The Prenuptial Christian

Following on from my last blog, the time has come to explain myself!



Recently, I have been pondering the plethora of labels used to describe our particular spiritual walk. In the last twenty years we have had post-evangelicals, post-moderns, post-charismatics and others. We have had missional church and red-letter Christians. While labels are useful as shorthand, to help us to understand a bit of where we are coming from, all labels have inherent problems, some of which I list below:


1) Anything using the prefix "post-" has already labelled itself as a reaction to what has gone before. It is therefore backward looking, at least in its description, if not in its practice. This is similar to Protestantism, as described by Brian McLaren in a Generous Orthodoxy, which started as a protest against many problems in the Roman Catholic Church. McLaren says that once the protestant church tired of protesting against Catholicism, it turned to protesting against itself! If we are not careful, we end up defining ourselves by what we are not, or by what we are in reaction to.



2) I prefer "missional church" and "Red Letter Christians" as definitions of who we are. Both these labels are trying to define what we do; that we are here to live out the words of Jesus on this earth, and that our purpose is outward-looking, to a fallen, broken world. however, I can't help but ask the question "Why?"- Why is our focus outward looking? And why are we trying to live out the words of Jesus? My feeling is that these labels do not answer that question, and therefore trhese labels are lacking something- the reason for doing what we do.



3) Labels can easily become strait-jackets that restrain us, rather than allowing us to journey together into God's future. They become the walls behind which we shelter, the stuff of exclusion instead of inclusion, the chasms that separate us from those who see things differently.



4) Labels can also be misunderstood, because they are shorthand. I am reminded of a university professor of mine, who would simplify equations until they were only 3 letters long. The problem being, if you didn't know what the letters really stood for, the three letters were useless. There needed to be a precision in your understanding to use the shorthand! This is bad enough, but when we use shorthand for a spiritual journey, it is even more open to misinterpretation. If I say I am a charismatic, for example, there could be many different interpretations.



5) Labels can also be misused to denigrate people- for example, how many times have you heard the label "liberal" used to dismiss a person or group as not worthy of entering into dialogue with, except maybe to put them right? This shorthand use enables us to treat people with less than the dignity they deserve as people created in God's image.



So why am I giving myself a new label- a Prenuptial Christian? Well...


"Prenuptial" means "before marriage". I am a follower of Jesus who is eagerly waiting for marriage. Don't get me wrong, I am happily married with two lovely kids, but I am longing for the marriage between Jesus and His bride, the church. My focus is not a reaction to the past, nor a definition of what I am doing now, but is toward That Day. For me, this focus gives direction and momentum to all that I am doing now, whilst also taking me out of the center and putting Jesus right there. In light of this label, I am also able to respect others who are journeying toward the same goal while taking different routes to get there! Furthermore, because the marriage supper is not yet, being a prenuptial Christian keeps me journeying toward that day in a similar hope and excitement to the time before my wedding day to my lovely wife. Knowing that living out the words of Jesus and being missional in the world are things that will speed the day of the bridegroom's return , it provides impetus and context for what I do today.



One last thing- "Prenuptial" may sound a bit like a legal term, but in fact it is the language of love! The context of all we are and do is the love of the Father, shown in Jesus, and consummated at His return. You cannot read the Bible and not see the abundance of marriage analogies referring to God's relationship with His people. From the marriage covenant format of the ten comandments, to the prophecies of Hosea, to the wedding parables of the Kingdom told by Jesus, to the parallelism between marriage and Jesus and the church in Ephesians, to the bride/groom analogy in Revelation 21, it is impossible to avoid the gentle wooing of God towards mankind.



I don't know if the term "Prenuptial Christian" will catch on, and I don't mind if it doesn't! However, I trust that the spirit behind the label will continue to capture our hearts and minds as we look forward to That Day!

"The Spirit and the Bride say "Come!""(Rev 22)