Crisis and Process

Crisis and Process

Different churches have different approaches to the working out of Christianity. Faith in Christ is essential for all, if indeed they are Christian at all. But some churches tend more toward “crisis.” Others tend more toward “process.” As in most cases, it is not an either/or situation. It is rather both/and. But which is more important?

You know what a crisis is. It is when the bill is due and you don’t have the money. It is when someone knocks on the door with painful information. It is a life-changing moment, and often times, it seems to be negative. But “crisis” is not always negative. It is that point of time when a decision is due. It might be the best decision that you every made in your life. Or not. But the perfect dive begins with the crisis of actually jumping from the platform. It is the “critical” inflection point. I am not sure if we can connect “crisis” and “critical” etymologically, but I’m sure we can logically. That moment when you say “I do;” when you sign your name on the document; when you accept the job offer, or say “I quit.” We may have many crisis points in life, but in between, there is a lot of process.

Process rarely gets the headlines that crisis does. When the lights go out in Georgia, or Texas, it is a crisis. But there was process, evidently faulty, that led to the crisis. That brings us to a wonderful verse in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, that city in northern Greece (or, Macedonia) that was named for Philip of Macedon, Alexander the Great’s father. Paul wrote this verse to say something about crisis (implied) and process (overt):
    •    “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6 NAS95)

When you and I begin a good work, it may well indeed be a crisis, a decisive inflection point. But God has no crises. I’m not sure He has processes either. He’s different from us. But in order to bring about that “perfection” in us, He uses processes, accommodated to our human situation. We can call it different things, like discipleship or spiritual formation. What we should understand is that a man-made discipleship program is artificial compared to the long-term practical education that God brings about in His children through blessings and trials; through rejoicing and suffering. But God uses processes. How did it begin? I’ll bet you can guess.

When you had your first birthday, there was a party of which you were mostly unaware. But there was a point to it, because your parents looked back a year before to the crisis that happened when you emerged from the womb and became a crying and often stinky person. That crisis then gradually evolved into a process. There was cooing and feeding, and there was gradual (very gradual at first) growth and development. Birth is the crisis. Growth is the process. No birth; no growth. No crisis; no process.

I believe that this illustration helps to understand something of the Christian life. It begins with being “born again,” a critical inflection point in you life where a decision is made to trust in Christ for the salvation of your soul, recognizing that nothing else or no one else can. It is a crisis, whether it be emotional or not. And then comes the process, that sudden or slow growth and development that fills the rest of our earthly life.

So it is both crisis and process. Some emphasize the crisis, without which there is no process. Some emphasize the process. But both are necessary.

And one more point: unlike physical birth followed by growth and then, if we live long enough, we experience decline and then death, life in Christ begins with the new birth, but then leads to growth, and when Jesus comes again, perfection, followed by life, and more life, called eternal life. If you are not involved in the process, then please go directly to the crisis. Go directly to the cross.