I was guest preacher at a little country church. There are thousands like it. They looked to be teetering on the brink of the abyss, hardly able to muster the leadership and funding to survive.
My wife was chatting with one of the members — someone with a lot of complaints about their denomination’s influence on the congregation:
“What I don’t like is that they want to turn us into a mission church.”
My wife thought this meant the denomination would be providing funding, making this congregation a part of its shared mission support. Sounded like a pretty good way to go, actually.
“No, they want us to do mission work. They want us to reach out. I think our focus should be right here, taking care of each other.”
Well, what can you say to that?
This church member was pointing to her bedrock understanding of what that Christian community is about. She seemed to aspire to having her church be a family or social club; or maybe a hospital with the members as patients. These are common understandings in churches — despite the formal mission statements in which we claim higher aims. I suspect her fellow members shared the same vision.
Our understanding of very important things often comes out most clearly in passing comments like these — little metaphors or points of complaint show us what we hold most dear. And when it comes to the nature of a congregation or other community these can reveal what we actually aspire to be.
By way of contrast, consider the Rule of St. Benedict, the document that has provided the shape for Western monastic communities from the sixth century to the present day. Benedict lets his sense of what Christian community is really about slip in along with passing metaphors.
First, the monastery is
“a school of the Lord’s service”
The underlying purpose of being in Benedict’s community was to get an education — an education that taught them how to serve Christ. They certainly learned the Scriptures, and the life of prayer. They learned the kind of life that pleases God. They learned Christian character. They served Christ in personal devotion and community life, and it led them to serve in the world.
- If your church saw its identity as “a school for Christ’s service” what courses would need to be in the curriculum?
Second, when it comes to learning to live as Christ teaches, the monastery is
“the workshop in which we perform all these works”
Benedict has a lot to say about “good works.” To many Protestants it can sound like he is leaving behind salvation by grace through faith. Actually he’s just taking seriously the Bible’s teaching on our behavior. A mature disciple isn’t just someone who believes or someone who avoids sins. Life in Christ leads to Christ-like life. That’s what is made in Benedict’s workshop.
- If your community is a “workshop” what would you say it is producing?
Third, the monastery is the place
“to do battle for Christ the Lord”
In Benedict’s sixth century point of view we also do battle for our King — battle with the devil. It isn’t quite the “spiritual warfare” discussed in some parts of Christianity today. We do battle for Christ as we defeat our old nature and live according to Christ’s instruction — the devil is behind every temptation to do otherwise. As we fight these inner battles we realize there are other outward battles to fight. That is, as our hearts and minds are formed to Christ’s will, we become aware of the needs of the world he loves. When monks fought for Christ they were strengthened and equipped to participate in his work in the world.
- If your community is called to “do battle for Christ” what are you fighting against, and how do you fight it?
- (And if you have heard passing comments that define your community’s identity I’d love to hear about them too!)
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Gary, wonderful & provocative post. I too have encountered the exclusive club mentality. It is not found only in small towns or small churches. I believe it is part of a cancerous lie whereby the evil one takes Jesus’ followers out of “the game” by benching them in the battle for souls today.
I noted the progression in Benedict’s model: scripture knowledge, prayer, character growth, personal section, community (inward) service and finally outward community service to the world. I compared it to the model and teaching my church follows and teaches: planting seeds of God’s word in our hearts unto salvation, growing in knowledge & obedience to baptism, growing into service (inward & outward) by discovering our God given Spiritual gifts and “plugging-in” to the ministries where our gifting will bring God the most glory (and we won’t become disheartened or discouraged serving in areas outside where God has called & blessed us with the gifts needed to serve) and then reproducing with much fruit. There are many curriculum classes available for anyone who seeks to deepen their discipleship to God.
I really liked where you used the phrase “become aware of the needs of the world He (God) loves. We have to be willing to look and to take action. So right now in answer to you question about my community. As I review the places where my church is fighting I can say: homelessness, hunger (locally), overcoming addictions, loneliness, self-sufficiency&pride, and we are fighting to actively know and help meet the needs of the communities where we live, and beyond with two mission trips later this year. And these teaching & actions are the main reason I have chosen to be a part of this community.
Having moved out of distant former communities who believed because they had been there 100+ years they would always be there; they were clearly in denial that their little town & church was becoming a ghost town as new generations continued to leave rural life & stay gone. It made me so sad. Yet when any activity where folks were asked to invite their neighbors the answer was always the same. If they want to they’ll come.
