The Bible is not ordinary. It is the most extraordinary book in the history of the human race. It is extraordinary in its composition and preservation. It tells of extraordinary sin in the face of an extraordinary God, extraordinary love and an extraordinary salvation. It promises "Peace on Earth" "swords into plowshares," and everyone dwelling securely under his own Vine & Fig Tree. If the Bible is not true, it is still the most extraordinary fairy-tale and literary work of all.
I don't argue against the claim (of both Horton the author and McKnight the reviewer) that we should take seriously our obligations and opportunities that are wrapped up in home, family, calling, church, charities, etc. These "ordinary" institutions are opportunities for service, which is the heart of the Christian calling (Mark 10:42-45), and are far more important than fads, status, "Xtreme" sports, and other empty but purportedly "extraordinary" events.
I have a problem with "celebrities" and "stars." Too many inner-city kids (and their parents) neglect ordinary academic study in the hopes that the kid will become a sports phenomenon.
Being a Christian should not be about being a "celebrity" by going to an exotic foreign land as a missionary, or starring in a Christian rock band, or leading a mega-church. This kind of "extraordinary" is measured in units of pride.
But there is another kind of "ordinary" which is measured in units of morality. We live in a very unGodly culture. An "ordinary" colonial American teenager in 1776 would be horrified at the things "ordinary" American adults exhibit or tolerate in 2014: Tyranny, public immorality, idiocy. Unbelievable.
Life is a tug-of-war. If one hundred powerful athletes are pulling the rope and you're on the other end, all by yourself, you can't win by being "ordinary." You're going to have to pull the rope with extraordinary strength, or you're in the mud. America's Founding Fathers would say that anyone who is content with being an "ordinary" "patriotic" American today is guilty of idolatry.
Adolph Hitler did not kill six million Jews. They were killed by millions of "ordinary" Germans. Hannah Arendt's book, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, could as easily have been entitled, "The Ordinariness of Evil." During my lifetime, the "federal government" in Washington D.C. has murdered, crippled, or made homeless TENS OF MILLIONS of innocent non-combatant civilians around the world. Millions of "ordinary" Americans work for this "government," which spreads abortion and homosexuality around the world. This entity called "The United States" is the most evil and dangerous entity on the planet. (Other entities -- like "North Korea" -- might be more evil, but they are not more dangerous to the accumulated Christian civilization of the last two millennia.)
A Christian, I maintain, is called to rise above this level of death, mediocrity, cultural decay, laziness, envy, and rebellion against morality (antinomianism), and to strive to cross on the narrow way that leads to eternal life, and not be found on the broad and ordinary path that leads to destruction.
What does it mean to be the "salt of the earth" and "a light unto the world?" Great Christians of centuries of the past would look at America today and say with great firmness, it is a sin to be an "ordinary" American.
God does not have an "ordinary" standard of morality and holiness. Hell is reserved for sinners who thought of themselves as "ordinary." Jesus did not die an ordinary death, or provide an ordinary salvation.
Here's how the review begins:
An "extraordinary" book is not necessarily the one that sells a million copies. A book which has only 2 existing copies could be more extraordinary, by virtue of its scarcity.
In our day, "celebrities" are air-heads of dubious moral quality.
McKnight admits that we call the book that sold more copies "extraordinary" even though a book which sold fewer copies might have been extraordinarily good in a moral sense, or some other sense that appeals to something other than pride and superficial status. "Ordinary" is often "superficial," and claims of "extraordinary" are increasingly ordinary.
There are some things where "49%" is not a relevant consideration. It's "binary": you either show up and perform or you don't. In many of the "ordinary" issues of life, you're a failure if you don't show up. If you don't murder, you've succeeded on that score; there's no "above average"; there's no "I'm a B+ grade non-murderer." Pass or fail.
“Ordinary” has to be one of the loneliest words in our vocabulary today. Who wants a bumper sticker that announces to the neighborhood, “My child is an ordinary student at Bubbling Brook Elementary”? Who wants to be that ordinary person who lives in an ordinary town, is a member of an ordinary church, and has ordinary friends and works an ordinary job? Our life has to count! We have to leave our mark, have a legacy, and make a difference. And all this should be something that can be managed, measured, and maintained. We have to live up to our Facebook profile. It’s one of the newer versions of salvation by works (11-12).
