these persecutions that do add up to 50 million.5 Professor Plaisted confidently concludes that a reasonable number would be close to 45 million deaths over the period of 100 years. This is a very disturbing number, a number so high it’s hard to fathom its massive scale. And it is equivalent to the low estimate of the total deaths of World War 2. What is even more disturbing is that the death count is mostly of Protestants persecuted by the Papacy.

Back to the apology of Pope Francis. Pope Francis 4

Plaisted, David A. Estimates Of The Number Killed By The Papacy In The Middle Ages And Later. 2006. Print.

5 Ibid.

All Saints' Church, Wittenberg, where Luther's theses are engraved

However, there are also the negative consequences of the Protestant Reformation that must not be overlooked.

The Reformation gave way to a surge of violent wars, mass killings, and witch trials. The Thirty Years’ War is widely seen as the “worst catastrophe to afflict Germany until World War 2,” with deaths up to more than 40 percent of Germany’s population at the time. The period of wars termed as the ‘European War of Religion’ included up to 10 major wars across Europe in the years 1524 to 1648.

A low estimate of the number of deaths during these

years amasses to at least 10 million deaths in Europe, in a population of approximately 78 million at the time.4 In a paper by a computer scientist professor David A. Plaisted in UNC Chapel Hill, writes the following:

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apologized, “As the bishop of Rome and pastor of the Catholic Church, I would like to invoke mercy and forgiveness for the non-evangelical behavior of Catholics toward Christians of other churches.” Richard Palmer in The Trumpet published an article following the apology and stated the following regarding this apology: “Non-evangelical behavior” is an interesting euphemism for the massive violence unleashed in the wake of the Reformation.

Modern scholars estimate 50 million died in the religious violence that followed in persecutions, counterpersecutions and religious wars.6 P a l m e r describes that the use of the word “non-evangelical behavior,” or in other translations “un-gospel like behavior,” is an inappropriate term to refer to the deaths of 50 million people.

However, he spends the rest of the article covering the prospects of a greater unity amongst Christian churches. How then should we approach this divide?

First, we mustn’t forget what happened during the Protestant Reformation or overpaint it with euphemisms in an attempt to bury the hatchet. It claimed the lives of an estimated 50 million Protestants by the Papacy and is one of the most tragic events in Christian history. It was a clear violation of morals by any standards and most importantly a gross violation of Jesus’ teachings by the Papal authority at the time, and neither Catholics nor Protestants should have to cover it with flowery euphemisms in describing the event in fear of offending the other. However, what is more important is that we 6

Palmer, “Pope Apologizes for Killing Protestants.”

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don’t allow this tragic chapter in our history to prevent us from practicing Jesus’ teachings of love for one another.

It takes immense courage to admit to a history that claimed the lives of some 50 million people and true love to recognize, forgive, and move past the history of blood and pain.

When the apology of Pope Francis and the news of Christians’ move towards unity were published, many people around the world followed an understandably predictable pattern of praising the pope. And there were also several church groups that remain understandably wary of the more liberal pope. The step towards Christian unity is not as simple as we would like. Beyond the historical death tolls, there are also ideological divides which keep the churches apart.

The largest difference comes from the Latin term that Luther used Sola Scriptura, meaning Protestants depend on the bible to seek God’s messages, whereas, Catholics do not depend on the bible alone.

Furthermore, Catholics believe that the pope is the vicar of Christ and thus has supreme power over the church, whereas most Protestants view the pope as a spiritual leader like Martin Luther or John Calvin. The meaning of Eucharist also bears different meanings for both churches as do sacraments, Marian dogmas, worship of saints, and more.

However, what is more important is that we don’t allow this tragic chapter in our history to prevent us from practicing Jesus’ teachings of love for one another.

These differences are not in any way trivial or reconciliatory. As a Protestant myself, I don’t believe

we should ever concede to the differing doctrines of the Catholics, and would see it fair that the Catholics take the same approach. Ideological unity is not something I’d like to see either. But as Christians we could make some changes for the better. Despite our differing beliefs, we can still approach each other in love and make some collaborative efforts to make the world a better place.

This is the unity we must seek.

Despite our differing beliefs, we can still approach each other in love and work together to make the world a better place.

This year, the Pew Research Center conducted a poll in Europe about Protestant-Catholic relations. One of the surveys was whether Protestants/Catholics were “willing to accept each other into family.” In most countries, the result was in the high 95% or above.7 This is perhaps the most celebratory news of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

It is with this perspective that we must commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

The divide between Catholics and Protestants is both historically and ideologically deep and unfortunately tragic. But we shouldn’t look to history, personal convictions, or hate and deep divide to guide us;rather, we look to the teachings of Christ and the actions He led.

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.

Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.8

7

Pew Research Center, Aug. 31, 2017, “Five Centuries After Reformation, Catholic-Protestant Divide in Western Europe Has Faded”.

8 Col. 3:13-14.

Bryan Lee is a senior in Columbia College who will graduate this Spring with an Economics degree. He also serves on the Editorial board of Crown and Cross and is also a long time member of the Columbia Soon (KCCC) christian club.