Hey, Susan, I’m so glad you liked the post. Sounds like a great church you are part of.
Interesting to hear the way you (and your church?) use the language of battle here. Thanks for adding to the conversation.
Without taking anything away from the Great Commission and our calling to participate in it, I wonder if we do a disservice to some — perhaps many, perhaps few, though not all — such congregations by characterizing them as “country club” churches when they (perhaps inarticulately) insist they need to take care of each other. Christianity is a lifelong calling and the human soul endures lifelong trials, tribulations, and temptations, up to the point of death. In other words, even ministry to the dying is an important mission of the church. One pastor student of mine recently mentioned a book written by a fellow who insisted he refused to pastor a dying church. My response was, would he also refuse to pastor a dying parishioner? What precisely is the difference? Mission takes many forms, and we should not dismiss it, or deem it a country club, just because it happens to take place next door or at the end of the life.
Hi Tim! Thanks for joining the conversation here. I too think characterizing particular congregations as “country club” could be a problem. The church I was writing about was certainly nothing like a country club — certainly not like the country club where you and I have been guests on occasion.
As I thought about the woman’s comments I was trying to discern the understanding of community she seemed to assume. “Social club” came to mind, so I used that term, as well as “family” and “hospital.” All good hearty ways of connecting with people, and for some of them one could find biblical examples of similar language in reference to the church.
Other pictures of the church go toward outward mission. Benedict goes both directions with integrity: He takes his members deep into community life to bring health and growth, and in fact, with an apparent irony, they end up serving the world in powerful ways.
You make a fine point when you ask whether one would refuse to pastor a dying church or a dying individual. Perish the thought! (Parish the thought?) I think, however, far too often we jump to the conclusion that a church is dying when it is merely ailing and wounded. What is needed is the kind of care and guidance that leads a congregation toward health.
“I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church” is by Paul Nixon (Pilgrim Press, 2006). Far from a refusal to care for a church (or a parishioner) that’s dying, it’s a call to revitalize dying churches to bring them to new life. I recommend it.
Thanks! That’s a very helpful clarification.
Having spent my life in small membership churches, I cannot help but find this just a bit one-sided… Yes, they are God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand” – but they are also people who need encouragement, comfort and love. They often feel that they have been treated like an ATM by the mysterious powers that be, plundered of every material resource in support of some Great Cause out there somewhere, while no one gives a rip whether they make it or not. So their first concern is one another… they strive to love one another as Christ has loved them. Seems to me there was a hint in the gospels that this would be a good idea… The perception (at least) is almost as if the First Step of Benedict has been overlooked or assumed – those making demands on them are presuming that they have been prepared, strengthened and readied and have no needs and wounds of their own. Meanwhile, their aging parents need more and more care… their neighborhoods keep changing until you don’t know the people next door (so how can you rely on them in a time of need?)… their grown children have left for jobs, and rarely look back… They are already in ministry to their community – in volunteer fire departments and parent-teacher groups and in a thousand acts of what we still call neighborly behavior. The perception is that they are treated like tools to be used rather than partners in this Great Mission. And along come the outsiders to throw stones without knowing their hurt…
Well said Dave. I am a member of a small church. I am a youngster, just 60. In Sunday School I mentioned the simple fact that if all the people my age were still attending church, the churches would still be full. My first grade Sunday school class had 35 members and only five when I was a senior in high school. Wonder if anyone else has considered the reasons for the loss of so many. We travel the country as retirees and have not found those who once were found but now are lost.
Jennifer, thanks for joining the conversation! And I’m glad you have stayed faithful to God and your church. The slow steady trickling away of members over the years can be heartbreaking, and you have certainly been positioned to see it happen.
Sometimes I think attitudes like the one I described in my post typify something about why this happens. I didn’t write about everything that was said, but in fact the church member went on to tell my wife that she felt faith was an entirely personal matter, not something that should be shared with others.
If faith is entirely personal, and not to be shared, then of course church becomes entirely optional, or even problematic — after all, the church is a community of shared faith, serving God together.
Gary, In my experience, that’s precisely the underlying problem people have with mission – a lack of conviction that faith is an item of knowledge to be shared. They’ve boiled it down to an opinion with no evidential basis. In many cases, the church has started to accommodate the belief that truth can’t be known – and if can’t be, then why bother to “force” our opinions on others? It’s a sad state that we’ve come to. I’ve become passionate about apologetics for this reason. Apologetics would be part of my school for the Lord’s service. 🙂
Natasha, thanks for suggesting a subject for the curriculum! I’m intrigued by this question, personally, and am eager for others’ thoughts. If we really saw our churches and other communities as “schools for the Lord’s service” we would have to think about what to teach and how we teach it.
