"Of all ages, nations and races...
Not too long ago someone joined our church and we returned to the liturgy for new members which reminds us that the church of Christ is open to "people of all ages, nations, and races." This simple statement recalls Paul's admonition that in Christ there is "neither male nor female, free nor slave, Jew nor Greek." We know (or should know) that these circumstances of birth matter not in the Kingdom. The trouble is, that in our daily lives churches do a rather poor job living out this part of our liturgy. Unfortunately, we segregate ourselves far too often in the church, walling off ourselves from others. This essentially makes the church all about me and people just like me.
A couple of months ago I read a blog post on a United Methodist outlet by a college student who was looking forward to being a delegate to our General Conference held last month. In this post he argued passionately that the future of the church was its youth. Everything from worship music to sermon illustrations should be catered to his generation because they were the future. Then a few days ago I read an article in Christianity Today lamenting the "juvenilization" of the American church. The truth is that the church does not exist for it's teens or twenty somethings, and it does not exist for its octogenarians. Dorothy Sayers made the point very saliently in her provocative book Creed or Chaos that it is as much a sin to refer to someone as old, dusty, or feeble, as it is to use terms like juvenile or inexperienced. A lot of this generational conflict stems from succumbing to to the temptation to think it is all about "me," "us," or "we." At times talk about "genuine" or "heart felt" or "passionate" worship is simple narcissism dressed up in churchy language. My worship is heartfelt, but other styles are contrived. What churches should strive to understand is that within the body of Christ there are roles for both the teens and twenty-somethings and for octogenarians. There is a role for the experience and the wisdom of the elders just as there is for youthful energy and enthusiasm. Neither is well suited for all purposes, but both are essential for some. Instead of segregating churches between old and young, they should do more to bring them together. Let Bible studies have a mix of ages, let Sunday School classes do likewise. How about finding a grandparent to be a youth counselor? Old needs young and young needs old.
"People of all nations" strikes us in the North American church in a tender spot. Historically we Americans have viewed ourselves (rightly or wrongly) as a Christian nation. Because we were a "Christian nation" our parents back in the late 1800s viewed it our responsibility to evangelize the rest of the world. The rest of the world was our mission field, the other continents needed us to teach them the faith, to teach them how to read and write, to feed them, and to clothe them. This missionary zeal was well-intentioned and accomplished much good. Because of it the faith was spread to every continent. Unfortunately, it had consequences that are long lasting. It is easy for us in America to send our teenagers to a third world country to nail shingles onto a roof or to paint a church. (As a practical matter they simply need our funding more than our labor in many instances.) More importantly, what lessons did we learn from this? We learned that they can't do for themselves, that they need us. The dirty little secret, however, is that Christianity is most vibrant in Africa and Asia, while America is described now as being "post-Christian." The church in America should be just as willing to sit at the table with our African or Asian brothers and learn from them as we are willing to put a coat of paint on one of their churches.
"Of all races..." Here in the Old South, as well as in other parts of the country, this is only just now becoming a reality, though it is still incomplete. For far too long the vision that the church is open to people of all races has not been nearly as much a reality as sad, regrettable, and sinful racism, where within the walls of so-called churches people have been treated as second class citizens or ostracized because of their race. 11:00 on Sunday has been called the most segregated hour in America. There is much truth in this because of the drive in the post Civil War years to establish churches where newly freed slaves would not have to worship beside their former owners. With one caveat, in my opinion there is nothing inherently wrong with churches that are predominantly of one race. That one huge caveat is that all races respect one another. Even within the New Testament there were churches that were mainly Gentile, just as the church in Jerusalem was mainly Jewish. If somewhat segregated churches are a reality, it is paramount that us "white folks" should understand that the African American church is just as much a part of the Kingdom of God as we are and vice versa. For this reason, opportunities for people of different races to worship together are invaluable. Here in worship we encounter the one purpose and Being and who truly unites us. Predominantly white churches can learn from the African American just as we can and should be willing to learn from churches that are Hispanic or Asian, etc.
