The choice to bless or curse, to believe or reject, to do right or do wrong.
The choices we make always have an influence on others and all too often it seems that ‘Church’ (that collective of voices and attitudes) knows more about what it dislikes than what it believes. ‘The Church’ excels at making choices without thinking what it communicates to the rank and file believer and the world outside it. We speak and the God we claim to follow becomes the God we represent and speak for.
A few weeks back, sitting in a local pub, engaged in conversation, we found ourselves discussing the Church. “The problem with the Church is that it is stuck in the past,”said one of the people present. I could only say I wished it was, especially if that past was the Church in the book of Acts. As the discussion continued another person chipped in with the observation that the past the Church was stuck in the fifties. “Church is only concerned with the ‘high and mighty’ whilst ignoring ordinary folk,” said another.
As I tried to explain the realities of the Christian witness that is the church (the local expression of Christians together where I am) as I know it to be today I found myself wading through a raft of views which positively acknowledged my position yet railed at Church and what it stood for or was perceived to be. Distant stand offish clergy who were desperate to get people into their churches with its irrelevant message telling the people around them how they stood for whatever it was that would win approval.
“The Vicars I’ve met are like politicians. They’ll say whatever you want to hear to get you in,” said one of the more animated. “But you’re not like that,” they added as they sought to ease the pain and be kind.
No matter how much they acknowledged the work and ministry we were doing, the sticking point was ‘Church’ as they perceived it to be. Perceptions shaped and affirmed by the press, the clergy (the dogcollar makes us both spokesperson and model) and anecdotal tales. They generally liked the things they thought Jesus said but they just didn’t like ‘Church’ and didn't know enough Christians to make ‘church’ real for them.
What my conversations with the world regarding Church tell me is that it is out of touch with it. Our attempts to appear in and with it don’t only look fake but also make us look absurd. We are regarded like a Vicar we had in our town in the late sixties who, donning a chunky pullover got a guitar (with rainbow guitar strap) and called everyone ‘man’ and became a figure of gentle ridicule!
Of late I’ve been accused of being part of an intentional deceit. The guilt was by association rather than commission, but that didn’t stop it stinging!
We're too desperate and so we look to recruit ‘ethnic minorites’ so we can parade them to remove the charge that Church is predominantly white. Across the globe the Anglican Church is definitely not a white majority group.
Church is generally too old and so we look to young vocations in the hope this will change the PR and see them (as one person put it) like ‘Judas sheep’ who will lead the young into our church buildings.
We engage in sexual politics which affirm lifestyles, gender issues (which confuse gender and sex and uses the words as if they were one and the same) and approve of just about anything that crosses our paths with the mantra that ‘Jesus just wants us to be happy’. Actually the truth is that Jesus wants us all to be holy.
The Christian Church has always been inclusive - today we have the danger that we are making it permissive in our attempts to attract people. We have always welcomed people to ‘come as they are’ in the realisation that having met with God they will leave different.
I pray for vocations to be explored and encouraged in all of God’s people that all might fulfil their baptismal calling. I struggle as I find some people groups highlighted and sought out to the apparent detriment of other groups. I am frustrated when someone obviously called is restricted because they will have passed the age of fifty by the time ordination occurs. I despair when the reason for this is given as “Best use of our financial resources.” Ageism appears to be one of the very real problems the Church has today and the view that only the young can win the young denies the experiences I have had over the years.
The reality is that we are making choices which lead us to think we are dressed to win people and build Church whilst the world gazes upon our nakedness and laughs at us as we reinvent the story of the ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ in our own context/
I’ve scribbled this as part of the scratchpad and a memory dump this blog is. I do it to stimulate and help me dialogue internally (and externally as I talk with God and other people) as I look to move forward. If you stumble across it, I hope it helps you in your context, and I welcome comments and discussion for this can only (generally speaking) be helpful.
Church us about welcoming all who are ‘far off’ and the realities are this:
‘Nothing we’ve been, nothing we’ve seen, nothing we’ve done, or will do. Nothing future, present or past can ever separate us from the love of God’
AND
‘Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore them gently. But be careful to make sure that you do not fall into sin correcting them.
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.’
Simple innit?
1 comment:
I thankfully, don't worry about the politics of the Church, that's beyond my pay grade.
What I find talking to people, that there is actually a lot of good will about among pt 'people who don't come to church' but who actually associate our parish church as their church and are protective towards it.
Last Saturday at our Fund Raising VE Day summer fete, we were overwhelmed by visitors in church and in the external garden where events and performances took place. Among those who came and purchased stuff, a number of pretty good, forget 20 pound notes were taken, only found at the count up.
This event aroused strong feelings throughout the local community, that some 'scumbags' had targetted 'their' church. And donations to replace the money lost, have poured in and more than made up for the loss.
I can recognise in this, something of community, where even those, who don't attend, feel part of the church family. And they will come at Christmas for midnight mass and Easter for the Passion Week activities, culminating in the activitie't s of Good Friday. Some are not baptized, but still have a fairly ultruistic view of those who do believe, and that we are doing something good.
I know that there are other views around, but not enough to turn people away from us. The number of Baptisms and Funerals are as high as ever, just the Weddings have dropped off, perhaps because of the competition with many new venues for weddings opened in the past few years.
Perhaps I'm being naive in seeing signs of hope in these things, but I certainly don't despair. We've confirmed over 45 in the last four years, so something is happening. And our attendance is steady, balancing out year on year, despite losses to death and some moving away.
This is an exciting place to be nowadays, because, we've seen providence of God is so many ways, when funds were needed, they were prayed for and appeared, some through legacies, some through donations and some due to an energetic and charismatic young lady, who has organised some very good events to assist fund raising.
I'm not complacent, but know that if we have faith, somehow God will provide.
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