We had the beginnings of an interesting discussion at class today about what a church expects from us and what we expect from a church. Interesting enough, in fact, that we have pre-empted next week's class to discuss it in more detail.
It was related to a talk given to pastors and "real" (that is, lay) people at Friends University in Wichita, KS by John Mark Comer. Starting just before the fifteen minute mark and ending at around twenty minutes, though you may wish to hear more in either direction:
Point taken about our churches. Ouch. In the Evangelical Covenant, we had two foundational statements: "Where is it written?" and "How goes your walk?" Those would be Var står det skrivet? and Hur går din vandring (med Kristus)? It's more fun when you imagine old Swedish-Americans saying these things to you, especially with a steely eye. The accountability of that second question does seem to be missing these days, yes.
My wife immediately mentioned a community that agrees to pray for you. A place to worship together and provide teaching for the new and the young were mentioned.
But what are our secret expectations? Music, usually. We have been in a very small church that can hardly be said to have had a "music ministry," but we had an accompanist and a worship leader who led songs. We do expect that there will be "something" for the children who grow up there "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." We expect there will be some communal good works, though I know of churches that lean very far in the direction of equipping the individuals to work in a dozen unshared activities, such as soup kitchens, outreach, advocacy, missions, or rehabilitation.
I think my fellow Christians should keep their politics low-profile in the congregation. I acknowledge that there are times and situations where a Christian simply must proclaim some more partisan truth, but...well, is that even true? Must we? Many early Christians advocated staying out of the military not because they thought physical protection of the helpless was sinful, but because they thought no human government worthy of that much of a Christian's affections.
What other hidden expectations do I have? As a longtime reader of CS Lewis I know that we have an infinite capacity for self-deception. When we have stomped a sin into submission, we find the very grave we dig for it opens up a host of sins we had hidden there years ago and forgotten. The bones accuse us.
10 comments:
I wouldn’t say that I have any expectations, but I should love to hear a homily that convinced me that the priest had spent a lot of time with his great and grand predecessors in the vocation — as opposed to having rejected them in favor of his television and his vague feelings about things.
Good point about the early Christian attitude towards military service. They were not pacifists in the modern sense. They didn't think that Jesus had come into the world to make it more peaceful (something he specifically denied), and consequently recognized no obligation to "work for peace". The oft-misunderstood verse in the Beatitudes about "peacemakers" was about living peacefully with one's own neighbors, not about being an advocate for world peace. Wyclif translated this verse correctly as "Blessed are peaceable men."
Grim -- I would love to hear a homily that convinced me that the priest was Biblically literate, and not just repeating things he had heard in seminary.
As to politics in the pulpit, here is Edmund Burke in Reflections on the French Revolution:
"No sound ought to be heard in the church but the healing voice of Christian charity. The cause of civil liberty and civil government gains as little as that of religion by this confusion of duties. Those who quit their proper character to assume what does not belong to them are, for the greater part, ignorant both of the character they leave and of the character they assume."
I’m going to think for awhile about “the bones (of our sins) accuse us”....
@ G Poulin - I wrote about the peace concept in English, relating it to the peacemaker concept in the Bible. https://assistantvillageidiot.blogspot.com/2007/08/note-on-peace.html
The short version is that our word (and the Latin and other foreign words) for "pact" is also derived from PIE "pak," and that may be the more useful concept here.
The perceived failure of the church which underlies Comer’s talk he calls the “Crisis of Discipleship”; that is, he perceives that the vast majority of Christians do not reflect the life and character of Jesus. To the extent this is true, does the local church bear any responsibility? Perhaps the church has become more like a business, where its survival has become paramount, even in preference to its mission.
I wonder how many church goers would identify their desire and need for the character change Jesus called for and expect a church to encourage that.
The corollary question to “what do I expect from my church” is “what do I commit to bring to the community”. Put another way, is the church to be experienced as a consumer, or an active participant in a community?
The church congregation - when it is healthy and well-functioning – is two things at once:
A. It is a place of nurturing and refuge, so that when our hands hang down, or our knees are weak, they can be lifted up and strengthened. However, it is not a mere mental-health clinic, to offer sympathy for our psycho-social woes. It is (or it ought to be, anyway) a spiritual hospital to bind up our wounded hearts and bring us to the Master Healer so that we can be made whole in Him.*
B. It is the natural out-growth (i.e., an emergent property) that follows when people have experienced part A, above. Christ changes us, and then we treat people differently. Put some of the changed together, and their interaction – their society – will be a place that part A can happen.
You need people who are in part B in order for it to be a place where part A can happen. And you need it to be part A, so that more people can be brought to part B.
* If the church doesn’t do this – bring us, finally, to Our Lord, prostrate and aching for His help – then it misses the mark. Such a church would not be meaningfully different from any other secular club.
Or, to put it more succinctly, the church needs to be a place where people who have been converted feed the sheep; and the sheep become converted as they are fed.
@ Thos - "“You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve," said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.” CS Lewis, Prince Caspian
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