Welcome to lavalley.org, a site for exploring the vast riches of ancient Christianity for guidance and vision in the contemporary church.

We certainly are "doing church" in confusing days! Amidst declining attendance and increasing secularism and apathy, church leaders are hungry for answers to "turn the ship." Sadly, however, we often fail to consult those who have met these same challenges centuries before us--namely, ancient church leaders and theologians. It is my firm conviction that in the voice of Scripture--and the interpretations of the ancients who first wrestled with Scripture--we will find the guidance we seek.

Guidance for Our Beliefs

And what kind of guidance can we expect? For one thing, early Christians will enrich our beliefs about what matters and what does not. In my first encounter with ancient controversies regarding the Trinity, and specifically whether Christ was homoousias with the Father or homoiousias, I lamented the hair-splitting of ancients. That was before I experienced the baptism of full-time ministry! Now I see those controversies differently, for I perceive that the early church was wise enough to realize that our belief about the relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit has wide-ranging implications for our relationships with one another. At least they didn't split the emerging church over some of the relatively minor issues that vex churches today!

In fact, I have almost found myself wanting a good Trinitarian or Christological controversy! Wouldn't it be better if our disagreements centered on central things? But, alas, here again I have demonstrated my naivete, for our controversies do carry theological overtones. When we, for example, struggle to work together as a unity-in-diversity, it is highly possible that lurking beneath the veneer of the conflict is a theological misunderstanding that the early church can help us with. It is quite true that there is little material from ancient theologians on whether the building should be painted blue or green. On the other hand, the model of working together we find in the Triune God may be a very practical help to us in just such circumstances. The Triune God, for example, did not get in a tiff with Himself when he decided to paint the skies such a wondrous shade of blue!

We must, however, make one fundamental decision before the ancients can guide us in our beliefs. We must decide whether our beliefs matter. Past sectarianism and harsh rhetoric has made many squeamish about exploring doctrine in anything like a careful manner. "What really matters," they may say, "is loving one another." I heartily agree, provided we are careful to define what "love" looks like in a variety of circumstances. Tender words and firm discipline, for example, both are acts of love that require discernment based on circumstances. And who will be our model teacher? Once again, we find ourselves (hopefully) coming back to God as the model. Since God's ways are not our ways, His character is not self-evident. We must carefully seek and question our beliefs in community with other Christians (past and present) to have the best chance of understanding him in a healthy and responsible manner. And we must decide that this effort matters. Or, to put it another way, we must decide that radical cynicism is not helpful.

Guidance for Our Worship Practices

Early Christians will also enrich our worship practices. We will discover that early Christians expressed their devotion to God and one another in very specific, describable ways. They believed that the form their worship and devotion took was integrally tied to the things they believed. In other words, they did not believe that worship was a grab bag, nor that anything and everything was desirable. They had a field of vision for what should and should not occur in worship.

Many of their specifics, of course, will not work in our contexts. They worshipped in Greek, Syriac, Latin, and a host of other languages (for example) and we are not bound by their linguistic conventions. On the other hand, we may find that their worship practices have surprising application for today's church. For example, my doctoral project examined ancient beliefs and practices regarding art in worship and devotion. I discovered that ancient believers had important theological reasons for insisting that images should be integral to worship and found, in fact, that these beliefs enriched my use of video and PowerPoint. The ancients believed that the Incarnation (God coming near in the humanity of Jesus) is the theological foundation for imaging the gospel. If God felt it essential to be visible to us, perhaps visible images are more than a nicety; perhaps they are essential!

Sometimes the most radical thing we can do is go back to the ancient Christian tradition. I certainly believe this is true for our worship. We become accustomed to our local, particular way of "doing church" and, over time, come to believe that our practice is "what the Bible teaches." In most cases, our worship practices are not unbiblical but are merely one way of interpreting biblical teachings. For example, Churches of Christ typically take the Lord's Supper on a weekly basis, a practice that finds supports in Scripture and tradition. On the other hand, the typical view of the Supper as a symbolic act rather than a sacrament is less a response to Scripture and more a response to relatively recent controversies regarding Transubstantiation. The early church, by contrast, believed in real presence, a view that connected well with Jesus' words ("this is my body") without relying on Aristotilean philosophy. In our spiritually hungry age, worship renewal at the table could come simply through a serious meeting with ancient interpreters of Scripture. Sometimes the radical thing is to insist on being traditional!