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COMING HOME:

The Re-Reformation of the Christian Church

I

t is not lost on me, that as I sit down to write this article concerning the state of the church today, it just happens to be the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. When Martin Luther sent his ninety-five theses to Albert of Brandenburg, the Archbishop of Mainz, on October 31, 1517, he likely had no idea how globally pervasive his influence would become. Those theses, that, as tradition states, were nailed to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, were largely concerned with Luther’s outrage at the practice of selling indulgences, and not the larger issues that we normally associate with the Reformation, such as justification by faith and the bondage of the will. Those would come later, but they would, in fact, be a direct result of Luther’s new perspective. As we look behind us, it is accurate to pinpoint that particular All Hallow’s Eve as the birth of the Modern Church Age. It was not, however, the birth of the church. It is generally accepted that the church itself was born some

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Mark A. Wyatt, Ph.D.

fifteen hundred years earlier, in a rented upper room somewhere in Jerusalem. When the Holy Spirit filled the gathered disciples, and they spilled out onto those streets proclaiming boldly the gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time, they were united both in spirit and in purpose. It was the beginning of the fulfillment of what Jesus had said to them just days earlier, as recounted in Acts chapter 1 verse 8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

I heard once, that “if you don’t do Acts 1:8, you get Acts 8:1.” In Acts chapter 8 verse 1, we find Saul approving of the stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and then we find these words: “…And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.”

I once heard author and speaker Brian McLaren

Orazio Samacchini, The Stoning of Saint Stephen, 1532-1577

say, “The church has never benefited from a privileged place in society.” The next fifteen hundred years would come to illustrate that fact. For the first three hundred years, the gospel spread throughout the known world like fire, fueled by the passion of the Christians and demonstrated in the miracles performed by the power of the Holy Spirit. But, when Emperor Constantine decriminalized Christianity in the Roman Empire in 313, and further, when Emperor Theodosius made it the official religion of Rome in 381, Christians breathed free for the first time in history, and the church settled into a place of comfort; a place that would soon take it from a church of power to a church in power.

Over the next twelve hundred years, the Church of Jesus Christ became the Church of the Byzantine Empire, and most of civilization was swept into a time that we now call the Dark Ages, because the light that was the life of the early church had been snuffed out by the allure of absolute power. The medieval Catholic Church bears little resemblance to the Catholic Church of today, a vital part of Christianity that is responsible for incalculable goodness and charity all over the world.

For example, as stated in a recent online edition of this publication, “the Catholic Church is the largest nongovernment provider of healthcare services in New York state, and in the world.”1 But in those dark days of centuries past, the church, who was supposed to be the Body of Christ on the earth, went from the persecuted to 1

Bayer, Mollie. “The People’s Pope.” CrossWords. Retrieved November 2, 2017 from http://www.crowncross.org/2017/10/11/the-peoples-pope/.

the persecutors. And then came Martin Luther.

The first three hundred years of the church had seen the establishment and refinement of orthodoxy as the early church fathers dealt with all manner of heresies, and that had helped to give the burgeoning church her first sense of identity. She found out who she was by confronting who she was not. Then, beginning in 1517, Luther reached into the theocratic morass of the Middle Ages and extracted five precious stones—the Five Solas: Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), Sola Fide (faith alone), Sola Gratia (grace alone), Solus Christus (Christ alone), and Soli Deo Gloria (to the glory of God alone).

The key word in each of these, of course, is “alone.”

With these phrases, the people were able to understand that if all they needed was the Scripture, faith, grace, and Jesus, and it was really all about God Himself, then everything else lost its sacerdotal, or saving, power.

Indulgences lost their benefit, and the Roman Church lost its exclusive grip on their eternity. Granted, it took another few hundred years for these ideas to become embroidered into the fabric of Christianity, but it was, in essence, a return to the gospel of the first century, what the Apostle Paul called “a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”2 It was a return to true identity.

Even more to the point, the Reformers began to put forth the concept of the “priesthood of all believers.”

According to Dr. Art Lindsley of the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics, when Luther talked about this priesthood, he “was maintaining that the plowboy and the milkmaid could do priestly work. In fact, their plowing and milking was priestly work. So there was no hierarchy where the priesthood was a ‘vocation’ and milking the cow was not. Both were tasks that God called his followers to do, each according to their gifts.”3 When the people began to take hold of their own responsibility for a personal relationship with God, the church began to move forward again on her own two legs.

The light that was the life of the early church had been snuffed out by the allure of absolute power.

The Re-Revelation of God

Even for individual humans, a clear sense of identity is crucial to a healthy life, and it is no different for the church, the Body of Christ on the earth. There have been times in the last five hundred years when she has 2

2 Corinthians 11:3, ESV. Lindsley, Art. “The Priesthood of All Believers.” Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics. Retrieved November 2, 2017, at https://tifwe. org/resource/the-priesthood-of-all-believers/.

3

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had to fight through challenges to that identity, but just as the butterfly in the cocoon must struggle in order to have the strength to fly, the church has had to face down challenges such as the Age of Reason, Jungian understandings of the psychology of the Self, and the Christian Reconstructionism of Rousas Rushdoony that sought to overlay Biblical Law onto contemporary governments, essentially creating a new theocracy that probably would not look much different from the church of the Middle Ages. However, there has been a shift in the last hundred or so years that has accelerated the church’s perception of who she really is. I call this the “Re-Revelation of God.”

A clear sense of identity is crucial to a healthy life, and it is no different for the church, the Body of Christ on the earth.

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Portrait of Martin Luther, 1529

In the Biblical era, God revealed Himself in three distinct stages. In the Old Testament, he is Yahweh, Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts. More specifically, he reveals Himself as a father. In Exodus 4:22, God calls the whole nation of Israel his son: “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son.” Throughout the Old Testament, God is continually trying to relate to Israel as a father to a son, but Israel, just as continually, missed it.

