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One more week, one more bible study/home group/whatever-you-want-to-call-it. I was expecting to start a study on Jeremiah or Ezekiel. No: apparently all bible study groups at my church are to eventually to the four week course called “Just Walk Across The Room”. And between last week and this, a copy became available for us.
It’s a DVD plus study guide from Bill Hybels of Willow Creek based on a book by the same name. It is, essentially, Christian teachings about how to evangelise.
On the surface, this is a good thing. Using modern mass-media technologies, we can do nearly what the early early church did: have a guest speaker come into out group and talk and teach. The only drawback with that structure is that it is one-way. So far so good.
But the church as a institution has been trying to teach its congregation how to evangelise for decades if not centuries. Having been a church-goer all my life, I can remember some of the gradual shifts in teaching. Much teaching when I was an adolescent seemed to be focussed in teaching to everyone what came automatically to those with the gift of evangelism, for example. “Just Walk Across The Room” is recent enough that it doesn’t do that: it starts with saying that evangelism happens when you act yourself. The title, in fact, comes from Hybel’s pithy observation that Jesus would walk across a room if necessary to meet someone’s need.
For me, however, the bigger problem is that I am much less Christian now than I was six months ago. When I sit and meditate to pray, I don’t see Yahweh waiting for me: I see Cernunnos, often called The Horned God. This is a god of Wicca, not Christianity. Meanwhile Yahweh is off doing his own thing, happy to leave me with Cernunnos. But one big thing Wicca does not do is evangelise.
This puts me in a little bit of a pickle. My home group know I am on a spiritual journey (and I called it a quest tonight for the first time). They don’t know it is taking me away from the familiar stomping grounds of Jesus and Yahweh. And I’m not ready to tell them. Unfortunately, it seems I must either fake Christianity for a few weeks as we not only hear about Hybel’s current teaching about evanglism but partake in practical steps to improve it, or I finally bow out of my home group, undoubtedly leaving more questions than answers.
I’m not asking for advice. Well, I don’t think I am. At the moment I just want to share. I haven’t seen anyone else here on TLS heading into Wicca; maybe there is and I’ve missed the introduction. Doesn’t matter. I guess I want to share my journey with people happy that I’m on a journey to a better place. Wherever that might lead me!
Wade.
AnonymousWade, I appreciate your story. We may not be taking the same path, but surely we’ve set out from the same place. I’m in a similar spot, surrounded by believers, who are my friends, and yet they don’t know me. It’s a little lonely. That’s why your story and the others on TLS are so important. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing Wade. I find it interesting that you say you “see” the Wiccan god. I’m wondering what you mean by that. I remember being forced to go door to door evangelizing. I HATED it! Thoroughly. But I had to do it.
David, there is a lot of “pick-and-choose” in Wiccan practice, especially if you’re a solitary without a coven (yet). However, there are several common themes and practices. One of those is ways of finding which Wiccan gods are responding to your call and which you feel drawn to. The core of this technique usually involves visualization exercises which also serve the practitioner in other ways in other rituals and exercises.
Some Christians tell of being able to “feel” or “see” a presence of God near them or in front of them. Wiccans often do. The shape I see is the horned man.
Undoubtedly there is a subcobnscious bio-feedback mechanism, as Cernunnos is a very well-known figure in Wicca. However, long before I picked it up nor had done anywhere near as much research as I now have, I did a quite different visualization exercise with a group of like-minded men. It was modelled after indigenous spirit-guide rituals, and with no preconceived idea of what to expect (other than it was probably going to be an animal), my image was of a deer with a full rack of antlers, standing looking at me, patiently waiting. :-O
Wade.
wow. that’s profoundly interesting. i’ve read a lot on Wiccan. In fact, I preached a sermon once on how our practices as Christians were no different than those of witches. People didn’t appreciate that very much.
Indeed. Christians mostly forget that most of their religious practices are not unique nor even original. The organised church has filched the vast majority of its rituals from elsewhere.
Interestingly, this has made it possible for Christian Witches to exist. One very famous one was Adelina St Clair. Raised Catholic, but exposed to writing about pagan practices, she discovered witchcraft late in her adolescence then found a coven where she got a lot of training. But she hadn’t abandoned the mysteries of Catholicism and chose to put them together during her initiation. There is another Christian Witch who posts on Tumblr (as “christowitch”) and shares a lot of information about things Wiccan.
I’m not Catholic, however, and thus my experiences are quite different. Evangelical churches are really not into the Mysteries, so I have to find my own.
Wade.
AnonymousInteresting thread.
I have little to contribute but a question.
@Wade Bowmer — is the discomfort you feel in staying in your Bible Study whilst they do this study worse or better than the discomfort you’d feel leaving your Bible Study group? Maybe the answer to that question will help you decide your path?
Kathy
@Kathy, that’s a most insightful question! And probably the one I really needed to know to ask.
I’ll let you know…
Wade.
I love your question @Kathy D. Let us know @Wade!
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