The beard is now gray and the hair is thinner than
when he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the streets, beaches and house
churches of Huntington Beach, California. That was during the heady days of the
Jesus Movement in the nineteen sixties. Father Wayne Wilson, the founding
pastor of Saint Barnabas Orthodox Church in Costa Mesa, California, a suburban
city halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, now wears a black cassock and a
long pectoral cross, rather than the tees and jeans he wore as a street
evangelist and Campus Crusade For Christ student leader. Otherwise little has
changed. He is still a man as passionate as ever about preaching the “good
news” of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.
As a result Saint Barnabas has seen its share of
inquirers and converts to the Eastern Orthodox faith. In fact, over the past
eight to ten years St Barnabas has received an average of 20 new catechumens
each year into the Holy Orthodox Church. The catechism process isn‟t a quick and easy one either. It takes place over a
minimum six month period and involves a formal class which includes Christian
history, the Creeds, the Councils, Orthodox theology, regular attendance at
services and Feasts, and several confessions. As Father Wayne puts it: “We
slow-cook our catechumens; we don’t believe in fast food. There is much to
learn and to assimilate.”
In addition – and reflecting the parish‟s missionary ethos – over twenty short-term
missionaries have also been sent out from Saint Barnabas, through the Orthodox
Christian Missionary Center (OCMC), to places like Albania, Alaska, Guatamala,
India and Tanzania. Father Wayne smiles as he recounts, “Father Martin Ritsi,
the Executive Director of the Orthodox Christian Missionary Center, decided to
come out and visit us after we sent him our 15th missionary. He said he wanted
to see what we were doing.”
Father Wayne and assistant pastor Father Michael
Reagan are frequently asked what they do to attract so many new visitors and
converts to the Eastern Orthodox Church. People often want to know about
special “out-reach‟
programs or ministry tools. They are quick to explain however, there are no
gimmicks. “We have just always believed our purpose as a parish community was
to preach the Gospel in the context of the Holy Church and Holy Tradition – to
catechize, and to have our doors wide open and available to seekers wanting a
fuller and deeper life in Christ, regardless of their ethnic or religious
background,” notes Fr Michael, a principal catechist at St Barnabas. As to the
reason why the parish has drawn so many catechumens, Father Wayne adds: “We are
open to it. We just do our part and God takes care of the rest.”
Given the parish’ orientation to non – cradle born
Orthodox, there are a few things they have picked up along the way. Even with
the growth, the entire parish goes out of its way to welcome newcomers,
regardless of background, ethnicity or dress code. “It takes a commitment to
get up on a Sunday morning and to visit a new church, especially one as
different to our Protestant culture as an Orthodox church. The very least we
can do is to acknowledge their presence with us,” Father Wayne says. There is
always a greeter at the door on Sundays to hand out a bulletin and help a new
visitor orient to the often unfamiliar surroundings of an Orthodox Church
service. Each newcomer also receives a “Welcome to St Barnabas CD” about the
parish and Orthodoxy (produced by the parish), which they can listen to on
their ride home. This helps to reinforce the often first-time encounter of
Orthodoxy. The bookstore is always stocked with reading materials on a variety
of subjects of interest to newcomers and inquirers. The priests still make it a
point – and encourage congregants – to meet every visitor they can. “We don’t
let people stand around alone at coffee hour – someone goes up to greet and
engage them,” Father Wayne says.
The ministry at St Barnabas has been especially
fruitful lately with a new generation of youth, who seem to be drawn to the
solid and authentic tradition of Christianity of the Eastern Orthodox faith.
For many years the crop of inquirers and catechumens
of all ages came from more traditional Evangelical, Anglican and Charismatic
backgrounds. Then one day Turbo Qualls, a young African American tattoo –
artist (and now developing iconographer) showed up. His background included
drug use, witchcraft and magic before he became a Christian as an Evangelical.
He had been leading a Monday night Bible study and discussion group at “Sid‟s Tattoo Shop” in Anaheim, California with other
young, disaffected, punk-rock counter-culture kids, turned off by the overtly
materialistic American culture and looking for solid truth.
One of Turbo’s first encounters with Orthodox
Christianity was the book “Youth Of the Apocalypse” published by Saint Herman
of Alaska Monastery in Platina, California (founded by Fr Seraphim Rose). It
had been circulating around the southern California Christian punk rock scene
he was part of. Once he read the book he discovered that some of the lyrics and
ethos of the punk rock music scene had in fact been inspired by Orthodox
Christianity, without being directly attributed to it.
Turbo was looking to find his place. “I grew up often
being the only “black guy‟ around, so I was hungry for “identity‟. The Christian punk scene provided that for awhile,
but while the church I attended provided community, it did not really provide
an „identity,‟” Turbo
explains. Through his reading and exploration Turbo discovered the Eastern
Orthodox Church of “St Moses The Black”, the fourth-century Ethiopian Orthodox
monk from Egypt. St Moses was formerly a suspected murderer and leader of a
gang of fierce bandits, before hiding out at a monastery in Egypt and being
drawn by the peace and tranquility he discovered there. Turbo visited St
Barnabas and became a catechumen. Soon others like him, some only marginally
Christian – some sporting dredlocks, tattoos, multi-colored hair, Mohawks, lip
and nose piercings – began to show up with him. Like Turbo they were drawn by
the reverence, the beauty and the depth of Orthodox Christianity.