To punctuate the manner in which He wished to be

perceived, the Father sent his Son into the population of the earth, so that He could show them how to rightly relate to God. When Jesus began his model prayer with “Our Father,” it was an astonishing and groundbreaking moment. No one had ever dared to call God “Father” before, and even then, Jesus was extending this kind of relationship to all those listening, simply by using the word “our.” Then, as we have already seen in Acts 1:8, once Jesus had stepped off the immediate scene, God manifested himself in the Holy Spirit. Thus ensued the next number of centuries, and that simplicity was lost.

But, at the beginning of the twentieth century, something new began, or rather began again. Starting with a small inner city church on Azusa Street in Los Angeles in 1906, people returned to an acknowledgment and acceptance of the presence and person of the Holy Spirit. This movement, marked by miracles and Book of Acts-type manifestations, no matter how hotly debated, gave rise to what is often referred to as the Charismatic Pentecostal movement, which rose to a fever pitch in the 1940s and 1950s.

If God was making himself known again in reverse order of the Biblical progression, he wasn’t through. In the early 1970s, another movement swept through the church, one that would prove to be more than a fad, and would put in place many of the pastors and missionaries who are still serving today—the Jesus Movement.

From the beaches of southern California to colleges, universities, and churches around the globe, the Jesus

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Movement brought Jesus himself back to the fore of Christian attention, even to the point of generating such iconic phenomena such as “Godspell” and “Jesus Christ, Superstar.”

Which brings us to the state of the church today.

If you go to amazon.com and enter the words “Father God” into the search bar, it will return over 102,000 results. I have not looked at all of them, of course, but if you scroll down page after page of this list of books, you will see that the vast majority of them have been written and published in the last twenty or so years. With the reassertion of Jesus, the Son, the church is now beginning, once again, to return to the simplicity of seeing God as Father. And this changes everything.

The more we, as Christians, understand God as Father, the more we see that we are no longer orphans, as Jesus said.4 When we understand the privileges of being loved children of a loving Father, we are released from our constant striving to perform for an acceptance that is already ours because of His unbounded love for us. And, just as it is with our physical bodies, the more we rest, the more effective we are when we set out to do whatever is next. But even that changes. As the church, the body of Christ, the things we then set out to do are born out of a confident sense of fulfilled identity, not sweat-breaking chores to try and earn our Father’s love, or provision, or whatever else we thought our efforts could wring out of Him. We see that those things are already ours simply by virtue of a few age-old ideas: faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone.

So, inasmuch as today’s church is rediscovering her identity as a fully loved child of God, her effectiveness in the world is poised to reach an all time high. The church no longer needs to prove to an uncaring world that she is favored and blessed. It is from that favor and blessing that she can reveal the Father in all of His goodness.

Then, perhaps, people will see, like never before, what is available to each and every one of them—an identity that makes life worth living.

4

John 14:18.

Mark A. Wyatt is a native of Mobile, Alabama. He holds two degrees in Communication, a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies, and is the author of five books, including: The New Normal: Experiencing the Unstoppable Move of God, Hog Washed: A Small Fable About a Big Change, and Jesus Is Lord: The Life and Legacy of Fred H. Wolfe. Dr. Wyatt is also a hospice chaplain, a published playwright, an award-winning video producer, and an actor.

Volume 4 | Issue 2 20

The Burden of Tradition Lucas Didrik Haugeberg

T

he state of Christianity in Europe is deeply paradoxical. Christianity is woven into the histories and national identities of Europe's peoples to an extent that is unmatched on any other continent. Mighty cathedrals still dominate the skylines of our cities, and churches are at the centre of our towns.

Countries like the United Kingdom and Denmark are expressly Christian states with an established Church, whereas Norway has enshrined the country’s Christian heritage in its constitution. Whilst being on paper the most Christian of continents, the situation on the ground looks very different. Despite having been the centre of Christianity for millennia, Christian observance in Europe has plummeted drastically in the past 60 years.

Europe is increasingly known as a bastion of secularism.

This has occurred whilst Christianity worldwide has experienced rapid growth. What led to this weakening of Christianity in its previous stronghold, and what can the Church learn from this development?

The state of European Christianity illustrates the danger that tradition can pose to the vibrancy of the Christian Church. What has effectively happened in

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many parts of Europe is that the Church has ceased to be relevant in people’s day-to-day lives and has been relegated to a role of representing tradition. The large institutionalised churches dominating the European religious landscape are increasingly functioning as venues for weddings and funerals, rather than as a community of believers. Christianity becomes a tradition that can be brought out for the Christmas season to get into the holiday mood. There is of course nothing inherently wrong with tradition, but a purely traditional faith is nothing more than culture. It lacks the dynamism that results from a more personally experienced faith. If the Church is complacent in limiting itself to this role, it will progressively become less present in people’s lives.

One observation I made living in Hong Kong was how differently Christianity was perceived in East Asia compared to in Europe. Whereas Christianity in Europe was associated with tradition, it was primarily associated with modernity in East Asia. This is of course conditioned by the different historical circumstances in which Christianity has developed in the two regions.

Christianity has permeated virtually all aspects of

European traditions in the centuries since it became the official religion of Rome under Constantine. East Asia’s historical encounter with Christianity, on the other hand, was tightly associated with encountering technologically advanced Western colonial powers.

In an era where the West was seen as the epitome of modernity, its dominant religion came to be seen as the “modern religion.” Yale historian Jonathan D. Spence has, in particular, emphasised the importance of Christian mission schools as transmitters of Western science and medicine in 19th and early 20th century China. Furthermore, many of the most prominent voices for modernisation in China were devout Christians.