By today's dumbed-down academic standards of "grade inflation," if you get an "average" grade in school, there's something really wrong. You have to be a no-show to get a "C." But statistically speaking, there's nothing wrong with getting a "C" in a subject that's outside your specialty.
But there's a time when getting only 70% correct -- which might be the "ordinary" score -- is frankly unChristian. What is an "ordinary" plumber? One who stops only 70% of the leak? A plumber is ordinarily expected to stop the leak 100%. So what makes one plumber "better" than another? This is the question that needs to be asked, and everyone needs to get the right answer in his own calling when his calling ordinarily requires 100% success, and less than 100% is a complete leaky failure. You have to compete with all the other plumbers who are ordinarily Grade A 100% problem-solved plumbers.
"Radical" means back to the "roots." The Foundation or roots of a radical Christian life is the Bible. "Devoted" means "sanctified" or "holy." It's binary. You are either devoted and separated to God, or your god is a false god. Less than 100% holy means "unclean." When the ISIS troops invade your home and ask you if you're a Muslim or a Christian, you have to be "sold out." It's either "yes" or "no," and the right answer (the "radical" answer) means death. The wrong answer means you've denied Christ (Matthew 10:33). There's no "B+" -- it's "sheep" or "goat."
The real problem is that our values are changing and the new ones are wearing us out. But they’re also keeping us from forming genuine, long-term, and meaningful commitments that actually contribute to the lives of others. Over time, the hype of living a new life, taking up a radical calling, and changing the world can creep into every area of our life. And it can make us tired, depressed, and mean (13-14).
Romans 6:4
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.Ephesians 4:22 put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
"Changing the world" can be a political delusion. But the world will be changed by faithfulness, in God's time. This is also a matter of eschatology. Horton is a-mil: no positive change in history. Horton also advocates the unBiblical "Two Kingdoms" philosophy, which lets the State off the hook for its rampaging theft and murder, and leaves "ordinary" people looking good by comparison.
Being "tired and depressed" is why we need to remember that life is like a competitive athletic event, and we need to be in training so we don't tire out, and we must agonize all the way to the finish line to win the race.
Horton says extraordinary dedication to God's Law makes us "mean." That's right: we're "haters" if we say a man must have sex ONLY with his (female) wife. Again, it's binary. But what turns an "ordinary" monogamous heterosexual into an "extraordinary" husband? Does Horton's wife know that Horton only wants to be an "ordinary" husband? Does Horton's wife know he thinks she makes him "tired and depressed?"
Is the painter a "C+" painter? Does the painter paint within the lines only 70% of the time?
This paragraph and the one below are saddening.
Do they over and over get only 70%?
Is a father a hero who is completely stoic and detached as he discharges "ordinary" responsibilities?
Even more than I’m afraid of failure, I’m terrified by boredom. Facing another day, with ordinary callings to ordinary people all around us is much more difficult than chasing my own dreams that I have envisioned for the grand story of my life (15).
Being an extraordinary professor at a seminary for the benefit of a handful of future pastors requires more than just "showing up."
Do we sing our songs in an "ordinary" way, or is more enthusiasm required (see the Psalms, which speak of "shouting" with "joy," but never being "ordinary"). (On the other hand, do we "shout with joy" to make other people think we're extraordinarily spiritual?)
Is it an "ordinary" phenomenon that God has revealed His Word to man, and thousands have given their lives over the centuries to preserve and transmit that Word to future generations -- even the "ordinary texts?"
How long should a Christian continue to be "ordinary in our sinfulness?" Isn't sanctification a progressive mortification of sin and progress in holiness? Does "ordinary" mean "stagnant?" If it's not growing, is it alive?
What did Jesus say about the fellow who was ordinary and just "showed up," but didn't work hard to be extraordinary: "Throw this good-for-nothing slave into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matthew 25:30).
1647: An Extraordinary Year
Let's compare the "ordinary" Christian of 2014 with the "ordinary" Christian of 1647. In England, Christians were putting together the Westminster Confession of Faith and two Catechisms. Across the Atlantic, the second generation of Christian settlers of the New World were organizing schools to teach the Bible. In Massachusetts, civil leaders were passing a law known as "the Old Deluder Satan Act." It required every town with more than 50 families to build a school to teach the Bible to everyone.
