This Tuesday, we will discuss Chapter 5, “Holy Ghost Conga Line,” and Chapter 6, “The Wizard of Oz,” of Richard Beck’s book Reviving Old Scratch: Demons and the Devil for Doubters and the Disenchanted. Please remember to come a little early on Tuesday – it is Café Ole Vienna food truck night.
Beck’s Story:
Beck’s primary social outreach is his bible study at Abilene’s French Robert Unit maximum security prison. In this chapter, he introduces us to his work and that of his church with Freedom Fellowship. Freedom Fellowship is a mission of Beck’s church in an economically depressed section of Abilene, where the church offers a Wednesday night meal, Bible classes, and worship time. The worship service features a praise band and is more Pentecostal and free-form, such that a conga line once broke out (thus the chapter’s name). Beck writes that worship at Freedom House saved his faith. p.50.
Beck writes that before he began leading his bible study at the prison and worshipping at Freedom House, his faith was “jaded, skeptical, cynical, overeducated, and elitist.” p.50 His faith was simply a collection of dry philosophical ideas. What he found at Freedom Fellowship was “enthusiastic” worship. Beck points out that enthusiasm comes from the Greek and means “en” (in) + “theos”(god) or “possessed by a god.” Beck found this enthusiastic worship to be re-enchanting for him and filled him with the Holy Spirit. p.52. A dead, dry faith came alive. God became very real and present.
At Freedom House, he also found people who had a great awareness of spiritual warfare. Beck points out that people on the margins, like those at Freedom House or those in his prison ministry, know what evil looks like and the power evil has in a person’s life.
My Story:
My story is different than Beck’s. Although we started in the same place with a somewhat dry philosophical faith, I went deeper into my readings, specifically with Jaroslav Pelikan and Olivier Clement, and was found by the Spirit in a more quiet, contemplative faith. For me, the Spirit moves powerfully in the liturgy, specifically in the Eucharist and Baptism. Here, I find not only God’s very real, intimate presence but the reality of spiritual warfare. This is similar to what we have read about in Julian of Norwich or Thomas a Kempis. Unlike Beck, whose faith came alive in Freedom Fellowship, my faith died in the praise bands and free-form worship of church youth groups.
Your Story:
In telling his story, Beck invites you to tell your story. I think the Spirit meets each of us where we are so that the Spirit can take us into a deeper spiritual reality. The question I want us to explore on Tuesday night is where did/does the Spirit find you? Where is God very real and present in your life? Maybe it is in lively worship and speaking in tongues like we see in the church in Corinth, or maybe in silence and solitude like Jesus experienced. 1 Cor. 14; Luke 5:16. Or, most likely, somewhere in between. And as Paul writes in Romans 14, we should never judge or despise those who worship differently than us but always pursue peace and mutual upbuilding among ourselves.
Please come around 5:45 on Tuesday. We are having Café Old Vienna’s food truck. Discussion around 6:45. Compline about 8. Hope to see you here.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, *
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence *
and take not your holy Spirit from me.
Give me the joy of your saving help again *
and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.
Psalm 51:11-13