Sun Yat-Sen, who is widely regarded as the father of the modern Chinese nation, is the most prominent example of a Chinese moderniser who believed that Christianity and modernity go hand in hand. Many of these trends have resurfaced again after Deng Xiaoping re-opened China to the world in the 1970’s. One example of such a trend is that numerous Chinese students become Christian when they attend school or university abroad.

Given that they constitute a well-educated segment of the population, this contributes to Christianity being associated with modernity.

Put somewhat simplistically: in Europe, Christianity is seen as the past, whereas in East Asia it is seen as the future. Although the factors that brought these trends about can be difficult to reproduce, there is something to learn from this comparison. It is vital for the Church

to be forward-looking, conceiving of itself as having a mission for the future, rather than becoming engulfed by concern for the past. To nurture such a forward looking perspective is one of the most important tasks ahead for the Church, especially in societies where Christianity is deeply ingrained in a country’s national tradition.

Whereas Christianity in Europe was associated with tradition, it was primarily associated with modernity in East Asia.

A faith primarily focused on tradition has the tendency of becoming an identity marker, rather than constituting a genuine relationship with God or a lifestyle of following Christ. European churches are particularly susceptible to this development due to their high degree of institutionalisation. Since institutional churches have a large administrative apparatus and a more hierarchical structure than independent congregations, they tend to be less dependent on the voluntary work of the congregation. As a result churchgoers feel less ownership and responsibility towards the communal life of the church; the church service will happen regardless of whether one helps out or not. Furthermore, since the European state churches are mostly financed by the government, there is less of a need for Christians to support their church financially.

The danger is again that believers become less invested

Volume 4 | Issue 2 22

in their church and that religion, over time, thereby becomes less important in people’s lives. These might be some of the reasons for why Scandinavia has some of the highest church membership rates in the world, with over 70% of Danes and Norwegians being members of their respective Lutheran state churches, whereas only 3-5% of the population attends church at least once a month.1

It is vital for the Church to be forward-looking, conceiving of itself as having a mission for the future, rather than becoming engulfed by concern for the past.

The challenges facing Christianity in Europe are largely related to the inability of the Church to be relevant in people’s lives: it either tends to be just a tradition or it is far too institutionalised. To bring Christianity out from the background culture and into people’s lives is the task that lies before European Christians. Such an effort requires a rethinking of how we conceive of living in community as Christians. To be a community of believers is much more than meeting in church on Sundays. What is largely lacking in European Christendom is smaller groups of Christians living life together, striving together to follow Christ. Investing time in building a community of fellow Christians around us is important in all contexts, but maybe nowhere as pressing as in Europe where Christianity is ever-present in tradition but often absent in people’s daily life.

1

“Denmark,” Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, September 13, 2011.

Lucas Didrik Haugeberg (GS ‘18) is a Norwegian student in the Dual-BA program between Sciences Po Paris and Columbia University. He is an ardent traveller who enjoys exploring different cultures, cuisines, and landscapes. Lucas loves discussing philosophy and politics, and he is particularly interested in questions relating to what constitutes a Good society. In the future Lucas hopes to follow Christ through a career in public service.

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Visiting the Sea on Christmas Evening Callum Kiser

I felt my footprints press against the sand, the sand-grains rippling between my toes— just me, ribbons of sun flaming aslant, and the smell of sea. All along the coast stood rock-ribbed crags, in the familiar way, dark crowns jutting out to scrape the sky…

And what about the waves? the gulls?

They hardly lack their share of music!

I bent my ear toward the reddening swells, thrilling in their sunset tones of magic, but couldn’t keep myself from thinking of those perfect words: In the beginning— Now I can never go down to the shore, no, never stare at that deep, bright ocean without first seeing, vivid in the water, the image of Him who arranged its creation.

If there is beauty in the world’s designs, the beauty of its maker shines.

Callum Kiser (CC '21) is from Los Angeles, however he cannot be more thrilled to be living in New York, where he can finally discover weather. An English major, he enjoys writing, theater, and all things film. When he is not reflecting on his spiritual growth at Columbia, you can find him occasionally breaking into Shakespeare monologues.

Volume 4 | Issue 2 24

A Response to Brokenness Within the Church

M

ark and I had been friends for five years when my parents told me to stop hanging out with him. When I asked them for a reason, all they told me was that it had something to do with his family.

His family? To my knowledge, our families were on good terms - we had once been in the same small group and my parents still sang beside his in the church choir.

I didn’t know how to approach the issue, or how to bring it up with Mark. At the time we were considered two of the closest friends in our youth group. We both had moved to the Boston area at the same time and started school in the middle of the year. Our friendship seemed natural, and up until then it was a real blessing.

But now something was wrong. The next time he asked me to hang out I told him I was busy. Busy with what, he asked. School, I answered. Just school.

“Just school” was enough for him not to ask me any more questions, and after a year of similar excuses he knew something else was going on and stopped asking me to hang out altogether. I was disheartened, and in my confusion I turned to my parents a second time for an explanation. This time, they gave me details. What began as a misunderstanding between Mark’s parents and mine

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Sean Kim

had worsened into a sinful jealousy that hardened their hearts and resulted in a verbal altercation. Harsh words were exchanged, and their friendship was broken; my parents resolved not to speak to his as a way to keep the peace. Because of this conflict, my parents did not feel comfortable sending their son to the source of so much friction.

About a year later, Mark discovered the real reason that I couldn’t hang out from his own parents. He accused me of keeping secrets from him and told me not to speak to him anymore.

