Spilling out the lego box
I have several things bouncing around in my head this morning. Here are some of them, with no connective tissue other than that they’re all bouncing on the same court. Or how about a better metaphor: I’m spilling out the lego box all over the floor. Later, hopefully, I’ll build something that makes sense. Right now I’m just taking stock of some of the legos.
Awhile back, my husband read Reggie McNeal’s Missional Renaissance as part of a leadership team he’s on at church. He encouraged me to read it so we could talk about it. I tried, but couldn’t gain any traction. Then I tried again more recently. On Thursday I picked it up again, and this time I want to underline almost every sentence.
What do you think of when you think of the church? A building? A set of activities or services or rituals? A social project? Missional Renaissance gets you thinking about your “determinative ideas” of church, while making the case for the church not as attractional, but as missional. This is one of the four tenets of the emergent church as it was explained in an article I read by Scot McKnight a few years ago. I’m interested to see how this book will rattle some of my paradigms.
But in all honesty, I think that part of the reason I am so primed for the reading experience is that my paradigms are already rattling. It’s a difficult thing to talk about, because I don’t want to sound critical of my own church. As churches go, it’s a good church. I have a lot of respect for my pastor, and as perhaps the highest compliment I can pay after the experience of transitioning from our previous church, I trust him.
Yet I also have to say that it has been some time since I have felt any real enthusiasm for the church as an organization. It’s less a matter of having lots of criticisms to make, and more a matter of just feeling weary, and like we’re off the mark somehow. We’re expending lots of energy, and we want to see the Lord Jesus honored. But mostly, in all honesty, the way we go about it leaves me tired, and leaves the church with frustratingly insignificant impact in the culture.
Sometimes, on the way to church, I see “the unchurched” — people strolling along with their dogs, or coming out of Dunkin’ Donuts with a newspaper under their arm, and I wonder: why would they want to give up their pleasant looking routine to come to an organized meeting on a Sunday morning? It sounds like sacrilege, but it does go through my mind. I go myself because there is no alternative. “Forsake not the body.” I know I need it. I know it’s the way we have in place to reach out to the community. But it has been a long time (years) since I woke up on Sunday morning really eager for church.
My feelings are not what church is all about. But my feelings can be an indicator. And my main feeling about the church universal in America is frustration. I’ve had the discipline of an early morning time in prayer and Bible study in place for years, and I don’t think I expect the church to be the entire source of my spiritual life. But I am still frustrated with it.
I think this is the bottom line: The desire of my heart is not to continue pouring my energies and resources into the church as an organization. The desire of my heart is not to submerge my personal spiritual initiative in one more program. The desire of my heart is for my life to count for the Lord right where I am. The desire of my heart is to be in the thick of it, not tucked away in a nice facility marching in lock step with whatever special offering or project or program we happen to have in front of us at the moment. The church organization can become kind of our compassion default. We participate in whatever program, or give to whatever cause, the church puts in front of us. But that can fatally dull the tang of the Holy Spirit’s prompting to compassion in our own sphere.
Our church has been emphasizing prayer for those in our immediate community — our “oikos” — for months. But God is a sending God, Reggie McNeal points out. He sends forth his Spirit, and he sends forth his children. It’s not just about inviting people into the organization so they, too, can support the programs and hear the preaching. It’s about going into other lives and being salt and light. I’m not sure how to act on this right now, but it is insistently on my heart and in my thoughts.
10 Comments
Carrie, Reading to Know
It’s interesting to hear your thoughts on this. I admit that there have been times in our walk when I wish that the call to fellowship with believers wasn’t found in the BIble. And there have certainly been weeks during which I would rather be ANYwhere but in church.
But on the whole, I think kindly of it and am glad to go. You asked what I think of when I think of church and that answer is complicated to be sure! We really like where we are now and so when I think of church I think of being fed solid doctrine. I think of fellowship with like-minded people as well as those who really challenge the way that I think. I think of full days of family-oriented conversation which then help me walk out my faith through the week. I think of communion and its importance.
The rest of the week is for “the thick of things” in MY mind and I need Sundays to build up determination, hope, tolerance and peace of mind. Loosely stated.
Anyway – very thought-provoking post.
Ruth
I love the Lego metaphor. Perfect.
I clicked over here to say more or less what Carrie said in her third paragraph. I feel like church, for me, at this time in my life, is to recharge and regroup to go out into the thick of things again. When I miss it, it’s like I missed a meal. I really NEED it, for me.
Janet
I know I need it too.
Are you both talking mainly about your Sunday experience at church? Does it have a role in your life during the week?
Do you feel recharged mainly by the teaching, or by the fellowship? Or is it both?
What constitutes “the thick of things” for you?
Kind of involved questions for the comments section, but I’m curious.
Janet
One more: Ruth, is your experience of the church in the States different than it is in Haiti?
Barbara H.
I’m wary of the emergent church for many of the reasons you bring up in your other post, yet I think we do go through times of feeling like church as a whole is just going through the motions.
When I think of church, the first thing I think of is family — that special relationship and support we share. The Bible talks about our being a body and a family, yet it’s not just relational — it is “the pillar and ground of the truth,” I Timothy 3:15. Though we do spend times in the Word ourselves, there is something about the preaching, teaching, and iron-sharpening-iron interactions that keeps us grounded and keeps us from going off on aberrant side trails. So I think we err when we stress the rational OVER the doctrinal, or vice verse — we need both.
But I do think one of our biggest failings as a church is in becoming too insular and not as evangelical, or missional, as we should be.
Janet
I agree with you.
I think we need church. But I’m being challenged to think of ways to “do church” that are different from how I’ve taken for granted that it should be.
Of course there’s always the question: what if it’s just me being critical? I do have my struggles. But there have been times of such spiritual vitality in my past that I know I’m not just chronically discontent. I have a feeling the Holy Spirit is trying to get through to me, but at the moment I’m like the blind man Jesus healed who at first saw people and said they looked like trees walking around. It takes awhile to get it clear.
DebD
I see church very differently as an Orthodox Christian so I’m not sure I can say much about “missional Renaissance” since my whole paradigm is different. However, I wanted to encourage you to keep looking and don’t be afraid to look outside the American Protestant box. Most of my friends blow it off when I say that to them, but I would recommend that you not. You may be surprised to find “the pearl of great price.” Just keep prayerfully looking. His sheep hear His voice.
Ruth
Janet, it’s the teaching, the singing, the fellowship — all of it. And yes, I’m talking specifically of church on Sunday. The “thick of things” is the everyday — work, family, life. And yes, it’s different in the States in the details, the way it all happens, but the need for it is the same.
Sorry it’s taken me so long to come back and answer your questions. I’m sort of thinking about doing a post about it on my blog.
Ruth
P.S. I love this Carolyn Arends song about church: http://www.lyricstime.com/carolyn-arends-any-given-sunday-lyrics.html
Janet
Thanks, Ruth.
This post hasn’t set well with me since I published it. I’ve almost felt like God has been saying, “Let’s keep this between you and me till you get it sorted out more.” I’ve set the book aside for now as well… It stirred up some discontent, but I feel like I should have a clearer sense of my own heart on this stuff before immersing myself in someone else’s take on it.
Off to hear that song now!