For the Church

This summer has be a quieter time for my husband and I to enjoy being married (we celebrated 6 months together last week), while I have been taking theological German translation classes and reading through as much of the "missions cannon" as possible. The goal is to read twenty-two books. This afternoon, before I started my 13th book, I decided to peek at a book that just arrived in the mail for an ecclesiology class this Fall. I was struck by a a quote in the introductory pages by Walter Rauschenbusch, of Social Gospel fame:

O God, we pray for thy Church, which is set to-day amid the perplexities of a changing order, and face to face with a great new task. We remember with love the nurture she gave our spiritual life in its infancy, the tasks she sets for our growing strength, the influence of the devoted hearts she gathers,  the steadfast power for good she has exerted. When we compare her with all the human institutions, we rejoice, for there in none like her. But when we judge her by the mind of her Master, we bow in pity and contrition. Oh, baptize her afresh in the life-giving spirit of Jesus! Grant her a new birth, though it be with travail of repentance and humiliation. Bestow upon her a more imperious responsiveness to duty, a swifter compassion with suffering, and an utter loyalty to the will of God. Put upon her lips the ancient gospel of her Lord. Help her to proclaim boldly the coming of the Kingdom of God and the doom of all that resist it. Fill her with the prophet's scorn for tyranny and with a Christ-like tenderness for the heavy-laden and down-trodden. Give her faith to espouse the cause of the people, and the hands that grope after freedom and light to recognize the bleeding hands of Christ. Bid her cease from seeking her own life, lest she lose it. Maker her valiant to give her life to humanity, that like her crucified Lord she may mount by the path of the cross to higher glory. ("For the Church", 1909) 

I say amen to that, though I'm sure Rauschenbusch and I have some different ideas as to how some of these things would look like. Nevertheless, I agree with all that he wrote here and I am reminded that I need to be praying for the church, universal as well as the congregations closest to my heart. God has called me into the ministry, in part, to love his Bride. May I be ever mindful of that despite my preoccupation with the out-beyond: the very birth of new expressions of gathered peoples. 

The Lord has given us new opportunities to invest in our local church, which very large and over a hundred years old. We are praying that we will not only serve this congregation well, but that we will take the opportunity to be brought up a little more by those older and wiser within the ministry. I still hope and pray that we will be able to church plant and do missions, but I am also recognizing that God is very concerned that we love his Bride at all ages, from all backgrounds, and in every place.

Reminder: Principles Over Personalities

 

This is a re-posting of a thought I had in 2009 on my personal blog that I wish to hold onto. Obviously, the church is more than just this, but these hold some foundational things about church polity we need to remember when we start new congregations:

Reformation

After Hurricane Katrina I got to hang out with some of the best/worst people in New Orleans and I realized that I wished this was how the Church ran its business, too. History would have been positively different for it. Jesus showed in Scripture that drunks and prostitutes are people to learn from - especially when they find freedom in Christ. My obsession with perfection, comparing myself to shiny, polished people hasn't helped a bit. Wouldn't be so much healthier with no more egos? No more personality cults. Just broken people coming together for the goal of redemption and serenity from God.

So I'm beginning to think this is what I want my church to look like:

[Church] Traditions - Adapted from the AA traditions 

(shown in brackets)

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon unity.

2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

3. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop [destructive behavior].

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or [the Church] as a whole.

5. Each group has but one primary purpose-to carry its message to the [broken] who still suffers.

6. A group ought never endorse, finance or lend the name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

7. Every group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

8. [The Church] should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

9. [The church], as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

10. [The church] has no opinion on outside issues; hence the Name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.