From this experience I learned two things. First, sin is destructive because it is contagious. The damaging effects of our parents’ jealousy did not stop at their relationship but eventually extended to our own. When we succumb to sin, it takes control over us and does not leave by itself.1 Sin seeps through our lives like a virus, infecting our relationships with God and with our brothers and sisters in Christ. The jealousy between our parents, had it been allowed to continue, could have easily affected other members of our congregation through gossip and hearsay.

1

Ephesians 2:1.

This proliferation of sin’s effects is notably visible when the particular sin has been committed by a church leader. When a pastor is discovered to have had an affair or to have been abusive to other members of the church, his or her sin invariably causes much pain and turmoil.

Often there is dispute over how to respond to the act in question, and because the stakes are so high, congregants can turn against each other, resulting in resignation, separation, and dissolution. A widely reported example of this is the case of Mars Hill Church, a megachurch that was founded in 1996 and dissolved in 2015.2 The prideful and abusive attitudes displayed by pastor Mark Driscoll, among others, greatly damaged the church to the point where many congregants ended up leaving the church, and the church itself was disbanded. If a dispute between two congregants can so easily affect their children, it is clear that sins committed by church leaders can affect their entire flock.

The second lesson I learned through my broken relationship with Mark is that it is only through the intercession of Jesus Christ that our struggles with sin may be overcome.3 This applies to all sin, and particularly to the kind of sin I have just mentioned, which turns brothers and sisters in Christ against each other. Part of sin’s power is that it is often underestimated. Just as 2

Ruth Graham. "How a Megachurch Melts Down." The Atlantic. November 07, 2014. https://www.theatlantic.com/national/ archive/2014/11/houston-mark-driscoll-megachurch-meltdown/382487/.

3 Acts 15:11.

we think that we can hide our personal addictions from others and manage them on our own, we also think that the sin we commit against or with other people can be hidden and disposed of in secret. It is a mark of arrogance to think that we can handle sin on our own, and we must push back against this impulse by seeking the grace of Christ through prayer.4 My parents and Mark’s parents did not push back and decided to save face rather than pursue reconciliation. If instead there had been dialogue and prayer, Mark and I might have remained better friends.

It is a mark of arrogance to think that we can handle sin on our own, and we must push back against this impulse by seeking the grace of Christ through prayer.

One of the biggest reasons that people become disillusioned with their church is that they are personally hurt by members of the church and do not receive an adequate response to their hurt. Mark and I were ultimately hurt by the jealousy within our parents’ relationship and had no way to mend it; often those who experience conflict with church leaders or other congregants have no recourse for their pain. In order to prevent disillusionment, their church must first make sure to provide the necessary outlets for the grievances of the congregation. Their church must fight against the culture of silence that magnifies the effects of sin, for sin delights in this kind of silence. In addition, the response to hurt should aim for reconciliation and forgiveness, which is impossible without Christ. When we deal with sin, we must lean not on our own understanding, but on the wisdom that comes from faith.5 In this way we can use our brokenness to build the church, just as God has continued to use broken people to build His kingdom.

4 5

Luke 8:17.

Proverbs 3:5.

Sean Kim (CC ’20) is a Biochemistry major who loves to play piano and explore restaurants in the city. As a pre-med student, he hopes to serve God by healing others.

Volume 4 | Issue 2 26

A Conversation with a New York Pastor Titus Willis With respect to the sociology of religion, few modern spaces in the Global West can match the dynamic intrigue of New York. Though the vast majority of its inhabitants do not live particularly religious lives, the city has Christian foundations, pronounced by beautiful centuries-old churches that dot the storied landscape. Travel to Midtown and see St. Patrick’s Cathedral, about a minute’s walk from the Rockefeller Center; or to Morningside Heights, where Columbia’s charter “To the glory of Almighty God” is written in prominent stone, just four blocks north of the cruciform Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Even if religion hardly seems to matter in New York anymore, its glory days in the city are as inescapable as ever.

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Dr. Matthew Hoskinson, a half-Korean Michigan native who took over as pastor of First Baptist New York in 2010, is a quintessential New York transplant. He is also a voracious student of the city’s religious history— after all, his congregation has been gathering since the administration of King George II. But Hoskinson is not focused on what used to be in New York City. He and his diverse, expanding, young-skewing church want the city to be marked by even more religious piety than in the days of old. To examine the state of the church in the Big Apple, and in the country at large, I spoke with Dr. Hoskinson about his upbringing, his prognosis for the modern church, and his alma mater’s bizarre approach to interracial dating. Our conversation has been lightly edited and is transcribed below.

Titus Willis: When did you first feel an inclination to pursue ministry? What steps did you take to follow that calling?

Dr. Matthew Hoskinson: My calling started when I was pretty young—and I did not have the entirely right motives, as I look back on it. I was a 13-year-old at a Christian camp in Tennessee when I first felt the desire to go into vocational ministry. But in my early 20’s, by the time I was in seminary, I looked at it differently than I once had. When I was growing up, the idea that I heard from my church on Sundays was basically that really spiritual people became pastors, and everybody else worked jobs and made money to support the really spiritual people. As a teenager, there was definitely a legalistic orientation in my heart: I basically thought, “If I go into ministry, God will be very happy with me.”

TW: Did you always know that you wanted to focus on leading a church and being the head of a congregation, as you do now?