The unifying theme for all of this is that the church belongs to Christ, and not to "us" whomever the "us" may be. It is not the playground of the immature nor the personal museum of the elderly. It should never confuse the advancement of the Kingdom of God with any agenda based upon nationality or race. Instead, the mission for the church, it's raison d'etre, is to make disciples, to make Jesus' great name be praised throughout the world beginning in our own backyards.
A couple of months ago I read a blog post on a United Methodist outlet by a college student who was looking forward to being a delegate to our General Conference held last month. In this post he argued passionately that the future of the church was its youth. Everything from worship music to sermon illustrations should be catered to his generation because they were the future. Then a few days ago I read an article in Christianity Today lamenting the "juvenilization" of the American church. The truth is that the church does not exist for it's teens or twenty somethings, and it does not exist for its octogenarians. Dorothy Sayers made the point very saliently in her provocative book Creed or Chaos that it is as much a sin to refer to someone as old, dusty, or feeble, as it is to use terms like juvenile or inexperienced. A lot of this generational conflict stems from succumbing to to the temptation to think it is all about "me," "us," or "we." At times talk about "genuine" or "heart felt" or "passionate" worship is simple narcissism dressed up in churchy language. My worship is heartfelt, but other styles are contrived. What churches should strive to understand is that within the body of Christ there are roles for both the teens and twenty-somethings and for octogenarians. There is a role for the experience and the wisdom of the elders just as there is for youthful energy and enthusiasm. Neither is well suited for all purposes, but both are essential for some. Instead of segregating churches between old and young, they should do more to bring them together. Let Bible studies have a mix of ages, let Sunday School classes do likewise. How about finding a grandparent to be a youth counselor? Old needs young and young needs old.
"People of all nations" strikes us in the North American church in a tender spot. Historically we Americans have viewed ourselves (rightly or wrongly) as a Christian nation. Because we were a "Christian nation" our parents back in the late 1800s viewed it our responsibility to evangelize the rest of the world. The rest of the world was our mission field, the other continents needed us to teach them the faith, to teach them how to read and write, to feed them, and to clothe them. This missionary zeal was well-intentioned and accomplished much good. Because of it the faith was spread to every continent. Unfortunately, it had consequences that are long lasting. It is easy for us in America to send our teenagers to a third world country to nail shingles onto a roof or to paint a church. (As a practical matter they simply need our funding more than our labor in many instances.) More importantly, what lessons did we learn from this? We learned that they can't do for themselves, that they need us. The dirty little secret, however, is that Christianity is most vibrant in Africa and Asia, while America is described now as being "post-Christian." The church in America should be just as willing to sit at the table with our African or Asian brothers and learn from them as we are willing to put a coat of paint on one of their churches.
"Of all races..." Here in the Old South, as well as in other parts of the country, this is only just now becoming a reality, though it is still incomplete. For far too long the vision that the church is open to people of all races has not been nearly as much a reality as sad, regrettable, and sinful racism, where within the walls of so-called churches people have been treated as second class citizens or ostracized because of their race. 11:00 on Sunday has been called the most segregated hour in America. There is much truth in this because of the drive in the post Civil War years to establish churches where newly freed slaves would not have to worship beside their former owners. With one caveat, in my opinion there is nothing inherently wrong with churches that are predominantly of one race. That one huge caveat is that all races respect one another. Even within the New Testament there were churches that were mainly Gentile, just as the church in Jerusalem was mainly Jewish. If somewhat segregated churches are a reality, it is paramount that us "white folks" should understand that the African American church is just as much a part of the Kingdom of God as we are and vice versa. For this reason, opportunities for people of different races to worship together are invaluable. Here in worship we encounter the one purpose and Being and who truly unites us. Predominantly white churches can learn from the African American just as we can and should be willing to learn from churches that are Hispanic or Asian, etc.
The unifying theme for all of this is that the church belongs to Christ, and not to "us" whomever the "us" may be. It is not the playground of the immature nor the personal museum of the elderly. It should never confuse the advancement of the Kingdom of God with any agenda based upon nationality or race. Instead, the mission for the church, it's raison d'etre, is to make disciples, to make Jesus' great name be praised throughout the world beginning in our own backyards.
Comments
Post a Comment