s throughout the US, this one is small and struggling - perhaps more interested in survival than discerning a new mission - and stuck. It was a blessing to be asked to share some ideas over lunch and I look forward to seeing what the Spirit will bring to this faith community as this new year unfolds because there is clearly creativity, faith and commitment at work.As I drove back to town, loving the sight of fresh snow and sunlight on the mountain, I had the chance to think about a few of the things I have learned doing this work over the past 28 years. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but each of these things are important:
+ Serving, creating and sharing must be built on joy and gratitude rather than obligation. My Pentecostal sisters and brothers got this right and it is essential: we are about life - and life in abundance - not fear, rules, habits or building maintenance. Like Jesus said, "I have come so that your joy may be full." We came here to both share what we've learned AND to do it with joy. So every now and again we ask ourselves: are you still having fun? And if not - why?
+ Most existing congregations have been trained poorly in practicing hospitality - radical and life-sustaining hospitality - and half the challenge of renewal is turning this fact upside down. I just finished reading Susan Drinker Moran's book about the first Congregational church in Cambridge, MA - Gathered in the Spirit - and she helps clarify why it is so often so painful for our churches to welcome the stranger like Christ. In England before 1630 - and in the New World since then - membership was a tight, closed and highly exclusive discipline. Only those who had fully experienced their total depravity as sinners - and been given the free gift of God's healing grace - could be members of the early Congregational churches.
Which, as Moran notes, meant that for the insiders the community of faith was secure and homogeneous; but for those without the necessary spiritual experiences - for guests or those not part of the in group - church was a painful and off limits house of shame and rejection. And while most of our congregations hav
e rejected the old theology (thanks be to God) the old ways are deep in our spiritual DNA - mostly as sins of omission rather than commission - but they still push out, ignore and overlook guests. And until this culture is interrupted, clearly named and a strategy created for learning new ways of radical hospitality, most people will stay away - or at the very least not return.
e rejected the old theology (thanks be to God) the old ways are deep in our spiritual DNA - mostly as sins of omission rather than commission - but they still push out, ignore and overlook guests. And until this culture is interrupted, clearly named and a strategy created for learning new ways of radical hospitality, most people will stay away - or at the very least not return.+ In addition to replacing gratitude for obligation and radical hospitality for an exclusive understanding of membership, churches have to clearly stand for something counter cultural. It is not enough to be the "country club at prayer" - or a spiritual Kiwanis - or just a vaguely prayerful Girl Scout troop. That the Cross has been lost in many of our faith communities - forgotten or else privatized and spiritualized - becomes clear when real hospitality and joy starts to take root: as soon as new folk start to explore an old church - and the idea of renewal has to become flesh rather than intellectual abstraction - there is always fear, confusion and prejudice to deal with. Why? Too many churches think of themselves as "burial societies" rather than the living Body of Christ - and as Moran notes - this has been part of the challenge of the church in what we now call the United States since 1650!
One of my mentors, who used to work a tough neighborhood in inner city Detroit, used to say: Look, all we have to offer people is Jesus. Disneyland does en
tertainment better. Bars offer more people to date. And movie houses and theme parks do recreation better than we ever can. All we have is Jesus - but Christ is enough - because his love and grace and presence brings healing and hope. So just work at nourishing and feeding Christ in your congregation - the full Christ including his life, death and resurrection - and with patience and creativity he will rise from the dead.
tertainment better. Bars offer more people to date. And movie houses and theme parks do recreation better than we ever can. All we have is Jesus - but Christ is enough - because his love and grace and presence brings healing and hope. So just work at nourishing and feeding Christ in your congregation - the full Christ including his life, death and resurrection - and with patience and creativity he will rise from the dead. I still believe he is right: I have seen this - I have experienced this - and I have found that my ministry has been built on the life, death and resurrection of Christ, too. So as this Lent is starting I am grateful for the reminders on this beautiful day in the Berkshires. Thanks for the chance to have conversation and lunch over the mountain and thanks for the chance to reflect and pray on the drive home. With patience, trust, humor, prayer, community, the willingness to take risks, real Christian formation study and a profound willingness to rest in the care of the Holy Spirit... Christ can bring our churches into new life. Like Mark Twain said when asked if he believed in infant baptism: Believe in it - man I've SEEN it!
2 comments:
I've said this before: theologically, the church is moving ahead. Culturally, it is still in the primordial swamp. You've said it well, RJ. And it could be said that Lent's culmination is what must happen, the death and resurrection. That said, Lent gives us time to ponder what that could look like.
Thanks, my man. It is a good time for visioning in the best sense of that word: I am hopeful even through the tears. Love your new/old blog... be well.
Post a Comment