MH: In my circles, the sexy thing was to become a traveling evangelist—to come into a church, preach for a week, and then go on to the next place. Originally, I thought that would be an opportunity for me. But, as I began to practice ministry, I learned that I had a desire to take root with a group of people and walk with them, lead them, and love them, and that’s what I’m doing now. I got my Ph.D. because I could see myself back in seminary as an academic, or a spiritual director, or a lifecoach. But, at least in this stage of my life, leadership in a local church fits right into what I want to be.

together. So I had a long, rich history to work with. They started meeting in Lower Manhattan, in a variety of locations, until they moved to the Upper West Side in the late 19th century. At the time, they were virtually in South Dakota as far as New Yorkers were concerned, but the church put up a building, and the subway was put in soon thereafter. (Editor’s note: First Baptist’s building, with its asymmetrical towers and enormous stained-glass window, is prominently visible from the ground above the 79th Street stop on the 1 train, New York’s original subway route.) Attendance boomed. We would look back and call it a megachurch.

After World War II, the Upper West Side went through a horrible time, and the church scattered. By the 1970s, there were 40 or 50 people in this big, old building. From that time until I arrived in 2010, the church struggled to survive with those meager numbers.

My predecessor, who pastored for seven years, had a bad relationship with the congregation, by everyone’s account including his own. He became a pastor of people who didn’t understand him—though they had hired him, they weren’t interested in pursuing any of his ideas.

The last two or three years of his pastorate, there was a lot of division and anger. It wasn’t pretty. When he left

TW: Readers might not know that you grew up in Michigan and spent your early adulthood in South Carolina – so you weren’t exactly a lifelong Upper West Sider – yet you ended up at First Baptist New York, on 79th and Broadway. Why did you decide to come here?

MH: Growing up in the Detroit area, I always loved the city. I love the proximity of people to people and all the things there are to do. During my time in South Carolina, a church-planter I knew mentioned to me that he knew a church in New York City that was looking for a pastor. My ears perked up immediately. I thought it was a longshot that they would contact me, but here I am.

TW: And can you speak a bit to the situation you inherited there? I’m intrigued both by the church’s storied history and more recent struggles you had to address.

MH: It is the first Baptist church in the city—the year was 1752 when the charter members began gathering Volume 4 | Issue 2 28

The sanctuary of The First Baptist Church at Broadway and 79th Street

view their leadership structure more broadly. Baptists see most of their key decisions made at the local church level. Why do you prefer that model over the others?

MH: For me, two things make a Baptist a Baptist. One is that we practice believer’s baptism only. Almost every other denomination also practices infant baptism, and we just don’t see that in the Scriptures. Baptizing a baby can be a confusing thing in that child’s life, because we see the pattern in Scripture that you believe before you’re baptized—if a child has been baptized as an infant, before they can express any thoughts or beliefs at all, they can begin to question the whole thing. Churches like ours emphasize the act of taking and owning faith for themselves, and professing that faith through public baptism.

The second defining quality of a Baptist is congregational rule. I am the pastor of a local congregation—I’m not a lord, I’m not a ruler over it, I’m not a prince. I’m a pastor, and my church governs itself. And it’s not a strict democracy, but the members vote on their leaders, and the leaders lead. Different churches have different rules on what leaders can or can’t do without a church-wide vote, but that’s the general leadership structure of a Baptist church.

in 2007, he wrote a long open letter to the congregation, excoriating them for failing to follow his leadership. It was a sad situation all around.

When I arrived, the congregants were bruised and hurt, with unresolved bitterness towards one another, even after the three years that had passed between my predecessor’s departure and my arrival. And the median age was about 65 years old. A lot of our members were concerned that the church would literally die out, that they would pass away and the church would be no more.

So we had an aging church in an aging building.

TW: A lot of those problems may have been magnified by the fact that First is a Baptist church, and most Baptist churches take very high views of the individual congregation, where a Methodist or a Catholic might 29 Columbia Crown & Cross

TW: You defined it, but I’m wondering if you could defend it a bit further. Why do you think, functionally, that the Baptist model is best?

MH: I come from a non-denominational background, I went to a non-denominational seminary, and I was originally ordained in a non-denominational church.

With respect to church governance, I’m more of a Baptist by default than by conviction. I think that other church models pick out different emphases in the New Testament, but they have a dark side—and I witnessed the dark side of the Baptist model when I got here. So I wouldn’t argue for any one denomination necessarily being better than another in that respect. But, in the case of baptism, I would argue that I’m a Baptist by conviction, because believer’s baptism is in Scripture and infant baptism simply isn’t.

“I am the pastor of a local congregation—I’m not a lord, I’m not a ruler over it, I’m not a prince. I’m a pastor, and my church governs itself. “ TW: First has a long history of liturgical, High-Church services, where participants read off a program and follow along closely. This model has been criticized for

taking the emotion out of worship. More evangelical Baptists have attempted to focus participants more on the emotional drawings of the Holy Spirit, but some contend that this effort takes away from the words and messages being communicated during worship.

The trend in churches that share First’s doctrinal convictions is towards the latter, more evangelical style, but High-Church elements have always been in vogue at First. How do you work to toe the line between these two sides on a given Sunday?

MH: It’s been a tough needle to thread here, because we have a great deal of members who feel very strongly drawn to the High-Church side. At most churches, the “worship wars” are between traditional and contemporary music; at our church, those battles are between classical music and everything else. This might have been the single biggest issue that tanked our previous pastor. He thought that worship was best done through 1990s Christian worship choruses and, in an epic disagreement, the music director believed that music to be unworthy of God. At the same time, the congregation invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into a pipe organ, and everyone had very strong opinions about the whole thing by the time I got there.

I was trained as a classical musician, and there’s something I love about that style and sound, but I came to believe that our worship needed to reflect the people who were in our church.

