Changing the World

Immature religion creates people who know what they are against,

but they have a very poor sense of what they are for.

They are against sin, always as they narrowly define it;

but they are seldom for love, or anything other than the status quo

where they think they are in control.

-Richard Rohr, Daily Meditation 8-31-16

I suppose I could spend almost all my blogs on just sort of re-hashing and commenting on Fr. Richard Rohr's daily meditations, but in the name of some illusory concept of creativity and originality, I don't.  There are times though, when it almost seems like these devotions do a better job of saying what I'm thinking than I could possibly do myself.  This is, I believe, an action of the Holy Spirit, helping me along the way, and it is why I have been able to faithfully stick with the discipline of these daily devotionals for over three years (it might have something to do with smartphones too, but that doesn't sound quite as spiritually enlightened).

I have been wrestling lately with what exactly are the "selling points" of Church.  Why is it that some people attend church faithfully, while increasingly large numbers do not?  What is it that brings people back week after week?  But more importantly perhaps than what it is, what SHOULD it be?

As a Pastor I am concerned with church growth.  Growth in terms of the congregation's size and vitality, but also (perhaps more importantly) the growth in spiritual maturity of the people in the congregation.  I believe that the two things are intimately related.  The copious research of church pollsters tells us this: churches that follow a vision that moves them towards being for something are much more attractive to those who are currently outside the church than a church that is mainly focused on being against something and spends most of it's time policing holiness within itself.

There is nothing quite so soul sucking as constantly arguing about preferences and trying to keep everyone happy (personal experience).  Dealing with tragedy, for instance, will take every ounce of peace and hope that you have, it will stretch your ability to love and hold onto faith, but at the end of it, you will see clearly how God moves and you will feel the presence of the Spirit. You will leave more mature than you entered.  Inward squabbles and battles for the control of the status quo quickly stagnate and leave you stuck in the mire.

I was telling a friend in my congregation, who is concerned about the numerical sort of growth, that there really is no shortcut to real and sustainable growth.  It involves the people who come to our church becoming evangelists, by which I mean those who share the good news with others.  The good news of the Gospel to be sure, but specifically how that Good News is played out in the context of the community of the Church.

I feel that, in order to reach the un-churched, we cannot and should not start with a theological proposition or propositions, we need to start with a personal connection.  Shouting about heaven and hell, running down a litany of sins and bad behavior, just are not going to get you very far with the postmodern soul.  In fact, judging from the Gospel accounts, that is not what Jesus did anyway, and, as I say so often, we are supposed to be following his lead.

So what did Jesus do?  Well he showed people first hand what it looks like to live in a proper and loving relationship with God.  There wasn't a lot of groveling or complicated rituals (as human religions including Christianity tend to invent). There was open and honest communication, a willingness to always listen for and follow "the will of God," and an outward growth of compassion for those who are suffering and oppressed.  There were times when what Jesus appears to want, is not what Jesus gets: all those times he's trying to get away for some quiet time and crowds keep following him, oh and of course that whole crucifixion thing, can't say that was big on his list of favorite days.

He rather insistently teaches them that the Kingdom of Heaven is not really like the idea they have cooked up in their head.  He, time and time again, insists that the world ("the normal system of illusions" -Rohr) will not know or recognize the truth that he is providing as a foundation, and indeed his way will seem backwards and upside down to the self/ego oriented mode of being in which the mass of humanity is utterly trapped.

It is the job of the church and the work of evangelism to present a way out of the trap.  But mostly what we do is just redecorate the trap.  We trade in one egocentric mindset for another.  Rather than being conformed to Christ, we attempt to adapt the Church (the Body of Christ) to the ways of the world, and it does not work, as Gomer Pyle said, "Surprise, surprise, surprise."

We are to be salt and light and leaven, in other words, we are supposed to be the different part of the mixture that does something important.  The thing is though we need to understand and keep clearly in mind that our purpose as such is not to condemn the "world," but to participate in the Christ-like activity of redeeming it.  How does that look?  What are the steps?  Well, it's not simple in the least and anyone who tells you that it is is probably selling you snake oil.  The complicated nature of the task of redeeming the world is not a job for one person, even a remarkable person.  Jesus started it, and he has called us and sent us to continue to work on it.  That's why I go to church.