“WHENCE THE CHURCH?”
In his fine 1971 song “City of New Orleans,” Steve Goodman wrote about the demise of the passenger railroad trains throughout the country. In that song were these lines about the death of the passenger railroad trains:
“And the steel wheels still ain't heard the news
The conductor sings his songs again, the passengers will please refrain
This train's got the disappearin' railroad blues”
“The old steel rails still ain’t heard the news” is a line that reminds me of the situation of the mainline white church in America these days. As an institution, the church is in hospice care, but some of us are in denial or are simply unaware that the era of the white church in America is ending, with God waiting to birth a new form in the decades ahead.
In the midst of the rebirth of the church, in which directions can we look? First, in one of the great ironies of life, just as the church is dying, we as a culture are in great need of a vital church which can speak to the powers about justice and can act in loving and welcoming ways, building community with all whom God sends. Whatever forms the new church of God takes, it must be grounded in this guideline from the prophet Micah: love kindness, do justice, walk humbly. In a time of food insecurity, when the federal government and some state governors act like those passersby in Jesus’ parable of “The Good Samaritan,” the church would do well to be a source of food for the belly and food for the soul for those of us in need.
Second, we need new imaginations about what our worship services will look like. Covid dragged us kicking and screaming into a virtual technological age, and though I am so glad that I had retired when this occurred, it forced church leadership to think and sometimes act imaginatively about worship. It will not be possible for the church to go back to a non-hybrid age, when the incarnation of the church meant everyone physically together in one sanctuary. In our Oakhurst days, we instituted a time of sharing joys and concerns, when people got up in worship to ask for prayers for themselves, for loved ones, for the world. It was a powerful time of vulnerability, and in an age when we are taught to seek to be individualistic and self-sufficient and independent, it was a profound way of building community. Though the church membership grew so much that we no longer took the time to have people stand up and share, we still retained the approach by having worshippers write down their concerns and joys and have the worship leader share them. Those kinds of risky approaches are needed in mainline white church worship in these days. In a time when the community is falling apart, we must find ways to rebuild authentic communities based on the values of love, justice, equity and compassion.
In regard to church buildings, there are many options. Some churches have already started transforming their space into something more useful to the community. Our friend Richelle Patton has started a company that works with churches to adapt church building space to become affordable housing. In most of these situations, Richelle’s company, Collaborative Housing Solutions, works with congregations to convert their property into affordable housing, all the while remodeling some of the space to meet the congregation’s need for worship and educational activities. If you or your church leaders want more info on Richelle’s work, contact me, and I’ll put you together with her. There are all kinds of possibilities for churches to share space with other congregations, day cares, elder cares, food banks, and other non-profits.
As I indicated earlier, churches must return to the Christian tradition’s emphasis on weaving spirituality and justice together into one tapestry. In the USA, we split them apart in order for our “Christian” members to be able to hold people as slaves and to exploit others in neo-slavery. And, notice that I did not say “spirituality and politics.” While there is an authentic intersection between spirituality and politics, that can quickly go awry, as we see in today’s Christian Wrong movement. Most of them would not recognize justice if it walked up and kissed them. No, this necessity for the future of the church is much deeper and wider. It asks those who claim as Jesus Christ as Lord to begin to witness and to work for justice in the society. This work is the only way to meet the risen Jesus – otherwise, we are meeting a puppet of Jesus that we have made in our own image.
Where does the church go from here? These are some of the guidelines for us to follow: building authentic community where everyone is welcomed; imaginations to see new ways of worship and life together; sharing our building capacity with those in need in our community; re-weaving spirituality and justice together so that the tapestry of the church has both threads running through it. In this way, when outsiders look at the church community, they see not a mean, judgmental community but rather a community centered on the God we know in Jesus, a community whose main characteristics are love, compassion, justice, and equality.