Previously, if we needed a violinist, or an organist, we would hire one. We sacrificed everything, including the talent in our own congregation, at the altar of a classical worship service. We could not afford to keep paying all of these musicians, and we had people in our pews who were willing to play, but could not because their gifts did not fit that style of music. When Steven Mann, our current music director, took over in 2015, I told him, “I’m not looking for a sound. We can be

classical, contemporary, or jazz—all I care about is that the congregation sings and we use the gifts that were in the congregation.” I commissioned him to find our most gifted musicians, and he’s done an amazing job bringing them to the surface. Guitars, violins, drums, flutes, even our organ—we’ve brought in some new sounds without letting go of our classical past.

The thing that I’m working on most now is getting our classical musicians to empathize with people who cherish other music traditions. The classical sound represents, essentially, the ideal Western European worship, but it does not represent the ideal Caribbean and African-American worship. If our church were solely made up of Western Europeans, we could reasonably stick with an all-classical service, but over one-third of our congregation has roots in those other traditions. They have been in this church for 20 years without a music director who regularly integrated spirituals and other songs from those predominantly black backgrounds, and they’ve been sacrificing their preferences for two decades. I’m excited that this large demographic in our church is being re-engaged and invited to, on many Sundays, lead us in worship—to let our church traditions be reflective of everyone who attends. I’m hopeful that we can continue that trend in the future.

“I’m excited that this large demographic in our church is being re-engaged and invited to, on many Sundays, lead us in worship—to let our church traditions be reflective of everyone who attends.”

TW: You’re touching on a larger facet of the church there. First is exceptionally diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, age, even political thought, and there’s a healthy mix of recent converts and lifelong proselytes.

It’s everything under the sun. So what is your role, as a pastor who preaches each Sunday and meets with Volume 4 | Issue 2 30

individuals on a one-on-one basis, in keeping all of those groups under the same tent?

MH: I think my main role is to listen. I make so many cultural assumptions—the longer I’m here, the more cultural assumptions I realize I have. For instance, take some of the racial tensions that have come up recently, about police brutality, and how the black population has responded. I was having a conversation with one of our middle-aged, immigrant, Caribbean-American members who has been part of the church for 20 or 30 years, and I came with certain assumptions of what her views on the topic would be. Thankfully, I went in asking questions, and I had no clue what she was actually thinking. I read New York periodicals pretty frequently, but I hadn’t heard her perspective anywhere.

So I think one of my main responsibilities as it relates to our different diversities is just that—to ask questions, listen to people, and try to understand all the varying perspectives on a certain situation, and then help everyone to hear the voices they might not be hearing. I go from one member on one side to another member on another side and say, “I understand your point, but did you know that others in the congregation have a different opinion?” I think that fosters a sense of both unity and diversity: we don’t have to all have the same persuasions to worship Jesus here at this church.

Bob Jones University's front entrance sign

TW: First also partners with other local churches that have different beliefs and different goals. How do you manage to encourage this kind of diversity for the sake of the gospel?

MH: One of the great things about New York is that there’s not enough of any of our “tribes” that we can isolate

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ourselves with people who are just like us. I’m regularly in conversations with Charismatic pastor friends, with Anglican pastor friends, Roman Catholic priests, and Jewish rabbis. It’s just part of being here. Especially for those with whom we share faith in the gospel, within Protestantism, we partner in a number of ways. We cohost events, we rent out our building to another church on Sunday afternoons, and we also rent our space out to educational initiatives and musical events within the city. We serve as a headquarters for Operation Christmas Child: churches from all over the metro area fill up shoeboxes during the holiday season for kids in need, and those gifts travel through us to the other side of the world. We have a tremendous ecumenicity in the city, and I love it.

Also, on top of all that, we partner with Christian nonprofit groups addressing specific needs. To combat sex trafficking in the city, we partner with Restore; or with crisis pregnancy, we partner with Avail; with families in need, we partner with Safe Families for Children. All these things are very much inter-denominational efforts to put the gospel on display in the city.

“I think one of my main responsibilities as it relates to our different diversities is just that: to ask questions, listen to people, and try to understand all the varying perspectives on a certain situation, and then help everyone to hear the voices they might not be hearing.”

TW: Let’s shift direction for a moment. You spent a decade at Bob Jones University, working your way from undergraduate studies to a doctoral dissertation. BJU is an especially conservative Christian institution— the school went so far as to disallow interracial dating until 2000, even defying the mandates of the Supreme Court in the process. You were a student there during the peak of that controversy, so I have to ask: why Bob Jones? Why attend in the first place for your Bachelor’s, and why stay there for your subsequent degrees?

MH: There are many things I could say, but I’ll just say this: it goes back to my background. Everybody in America who knows anything about Bob Jones rightly puts them at the far right extreme of the evangelical spectrum, but the church that I grew up in thought Bob Jones was liberal. People were actually asking me, “How could you go to a school that allows women to wear pants instead of skirts?” That was just the environment I grew up in.

Now, that didn’t mean my church shared BJU’s view of interracial relationships—I’m half-Korean and half-white, so I’m the product of an interracial marriage.

When most schools asked me my race, I would fill in “Asian,” because I thought that might give me scholarship opportunities. But a Bob Jones recruiter tipped me off to their policy. He said, “If you say you’re Asian, they’re only going to let you date other Asians,” and I was in disbelief.

Because the school had such a small Asian population— and this is awful—I went back into my scholarship application and changed my race to “White.”

