The Boiler Plate
During this first weeks of Sabbatical, I’m spending time reflecting on the growing places within the church. In May 2023, Convergence (formerly the Center for Progressive Renewal) hosted a summit of ten Progressive Christian Magi, asking each to respond to the question:
“Can the Church Change?”
These are my reflections on the summit sessions. I give thanks to Spirit-guidance, and the squirrel-thoughts and butterfly-flights that caused me to pause and write, and pause and seek, and pause and ponder. And I trust that the Spirit will do the same for you as you have time and desire to share in the Summit.
I’ll also offer a “And So…” section at the end of each reflection titled Enter/Depart. It will look to connect the five Sabbatical themes to the reflection.
I think it’s important to understand how we embrace change and embody our growth as people of faith. Change is, by its nature, disruptive and cause fear and doubt to rise in us. Change is also, as Heraclitus noted, the only constant in the universe. The question that returned from our Magi is this:
As much as we have agency, what is it that we want the church to change into?
Today’s wisdom is shared by Brian D. McLaren, author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A word of thanks to Cameron Trimble for her interlocution in the summit: great questions, and wise insights through the conversations.
Brian McLaren
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. You can learn more about Brian’s work at his website, brianmclaren.net.
Brian’s answer to the core question, “Can the church change?” was this:
It is always happening. The question really is “Can we change for the better?”
And he challenges us against resisting change:
The very act of resisting change changes the person who’s doing the resisting. So the very act of resisting change brings change.
Can the Church Change: The Fear
I love that the first topic that Brian jumped on is “change resistance / change adverseness.”
Even in forward-thinking program-driven churches get stuck here. Being “progressive” can be just as limiting as other core identities. I recall one church I worked with that held such a high ownership of their “progressive” role in the local community in the 1950s. Now in the 2000s, they could not see that their progressivism had become “protectivism.”
Brian’s shares the idea that “many churches will change by being ever-more resistant to change” starts the slope. They will survive in smaller and smaller numbers, attracting a certain kind of people. Ultimately, it becomes a self-fulfilling loop: We are who we are because we refuse to change. And fear of any change begins to spiral into more embarrassing, violent, and desperate circles.
When you act in fear, that tends to bring out the uglier side. And you can expect ugly, ugly, ugly forms of Christianity to become uglier.
Brian McLaren
From those circles, as the center of gravity shifts to ever-worst, Brian sees hope that “people will defect.” They will say, “I’m ready to risk. I don’t have much to lose at this point.” And from that hope and healing, more beautiful forms of Christian faith will emerge.
I appreciate Brian’s identifying two big drivers of change resistance in the church. The first is a theology: a “changelessness” that drives to infallibility in the organization (the church) and inerrancy in the founding principles (the Bible). The second is economy: the power of money to drive the organization outside of its mission. He reminds us:
“No one can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
Matthew 6:24 NRSV-UE
Both Cameron and Brian note the mathematics of “Whiteness” within these two drivers. White Privilege + Embedded Patriarchy + Capitalism = the history of the Christian church. The existing structures are deeply compromised by these connections, and disengagement will be real change. But, Brian noted:
The church may be a long-shot in picking that baton up, but it’s not easy to think of any other organization that has greater potential to do it.
It’s on this, and the later part of the conversation that I want to spend time on: The Future
Can the Church Change: The Future
During the calling process to St. John UCC, one of the members asked me, “If there was one thing we could do to grow the church, what would it be?”
My answer: Focus on the needs of families with younger children. Be the place that parents can find support and love.
At the 20 minute mark of the conversation, Brian starts a five-minute riff on that it would be like if the church could be the place “to help young parents to do a great job in facing the challenging decade and century ahead.” My heart was more than strangely warmed.
My smile grew and grew as Brian described the dream for this mission:
- A place where children could become the most loving version of themselves; and
- could learn how to love themselves apropriately; and
- love their family members; and
- love their friends and neighbors; and
- love the people in their community, and strangers, and aliens, and outsiders, and enemies; and
- the earth; and
- God, as God is the love that loves all things.
Can the existing church be a place for this? In my heart, I say, “Maybe.” But it’s going to mean setting aside assumptions, retooling our skills and refocusing our engagement, and yes, changing our attitude about assets. It also means keeping our mission focused “outside,” and leveraging every asset that we have to be extravagantly welcoming. That’s a big ask, but “it’s not easy to think of any other organization…” than a congregation like St. John UCC who could do it. Of this I have faith.
Enter / Depart
Follow this link to look back on the five Sabbatical Themes
Brian ended his session with a quote from Wendell Berry:
“It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.
Our Real Work, © 1983, from Standing by Words. Counterpoint.
This session left me in wonder-filled deep discernment, in dreaming. Those with whom I worship and minister with regularly know my love for Gil Rendle and Alice Mann’s three questions from Holy Conversations:
- Who are we?
- What has God called us to do or be?
- Who is our neighbor?
I am still in that dreaming. Center to that dream is the question, “If we leveraged ever possible asset to __________ (fill in the blank), what changes would we need to make? What parts of our heritage would we need to retain, and what parts need to go? To discern with our theology, what parts need to decrease, so that God’s love may increase in our living our faith out loud?
Is our call to embrace and expand into the sacred arts and music? Are we called to be the nurturing place for children and youth? What about our caring for the earth and all of God’s creation? What will we discern in our “Blank Space?”
Yes, today’s reflections created some ideas. I’ll have them ready to share when we regather at the end of the Sabbatical. And I’m sure you’ll have some to share, too. I can already see the rainbow of Post-Its on the wall!
Keep dreaming, and discerning, and listening for God’s still-speaking voice!
-HEF
Note: The Can the Church Change? Summit hosted by Convergence took place over the week of May 22-26, 2023. The sessions are available for viewing through subscription at https://convergencesummit.online/can_the_church_change/