Apologetics would be a great subject to include. (I’d love to hear who you like to read in that area sometime.)
Your observation is especially important when you consider the kind of knowledge we are sharing: It is not that we have mastered a subject with our minds. It is that we know this Person who has changed our lives. That’s the nature of the Gospel — and it is something that does not come down to opinions.
Wow, Dave, it sounds like this comes from a place of real passion. Thanks for joining the conversation. Point well taken that participating in the larger community’s life through service is an excellent way of loving your neighbor.
I hope you wouldn’t count me among “outsiders” who “throw stones without knowing their hurt.” I’ve served as pastor of a very small church, doing redevelopment to help it go from the brink of closure to hiring a full time installed pastor a few years later. In my denomination small churches are the main kind we have, and some great organizations do work to help them flourish and thrive. Check out the “Wee Kirk” conferences if you are a Presbyterian: http://www.pfrenewal.org/small-church
There are, in fact, many many churches that are small and will stay small because of demographics, and others that will choose to be small for strategic reasons related to their mission. Lots of them really struggle for the leadership and funding needed to survive like the one I described.
But whether a church is small or large, poor or rich, the members and leadership need to discern where they are and are not healthy. That is what I’m aiming for in these posts about community.
Benedict had some very different ways of thinking about community and its purpose: in the post I noted his references to it as “school” “workshop” and a place of “battle.” I think churches small and large could do well to consider how understanding their life and work in those ways might be a useful challenge.
Gary, I didn’t think of you as throwing stones – but my experience of the small membership church has been one of low-self-esteem, weary and often wounded congregations who would have heard it that way… perception is 125% of the truth, you know. I am a fellow veteran of Wee Kirk – and always glad to hear from another supporter of the same! As I have told folks close to home, I was taught by a wonderful lady with a dairy barn education that life and church are a three legged stool: one leg is worship, or our relationship to God (individually and corporately, though those weren’t her words); one is community or fellowship, how we love one another; the third is service or mission, how we serve God by serving in the world. If ANY of those three is weak or missing, the stool will tip over… And too many of our small membership churches have gotten survival-minded enough that the third leg is weak or nonexistent. So the congregation tumbles… Actually, part of my Call these days is to help people see that what they are already doing almost all the time almost every day IS service/mission – they simply need to realize it and intentionally bring grace and ministry into it. Easier said than done… Thanks for letting me share!
Dave, I’m very grateful indeed for what you’ve shared here. Thank you! I hope you’ll keep coming back to future posts — I’ll be blogging on community and mission for a good while I think.
Often my encouragement, comfort, love and growth occur when I step out and do battle for Christ. For me, that is reaching out to those that are vulnerable. Even in the times I feel vulnerable, looking outside myself revives and draws me closer to God.
Thanks Lisa! Another very interesting way to think of the life of faith in “battle” language. And a very good example of how taking a risk to reach out actually builds faith
Gary: I had a parishioner once say that our church, as an institution, really doesn’t need to engage in missions. Instead, the church should be there to encourage and empower the people to (each) embark on a life of mission. I think the unspoken suggestion was: “Why don’t you let us keep the money that goes to missions, so that we can do our own mission thing with it.” Comments?
Well said, Brian! But if I can just flip that question over… Sometimes we are asking, “If I am already living my life for Jesus and the Kingdom, why is it that what ‘you people’ are doing ‘out there’ is worth taking away the extremely limited resources we have available for doing what we were created and called to do?” I believe that there are good answers to that question, and even better conversations that can emerge. But the reply has to honor the conviction of the one who has already spent themselves in every way seeking to be the Church.
Thanks, Dave. I think there is growth needed both for individuals and churches to really see the mission of God as loving neighbor (near neighbors and far neighbors) and to see that as people joined to Christ we, individually and as churches, are called to that mission. Of course “mission” has some pretty strong connotations for many people, and not all of them are helpful — maybe better to say “the work of God” or “the purposes” or “the call” or something.
Brian, how great to hear from you here. Who knew that blogging would bring old friends together as well as introducing new ones?
What I hear in the comment is a deep commitment to individualism. The corporate life of the community is optional, supporting my individual stuff if I need the support. I’m all for growing in individual faith and faithfulness, but see a deep need for American individualists to rediscover life within the Body — the deeper but invisible reality of being Christ’s body doing Christ’s work together.