This wasn’t enough. When I arrived on campus, I got called to the dean’s office. He started to talk to me in a “getting to know you” kind of conversation, but eventually it turned to my family and my parents. Then I realized why I was there: “Oh my word, he’s trying to figure out if I’m white or Asian!” As I had done on the application, I ran away from my heritage: I started saying, “I don’t even speak Korean,” “All my friends are white,” things like that. Then he spoke about the policy

for biracial students and forced me to pick one of the two races, and to only date within that race. Looking back, I’m horrified by that process. But at that point in my life, when everything I did was legislated down to the length of my hair, I sort of accepted it and moved on.

I met my wife Kimberly as an undergrad at Bob Jones. We were engaged when the university dropped the policy; she and I were watching the live CNN broadcast with some other students when it was dropped. Everyone was stunned, because this issue had been extremely important to three generations of the school’s leadership.

After the news segment was over, I turned to Kimberly and said, “Hey, want to go out?”

Like I said, I’m horrified over the whole thing, but I feel especially bad for my black classmates. The policy wasn’t there for Asians; it was a relic of Jim Crow. I wish I had done more in the moment to advocate for policy change down there, and I do advocate even today. I was very happy in 2008, when the school’s president issued a statement of apology to minorities for the policy. The school still has a long way to go on those types of issues, but they’re getting better, and I’m working as an alum to help that process along.

TW: Now, while First is certainly moderate compared to Bob Jones, it would still qualify as a biblically conservative church, and you would also identify that way.

MH: Yes, that’s correct.

“I wish I had done more in the moment to advocate for policy change [at Bob Jones], and I do advocate even today. “ TW: So what, in your opinion, can that group of Christians expect from the larger culture in the next 20 or 30 years?

MH: We shouldn’t confuse biblical conservatism with political conservatism, but, for better or worse, there’s an Volume 4 | Issue 2 32

undeniable correlation there. 80 percent of self-described evangelicals are in favor of the current president, or at least voted for him. That wasn’t the case in our church— some voted for Trump, but most voted for Hillary and many voted for third-party candidates. I don’t weigh in on how people should vote, but I have a hunch about that 80 percent nationwide that voted for Trump.

I think that group looks at these next 20 to 30 years with great fear, that things are being lost in the Christian culture, and their response is to go to war. And that war has not been about evangelism, missional living, or care for the poor; instead, it’s been, “We have political power and we’re going to wield it.” Frankly, every demographic in America looks at life through that political lens, but that 80 percent is especially motivated by that fear as well. They’re afraid we’re just going to become another godless Communist state.

As for me, I might have been living in New York for too long to predict anything. While people who believe like I do—in the literal truth of the Bible or the presence of a real Heaven and Hell—are definitely in the minority here, this city has a tolerance for different views that I just didn’t expect when I first arrived. I expected more of a culture-war and instead have found people to be so relativistic that they’re just interested in hearing your perspective, and if you can justify your beliefs on reasonable grounds, you’ll get a fair hearing. My concern is that the 80 percent has launched an offensive that really isn’t necessary, when I’d much rather see what happens in New York happening all over the country.

What I hope we would see in biblically conservative Christianity is a kind of winnowing process, where the nominal Christians decide to step away. I think that could have a healthy pruning effect on the American church, in all kinds of denominations. And that could lead to the true Christians, the ones who actually want to own their faith, reaching across denominational lines to one another more easily. And, again, maybe I’m projecting my own experience here down to other places, but culture tends to flow downhill from here to elsewhere.

Most of all, I’m hopeful that there will be some creative avenues of mission and service that moves conservative Christianity from being a megaphone to an ambulance.

I’m talking about radical generosity. I’m talking about efforts to truly understand the plight of the immigrant, the poor, the orphan and the widow. I hope we bring our faith to the public square, and not just the political parts.

Whether that actually happens depends on whether the 80 percent continues to engage in cultural warfare—I hope they can take a step back.

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“What I hope we would see in biblically conservative Christianity is a kind of winnowing process, where the nominal Christians decide to step away. I think that could have a healthy pruning effect on the American church, in all kinds of denominations. “ TW: So that’s the big picture. But let’s close by returning to the local level: how do you hope to see First Baptist New York continue its growth into the next few years?

MH: I’m really encouraged by the fact that we regularly have non-Christians who attend. I’m more encouraged that many of these people are not just one-time visitors: they come again and again, asking really hard questions about the Christian faith, or politics, or what they’re struggling with personally. They keep coming. This past year, I got to baptize one such person who was coming from a Muslim background, and there’s another person, a lifelong New Yorker, who just recently professed faith in Christ. I hope that we continue to be that kind of light, not just by what I say on Sundays, but also by our deeds.

I hope that our church grows in its love and care so much that, if we didn’t exist, the Upper West Side would miss us. We’re not there yet, and it’s a lofty ambition, but I think it’s the right ambition.

If we really understood love, and really understood our neighbor, we would make those kinds of differences in our neighbors’ lives, even if they weren’t Christians.

I was reading Matthew 4 the other day, and here’s Jesus teaching in the Synagogues, preaching the gospel, and healing everyone who is sick. I say, “That’s it. That’s what I want for us.” I want us to have an increased ability, in word and deed, to be like Jesus.

Titus Willis (CC ‘18) is the outgoing editor-in-chief of Crown & Cross. He loves the Lord, his fiancee, and, unfortunately, the New York Mets.

Dr. Matthew Hoskinson has served as the pastor of First Baptist Church since 2010. He lives on Roosevelt Island with his wife, Kimberly, and their five young children.

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