It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times by keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times by persuading from the use of tongues, that so that at least the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded and corrupted with love and false glosses of saint-seeming deceivers; and to the end that learning may not be buried in the grave of our forefathers, in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors. It is therefore ordered that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased them to fifty households shall forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants in general, by way of supply, as the major part of those that order the prudentials of the town shall appoint; provided those that send their children be not oppressed by paying much more than they can have them taught for in other towns. And it is further ordered, that when any town shall increase to the number of one hundred families or householders, they shall set up a grammar school, the master thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the university, provided that if any town neglect the performance hereof above one year that every such town shall pay 5 pounds to the next school till they shall perform this order.
"Knowledge of the Scriptures" was the reason for public schools. The Bible was not just for church, but also for civil matters ("commonwealth"). Both sides of the Atlantic were developing the implications of the Protestant Reformation. America was a Protestant Nation. By 1776, the Westminster Shorter Catechism was second only to the Bible as the most widely circulated publication in England's American colonies. Historian Richard Gardiner says of them:
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The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) In addition to being the decree of Parliament as the standard for Christian doctrine in the British Kingdom, it was adopted as the official statement of belief for the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Although slightly altered and called by different names, it was the creed of Congregationalist, Baptist, and Presbyterian Churches throughout the English speaking world. Assent to the Westminster Confession was officially required at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Princeton scholar, Benjamin Warfield wrote: "It was impossible for any body of Christians in the [English] Kingdoms to avoid attending to it."One might also ask why there hasn't been any progress in theological confessions since 1647. Is it possible that in a fallen world ordinary progress requires extraordinary commitment and effort, while merely "ordinary" effort allows a fallen nature to carry us downstream?
Read the descriptions of "ordinary" church in the left-hand column here and here. What would the Christians who risked their lives to cross the Atlantic for freedom of religion think about today's "ordinary" churches? What percent of today's church-goers can answer the questions from the Catechism as well as 9 year-olds in colonial America? What percent of today's pastors know their theology as well as colonial teenagers? We glory in our "labor-saving devices," what what are we saving our labor for? Not for studying the Catechism, evidently.
Christians of centuries past would be shocked and horrified at our spoiled ignorance. When Christians self-consciously choose to be "ordinary," society becomes extraordinarily secular.
To be clear, it’s not as if all of the values being promoted today by calls to be “radical” or invitations to change the world are wrongheaded or unbiblical. Taking a summer to build wells in Africa is, for some, a genuine calling. But so is fixing a neighbor’s plumbing, feeding one’s family, and sharing in the burdens and joys of a local church. What we are called to do every day, right where God has placed us, is rich and rewarding (19).
I'm a big fan of feeding one's family. It is truly "rich and rewarding," unlike being a air-headed celebrity. There are single people who don't get to experience "ordinary" families, and they yearn for such an extraordinary privilege, would receive it with extraordinary gratitude, and treasure it as extraordinarily valuable. If you were to be suddenly deprived of these relationships, you wouldn't shrug it off and say, "Oh, they were pretty ordinary."
So why this book? We need books that are like heat-seeking missiles against pride, status, and air-headed celebrity-worship. We need books that destroy the fortresses of secularism (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). We need books that inspire us to be more radical than the extremists who risked everything to create a Christian nation out of a howling wilderness. But this book is not written by a passionate and dedicated "culture warrior," but by a defender of being "ordinary."
Radical. Crazy. Transformative and restless. Every word we read these days seems to suggest there’s a “next-best-thing,” if only we would change our comfortable, compromising lives. In fact, the greatest fear most Christians have is boredom—the sense that they are missing out on the radical life Jesus promised. One thing is certain. No one wants to be “ordinary.”
Yet pastor and author Michael Horton believes that our attempts to measure our spiritual growth by our experiences, constantly seeking after the next big breakthrough, have left many Christians disillusioned and disappointed. There’s nothing wrong with an energetic faith; the danger is that we can burn ourselves out on restless anxieties and unrealistic expectations. What’s needed is not another program or a fresh approach to spiritual growth; it’s a renewed appreciation for the commonplace.
Far from a call to low expectations and passivity, Horton invites readers to recover their sense of joy in the ordinary. He provides a guide to a sustainable discipleship that happens over the long haul—not a quick fix that leaves readers empty with unfulfilled promises. Convicting and ultimately empowering, Ordinary is not a call to do less; it’s an invitation to experience the elusive joy of the ordinary Christian life.