When asked what impact Orthodox Christianity has made
on his life, Turbo reflects before answering: “Our family‟s prayer and devotional life is now the center of our
home life. That‟s
probably one of the biggest changes.” He continues: “I also realized I needed
to be kind to my wife and be a truly “good‟ man; not just to maintain some Christian veneer, but
real goodness, because I know I will be judged.”
Eddie (John) Valadez and Paige (Marina) Crissman were
part of Turbo‟s
tattoo-parlor Bible study group and also part of the punk Christian scene.
Eddie, who appeared at St Barnabas in a monotone wardrobe of black, heavily
tattooed and sporting a heavy silver chain dangling from his back pocket, says
he was looking for “true Christianity” and found it in Orthodox Christianity.
Paige, sporting her own tattoos and piercings, says that the Christian punk
scene prepared her for Orthodox Christianity because “we already had this radical
idea of Christianity being different from typical Christians, of trying to be
dead to the world, but we just didn’t have the Church, because we were
rejecting religion and just having our own interpretation of the Bible.”
Due to the influence of the monastery which published
the book “Youth of the Apocalypse” many of them have become frequent visitors
to Saint Herman of Alaska Monastery (men) and Saint Xenia Skete (women). Out of
this association the international quarterly journal “Death To The World” – a
hand – printed, black and white “zine” – was re-born, re-published and
distributed under the aegis of St Herman Monastery and St Barnabas. It now has
an international circulation of over one thousand. The “Death To the World”
crew also makes a yearly pilgrimage to the Christian rock-punk festival
“Cornerstone Festival” in Bushnell, Illinois, the week of July 4th (funded by
St Barnabas). Many truth-seeking youth have been introduced to the Orthodox
Church through their ministry.
For a time, some people called Saint Barnabas the
“tattoo parish”. In fact, another Orthodox Church nearby sent several of their
counter – culture inquirers to Saint Barnabas, assuring them “you would be more
comfortable there”. That was okay with Fr Wayne, but he discovered this group
needed even more “spiritual fathering.” “Many of these kids came from broken
homes and never really had a father. So I spent more time with them just
“hanging out‟ and
building relationships”, he explains. This flexibility in approach to
individual needs is a cornerstone of Fr Wayne and Fr Michael‟s pastoral approach. “There are no “cookie cutters‟ here”, Father Wayne emphasizes. “Each person is
unique.”
Father Wayne recounts a story about this influx of
counter-culture kids. “I was at a clergy meeting and one of our priests from
back East stopped me in the hallway and pulled me aside. He said to me somewhat
incredulously, “Father, I heard you accepted an entire motorcycle gang in your
church!?” After I stopped laughing, I explained it wasn‟t a motorcycle gang, but later I thought, ‘But what if
it was? Doesn’t a motorcycle gang need Christ and the Church, too?'”
Another newcomer from Turbo‟s orb is Mike Tubbs. Mike‟s former rap-core band, East West won the 2002 Dove
Award in the heavy metal category (Christian Music Award)
for their album “The Light In Guinevere’s Garden”. Mike travelled extensively
on tour and was spiritually and physically burned-out after playing 200 nights
on the road. He had been attending various “Emerging Churches” sporadically and
visited his old friend Turbo after his last tour ended, presumably to “catch
up” on things.
“We‟re talking” Mike explains, “and in the middle of the
conversation Turbo drops this on me from out of nowhere, in a way only Turbo
can – “The Mother of God, Mike, the Theotokos‟. I was like ‘what are you talking about?’” Mike says,
laughing. “From there, Turbo went on to explain that he and his family had
found the Orthodox Church and shortly after that, I visited Saint Barnabas”.
What was the experience like? “At my first Divine
Liturgy I felt like I was truly standing in the presence of God. I couldn‟t stop the tears”, Mike explains.
The past few years have witnessed another wave of
inquirers from a nearby Evangelical university. Some are drawn by the history
and ethos of the Orthodox Church. Many of them were introduced to historic
Christianity through the writings of patristic writers like St John Chrysostom
and St Basil in their theology and history courses and wanted to see this
Christianity fleshed out.
Jesse Cone, a graduate of The Torrey Honors program of
BIOLA University explains his motivation to seek out a non-Evangelical church
that eventually led him to St Barnabas.
“I became disillusioned at college with how
Evangelicals read and teach the Bible…sort of “antiseptically‟ or “demythologizing‟ of the passages, I guess you could say”, Jesse
explains. “The way they like to read the Bible has to do with grammar and the
language and leaves very little room for the Holy Spirit, or a spiritual
meaning. It also seems to leave some incongruities with how Jesus interprets
portions of the Old Testament and how the “Church Fathers” interpret portions
of the Old and New Testaments.” Like many others he wondered what became of the
fledgling Church of the Book of Acts and was startled to find that it is the
Eastern Orthodox Church. After six months of church attendance and catechism,
he and his new wife Kelly were ready to enter the Orthodox Church, along with
their good friends and fellow sojourners Michael and Courtney Unruh.
There will undoubtedly be other waves of seekers and
inquirers in the future and they too will be welcomed at St Barnabas. This
parish believes Christ is the risen Lord and this gospel is as relevant and
necessary for a new generation as it has ever been.
Source: http://stbarnabasoc.org/about-%20us/presenting-orthodoxy-to-a-%20new-generation/
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