2019 is coming to a close - and I find myself ruminating over two recent articles on the eve of a new decade. Earlier today day I caught up over hot chocolate with a colleague in ministry. My friend is a gifted clergy person who continues to wrestle with the bureaucrats of the church over how best to live into a calling as pastor for the 21st century. As we spoke and prayed together - lamenting, laughing, and lamenting over the ironies and absurdities of this ordeal - my heart drifted back to how Richard Rohr opened this morning's post: "Up to now, top-down religion has pretty much spoiled the show." Exactly my conclusion! And then he added: We need trained experts, scholars, leaders, and teachers, but the truths of Christianity must be made much more accessible, available, localized, and pastoral... While Christian churches do much good, we have one huge pastoral problem that is making Christianity largely ineffective—and largely decorative. Solid orthodox theology is sorely needed... yet we clearly need good and compassionate pastoral and healing practices ten times more!y vision of any future church is much flatter and much more inclusive. Either we see Christ in everyone, or we hardly see Christ in anyone. Frankly, my hope for Christianity is that it becomes less “churchy"... any notion of a future church must be a fully practical church that is concerned about getting the job of love done—and done better and better. Centuries emphasizing art and architecture, music, liturgy, and prescribed roles have their place, but their overemphasis has made us a very top-heavy and decorative church that is constantly concerned with its own in-house salvation. (https://cac.org/the-work-of-healing-2019-12-31/)
For ethical reasons that respect and honor the boundaries required of retired clergy, I have rarely commented on the byzantine particularities of regional church happenings. When I left, I left. It was liberating to become a civilian once again. Whenever local friends would ask my opinion on some of the issues facing our region, I deflected their questions saying, "I hold all the people of our congregations in my prayers - and their leaders, too. It is, however, no longer my place to be engaged or offer commentary. So let's just trust the Lord and leave it at that, ok?" A few times I have been invited back by the leadership to assist with the ministries of music-making for social justice and I have loved that connection: we played some great songs, raised important issues for our area, and generated some funds for the common good. Not long ago the retiring interim pastor asked me back to Sunday worship for his final day to rock the house one more time - and that will be a delight. But that's been it.
That doesn't mean I haven't thought about what a stream-lined church beyond the grasp of bureaucracy might look like for our region. I have. It would be saturated in simple music with LOTS of singing. It would be family friendly, filled with light and color, Eucharistic and absolutely free of theological jargon. There would be one simple collection to cover modest expenses, ample time for real prayer requests, and a phone/text tree to keep people up to date. It would be held in one of the empty offices or local restaurants that are vacant on Sunday mornings. Mission and acts of compassion would be fundamentally local - living into the 10 foot rule - and owned and implemented by the gathered community.
And, of course, there would be almost no distinctions between leaders and laity. Rohr hit a home run today when he wrote:
It seems to me that we must begin to validate Paul’s original teaching on “many gifts and many ministries” (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). Together, these diverse gifts “make a unity in the work of service” (Ephesians 4:12-13)... (what) we need (are)Christian people trained in, validated for, and encouraged to make home and hospital visits; do hospice work and jail ministry; support immigrants and refugees; help with soup kitchens or food pantries; counsel couples before, during, and after marriage; share child development resources with families; offer ministries of emotional, sexual, and relational healing; help with financial counseling; build low-cost housing; take care of the elderly; run thrift centers—all of which put Christian people in immediate touch with other people and for which no ordination is needed. Ordination would probably even get in the way. Remember, healing was most of the work Jesus did. This fact is almost too obvious.
Each offering is useful and wisely considered. For my world I was particularly engaged by what Ryan Burge, assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, wrote about the intersection between religiosity and political behavior in the USA. He noted that:
If the so-called 'nones' (adults with no denominational or religious affiliation but who still self-identify as 'spiritual but not religious' continue to) grow at the slowest rate, they will still be larger than any other group, regardless of the margin of error. At the same time, the two other large religious groups in the United States (evangelicals and Catholics) will each make up about 22% of the U.S. population. The only religious tradition that will sustain serious losses is mainline Protestants. These are the moderate forms of American Protestantism typified by United Methodists and Episcopalians. Today, they make up about 10% of Americans, but in 2030 that will be cut to just under 5%. That result is stunning considering that this group made up 30% of the population in 1976. (Read the whole collection @ https://religion
There are a few trans-denominational experiments taking place in our region and I hold them in prayer. We shall see how they fair. One of the things I believe that will make or break them is whether they can become self-sustaining. An insight I learned back in the late 80's from the mommas and poppas of the urban church movement is that so often new projects start with grant money. Things get moving and a buzz is created but it cannot be sustained. Because when the grants end - and they always do - without a viable local funding stream the project dies. Another mistake is creating programs for children under the illusion that "our little ones are the future of the church." Not so. Trained, committed and engaged elders, parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents are the future of the Body of Christ - not children. Kids are users. It is not a blame, just a fact. And once the thrill or novelty wears off, unless there are committed adults involved, the young ones will organically flit to the next thrill.
As I look towards the new decade it is clear that my way of doing church will perish. It is already dying on the vine. I once felt sad about this, but now see it as simply the ebb and flow of creation sorting out what works and what doesn't. I wasn't able to get pumpkins to grow in my garden this year because they were planted in the wrong type of soil without adequate irrigation. Next year I will try again with greater wisdom. The same will take place with the Body of Christ. As it is able to shed the constraints of hundreds of years of habit and fear to say nothing of the current obsession with corporate organizational models, it will be resurrected. In the meantime I will go to Eucharist with my family and deepen my engagement as a spiritual director. It is going to be a wild ride - and I am glad to still be around.
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