Changing the Conversation on Church

This post was inspired by a wonderful comment left on my last post https://steemit.com/life/@mwoodall/the-sacredness-of-sunday-mornings by @mickrmurray. I've taken my reply to his comment and expanded it further, and I'd like to share it with you. I encourage you to read my last post and join in the conversation!

I should probably start by saying that I am always hesitant to talk "church" online because I don't fit neatly into any category. I am a person of faith who believes in the Sacred and the Holy, but I don't believe in God as the media likes to portray them. There is no big man in the sky (or at least not in any way we can comprehend). I am also a strong believer in the Social Gospel, that we, as Christians, are called to be change in the world. There is no conduit through which the Holy can act except us as Holy and Sacred vessels who each contain a piece of the Holy.

I am a member (at least in name) of the United Church of Canada, and I believe strongly in the creed that UCCAN ascribes to. Here it is in its entirety, and I want to use this to frame how I want to change the conversation around church.

We are not alone,
we live in God’s world.

We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others
by the Spirit.

We trust in God.

We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God’s presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope.

In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.
We are not alone.

Thanks be to God.

http://www.united-church.ca/community-faith/welcome-united-church-canada/new-creed

We are not alone, we live in God's world."
We are not now, and have never been alone. We are residing in a world that was brought into being by a loving and gracious Creator. Now, before you go off half-cocked thinking that I'm a creationist, understand this: I'm not! In fact, while I love the symbolism and imagery of the Christian creation story, I think it is just that; a story. It was a way for early humans to put some sense and order into the creation of the world they saw around them.

But (there's always a but...be afraid of people who espouse ideas without a but...)

I do believe that there is too much order and too much good design to believe that life is purely random. I believe in a Creator and a design that is imminently present and obvious to me in my daily life.

We believe in God who has created, and is creating.
God is present and active in our world today. What greater joy is there than that! God has not abandoned us nor forsaken us but is actively engaging in the process of creation as we speak!

But... (there's that word again)

I do not believe in an interventionist God. I do not believe that God reaches down and plucks us out of all our problems, if that was the case then the world would be remarkably different than it is. I'll explain a little further on in this post.

Who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh to reconcile and make new. Who works in us and others by the spirit
Do you hear that? That is the sound of humanity being called by the Sacred, being invited to be the hands of the Creator. What greater blessing is there than to be the hands of God in the world, to be a vessel for the Holy and the Sacred.

We trust in God

We are called to be the church
We aren't called to go to church. We aren't called to save a building. We aren't called to send thoughts and prayers. We aren't called to judge or condemn, or preach. We are called to BE the church. I get so incredibly frustrated with evangelicals who seem to think that piousness and righteousness have anything to do with the welcoming arms of Jesus Christ. I am frustrated with mainline protestants who can't seem to get beyond the current state of their buildings. I am frustrated with High Anglicans and Catholics who refuse to acknowledge the sacredness and call to ministry that resides within every person, no matter what is between their legs or who they go to bed with.

This isn't our calling. We are called to BE the church. To BE the Holy and Sacred in the world. To BE the hands and feet of the Creator and to intercede and act on the needs of the world around us. None of us are righteous and holy. None of us. Righteousness belongs only to God, and if we have received anything from God, it is a small piece of sacredness that resides deep within every person. When we cannot acknowledge that, then we begin to see people as "other" and we end up with division and quarrel. We are called to BE the church, to be the welcoming community of faith where people can come and ask hard questions.

I want you to consider the last faith community my family a part of. It was big enough to be varied, but small enough to be intimate. We ranged in age from newborns to very elderly. We met in a small room where we talked, shared our lives, broke bread together, and wrestled with the reality of the Gospel in the context of our daily lives. When I say that we "wrestled", that's exactly what I mean. We engaged with the texts, looked at it in its contextual and communal complexity, and we fought hard with what we were called to do with the Gospel we were given. That is what I mean when I talk about being called to BE the church.

To Celebrate God's Presence
We aren't called to seek the presence of the Holy, or to invoke the presence of the Holy. We are called to celebrate the ever-present imminence of all that is Sacred and Holy. God does not need to be invoked or summoned, God is present in each and every one of us.

To live with respect in creation,
To love and serve others,
To seek justice and resist evil

What does this mean for Christians today?

Living with respect in creation is self-explanatory, if we do not honour the sacredness and holiness of the land we live upon, then we are not honouring our Creator.

But what, exactly, is meant by "To love and serve others?"

It means that we need to seek out and celebrate the sacredness within each other.

It means that we need to be the church in the world, instead of trying to bring the church to our door. Imagine what it would mean to a 10 year-old hockey/soccer/football player to have a hundred people show up at a Sunday morning game? Instead of saying "Why aren't you in church", we are then telling them that this moment where they are in community with their teammates and working towards a common goal is Sacred and Holy, and their church community celebrates it with them!

It means that we need to be open to the needs in our world and to find the ways that our communities of faith can meet those needs. It might mean giving up a building that has significant sentimental value because our community needs something else more than it needs another gathering place. It might mean opening our doors and welcoming people we never would have welcomed because they need a safe place to get high. It might mean engaging with local teenagers by giving them an opportunity to learn new skills from the elders in our congregation. It might mean a lot of things, but it doesn't just mean sitting in a pew (or a chair) on Sunday mornings.

That truly is loving and serving others. That truly is seeking justice for everyone in our community, and resisting the evil of making someone the "other".

To proclaim Jesus crucified and risen
Our judge and our hope.
In Life
In Death
In Life beyond Death
God is with us, we are not alone
Thanks be to God.

I was introduced to a great guy on Facebook (I will add his name and a link to his website if he is okay with that) and so much of what resonates with me about his message is wrapped up in this last stanza. Chris' core message is that Grace is enough. We need nothing other than Grace to be sufficient to God. More importantly, that Grace is brave. Choosing to acknowledge and understand that while Jesus Christ may be our judge, He is also our hope! He is our hope because of the Grace that was brave enough to forgive. We are called to do nothing less.