people don’t seem to leave the church because they no
longer believe in the beauty of Jesus and his teachings. People leave the
church because they believe in the beauty of Jesus and his teaching so much
that they can no longer stomach being part of an institution that says it’s
about that and so clearly is not.
Nadia
Bolz-Weber
When we talk about building a world where all people can
achieve justice and fulfill our potential as human beings, we really mean all
people. That is Dr. [Martin Luther] King’s vision of “Beloved Community,” where
all people can live in peace. Beloved Community is an acknowledgment that the
only way for a peace to ever be sustainable, the only way that our people can
always be safe, is if all people are free.…
Building Beloved Community is not about loving the people
who are easy to love. It is about cultivating love for those that are difficult
to love
If you are not struggling to love people, if you are not
trying to build understanding with those you disagree with, then you are not really
doing the work of building Beloved Community. The work of building Beloved
Community is understanding that we’re not trying to win over people, but to win
people over. Historically, winning a war has meant defeating the opponent.
There is a clear winner and a clear loser.... But in nonviolence, there is no
real victory until everyone is on the same side.
Richard
Rohr
____________________________________________
the church is dying
Long live the church!
I think a lot about the church
as an aged coot who inhabits a pulpit on Sunday morning
wondering if he has something to say
to the scattered souls scattered among the pews
and I think it is dying
the average congregation has 65 people
and only 16% of Americans say religion is the most
important thing in their life
did I say congregation?
Ah!
a congregation is a group of people gathered for
that exercise in religiosity we call worship
most of the “congregations” that seem to be flourishing
(or so the statisticians tell us)
are those that are very large
where worship can be done with flair!
where the entertainment is excellent and
the energy of the gathered masses
takes on the quality of a Trump rally (or a rock concert)
(yeah, I know, there are exceptions)!
but it all has me wondering about the fate
of all those little congregations
which are dying
one by one
it strikes me that something needs to change
perhaps we need to start by changing one word
and stop talking about congregations
and start talking about communities
what does it mean to be a community
it doesn’t mean you come together once a week to perform
a “task”
it means you live together
struggle together
share together
eat together
community
communities of faith
what does that look like
it might mean meeting in a home, not a sanctuary
it might mean meeting to serve (together) at a food bank
or gathering to help an elderly person with their garden
a community looks like people rallying around that person
who, suffering from mental illness and trauma just got a
DUII
and making sure they still know they are loved
and are a child of God
communities are neighbors loving neighbors
people taking care of one another
communities are about people listening
forgiving
and giving
communities are about working together
despite differences
until everyone wins
everyone gets to the goal, together
I don’t know, for sure
how to turn a congregation
scattered souls, scattered among the pews
into a community of faith
a community of love
I suspect that I will have little to do with that process
but I do know that in my little corner of the world
middle of nowhere
center of the universe (Wallowa County, Oregon)
my congregation will survive
if it can move beyond being a congregation
we live in a world full of lonely, anxious, and uncertain
people
scared to death of the future
seeking answers in all the wrong places (in authoritarian
leaders for example)
the church, if it is to be relevant
has to offer these suffering people that can’t be more
easily found somewhere else
and it hasn’t
As Jake Meador of the Atlantic puts it
“American churches have too often been content to
function as a kind of vaguely spiritual NGO, an organization of detached
individuals who meet together for religious services that inspire them, provide
practical life advice, or offer positive emotional experiences. Too often it
has not been a community that through its preaching and living bears witness to
another way to live”
The church is dying!
That is not all bad
Because you have to die to be resurrected
You have to die (both Jesus and Paul said this) to the
old
to be raised to new life
Maybe it is time the church dies
so that it can become the church?
the resurrected body of Christ
in this world
No comments:
Post a Comment