Those Loving Doubters

This is the time of year when most churches, conferences, and institutions commit to at least some version of annual meeting. It's a time to take stock, review past year and move on in an orderly fashion. In preparation the faithful are issued a digital (paper?) packet of agenda, previous minutes, and committee reports along with pages and pages of financial detail. Opening protocol is usually establishment of quorum, opening devotional, and away it goes. That’s it. A common challenge these days is to have enough people present to establish quorum. The operation of churches falls in among charities and not-for-profits, also facing similar challenges. 

Recently I also attended one of those ‘other' AGMs, this of a local service organization. I was asked before meeting started if I might ‘second’ one of the motions being presented, so that the business meeting could proceed expeditiously and we could give ample time to the keynote speaker of the evening. Now there's an idea. Perhaps our church(es) should engage keynote speakers to help us feel a little more purposeful about ourselves!😏 Perhaps some ‘with it’ churches already are.

I am concerned about today’s operation and management of churches. Maybe it's because I'm one of those crotchety old guys who thinks he's still got it, but I think my concern is legitimate. We used to actually discuss things, sometimes quite animatedly, including perhaps one or two persons with considerably different points of view (not unlike in the Bible, Acts 15), and then after an appropriate amount of discussion somebody would offer an important reprieve, “Question” meaning it was time to submit to one another and vote on it. Nothing particularly holy about Roberts Rules of Order, but my memory prefers that format to the expeditious non-discussion these days. Several of my previous blogposts already show my sentiment that faithfulness and churches are not necessarily coterminous (“Where Have all the Churches Gone,” July 29, 2021 and “Growing Faith Closing Churches,” Sept. 28, 2021). Seems to me a gap is growing between spiritual encounter and maintenance of the institution. Institutions must serve a purpose, and if not, they will waste a lot of money and tertiary busywork. Membership needs opportunity to talk about that!

I just took a casual read of what will appear in adult Sunday School this next Sunday (yes, congregational meeting also in a few days). Sunday School lesson is based on a very familiar scripture. Matthew 28 contains the famous missionary passage which even very occasional churchgoers have heard at least once or twice in a lifetime, ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (:19-20)  And then something just prior to that Great Commission, a detail I seem to have missed until now, ¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  

The eleven remaining followers of Jesus (Judas the betrayer already gone) follow him up the mountain, knowing this is going to be significant. They can feel it in the air and in their bones; “but some doubted.” In all the sermons I have listened to - or preached for that matter - the realism of this pre-ascension doubt has never occurred to me. These disciples were real people, not merely a row of former fishermen following a leader in blind obedience! 😂 They were a cast of unique individuals who had been called to follow, and they came each from their unique circumstances and naturally each one would absorb this reality of a resurrected Jesus at different speed! Matthew, Jewish writer of this gospel, does not ignore that. In this feisty group of eleven there were still several who had lingering doubts, even with the resurrected Jesus standing in front of them. 

These genuine seekers are the protagonists, the main characters of the rest of the New Testament – chapters and chapters of epistles which describe the formation and early life of that new faith community. They are the ones who begin the church along with Apostle Paul, the dramatic latecomer (1 Cor. 15:8-9). Noteworthy to me is that the driving force of this new faith community is not an instruction manual of how to organize church, but rather a personable accounting of some very real people with real enthusiasm and also some apprehension of what they were about. As promised by Jesus before he died (John 16:7 and fully realized at Pentecost, Acts 2), this would be a work of the Holy Spirit.

I recently read a book, The Story of Christianity by David Bentley Hart (London: Quercus, 2009), one volume just over 300 pages, it provides an informative portrait (precis?) of Christian faith now moving into a third millennium. It has shaped the western world via edicts and popes and wars and struggles with secularism and predictions of demise and renewals, reading almost like a Dan Brown thriller. The irony and essence of Christianity, says this writer, is that it's not dead yet, and still growing! Although the ‘story’ as presented by Hart is replete with intriguing shape and form and institution, discouraging wars and pandemics (yes!), his conclusion is striking. Note his last sentence, “It may very well be the case that now, after 2000 years, the story of Christianity is still only beginning” (p.343). It is a life which will not; cannot die. Sounds like resurrection to me.

This is noteworthy. The essence of the Christian faith - God come among us – shows no evidence of disappearing. I'm not blaring with rah rahs about this, running victory laps, etc. but it is undeniable good news, very important! I recently heard a newly appointed executive to a Christian service agency referring to “the decline of Christianity” as though it was a given. That statement troubles me, not at all in keeping with Hart’s book and not in keeping with the Matthew 28 Great Commission just referred to. The waning of institutions is not the reality of Christian faith itself. If church and supporting institutions are but an expression of current interests and trends they may well decline and may disappear, but that will not be the end of Christianity. The presence of the eternal everlasting One will continue until that day fixed by God’s own authority.

During my years of pastoral ministry I would usually try to have a membership class going, for those interested in joining the church, or anyone interested in “Faith Exploration” as we called it. No class would ever pass by without a look at the word for church, coming from the Greek ekklesia, meaning a political assembly, or just plain gathering of people. Eventually ekklesia also came to mean congregation or group of believers. So, as explained in that class, ekklesia points to a whole range of gatherings: Jews gather for teaching in synagogues, Catholics gather around the Eucharist, Protestants to hear the proclaimed Word, and Anabaptists wherever two or three are gathered.   Usually there would also be some acknowledgement of others, including Indigenous and smudging, and Muslims gathering in mosques facing Mecca. Although grossly abbreviated and simplified here, my main point being that eternal almighty God is so much larger and beyond definition of any one of these. As Christians we are so privileged to have Jesus who lived and taught not threatened by death and misunderstanding and so fully resurrected and available in so many different cultures. “Go and make disciples.”

Admittedly I think like a pioneer; not as a maintenance man. Even now from my retirement vantage no longer preaching sermons I am excited to have discovered this, another little Bible gem. Not only doubting Thomas, but doubters and keeners, those disciples got ‘er done by Holy Spirit power. This is not strategy nor job description; it's faith discovery! These days I regularly discover new opportunities to speak of Jesus, ironically not so much with fellow believers, but to those who are interested in my ‘take’ on him, whatever religion or non-religion they espouse. Consequently, my faith and gratitude in Jesus is still a growing and a discovering thing, and me not at all worried about institutional impact - or job security! 

The last book of the Bible is probably a slight corrective to my thesis that the institution of church can fall by the wayside. Yes, the church seems to be still there; I stand corrected, 😑 but there is a lot of critique (eg Revelation 2 and 3). Obviously it is not the church with perfect theology or perfect organizational structure or timely maintenance that survives to the end.  Most certainly it is not a building! It is the bride of Christ.

¹⁷ The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. (Revelation 22:17)

I’m guessing that invitation has no skin-color or denominational conditionals.