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 two of the summit’s wise ones: Japhet Ndhlovu and Miguel A. De La Torre. A word of thanks to Cameron Trimble and Jim Keat for their dialogue and guiding questions!
The Wise Ones
Rev. Dr. Japhet Ndhlovu
The Rev. Dr. Japhet Ndhlovu is an admittand from the Reformed Church in Zambia, recently served The United Church of Canada / L’Église Unie du Canada as a member of the Global Partnership Program Team in the Church in Partnership cluster of the Church in Mission Unit, as the Regional Program Coordinator for Southern Africa & South Asia (Philippines and India).
Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre
Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre is an international scholar, documentarian, novelist, academic author, and scholar activist. His academic field is social ethics within contemporary U.S. thought, specifically how religion affects race, class, and gender oppression. He presently serves as Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver. A prolific author, you can read more about him at drmigueldelatorre.com.
Both wise ones speak from a position of prohetic witness from their cultures. They each sharedThe question, “Can the church change?” received two very divergent answers from these two passionate people.
Miguel said simply:
“Can the church change and become more justice based? Then I’m quite Hopeless.”
Japhet’s answer was more nuanced:
“The church is changing, but in each part of the world it is different.”
To the former, I said, “Wow. That is the first perspective that said, “No.” I need to know more, and understand his candor.
To the latter, he continued that in the Northern/Western church, the focus is on decline and death. In the Southern church, living beyond the effects of colonization, the focus is on love and transformation. Again, I need to know more: choosing love over decline, and transformation over death.
This reflection will be a bit different from the others. It took me a couple of days to prayerfully digest and reflect on the two pillars. And some more time to witness to God’s still-speaking voice.
Can the Church Change: Hopelessness, Decline and Death
To change for the better, means the church must crucify itself. It must crucify its sin of whiteness; its sin of classicism; its sin of racism; its sin of homophobia.
Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre
Paraphrasing Miguel’s thoughts: If the church’s calling is for justice (a belief that I hold as true), it will more likely be despised. If the church is found challenging the systems of power and oppression in their community, they’re going to get negative pushback.
If the church’s understanding of its mission allows the church to “be the church at rest,” I think it’s fair to ask how God’s transformative Spirit is preached there. Allowing the sins of power and privilege to control the dialogue takes us back to Matthew 4’s indictment of the temptations: abuse of power, safety of privilege, and seeking personal glory. And those take us back to the issues of heresy, and blasphemy, and idolatry (the foci of my reflection on Diana Butler Bass’ summit session).
Can the Church Change: Desperation, love, and transformation.
Discipleship… It’s costly.
Rev. Dr. Japhet Ndhlovu
To be able to have this belief, it’s the faith that inspires me to be involved in seeking justice. It’s the faith that inspires me to seek transformation-to seek change…
We have to make very serious decisions to lift up our heads and say, “I believe.”
This is where Japhet’s belief of living a “life before death” takes over. It’s not a heaven-on-their-minds moment (Thanks Jesus Christ Superstar!). He says this need requires the prophets of today to “seek life now.”
The hymn calls to us: “We are God’s house of living stones…” even when temples are falling. Centering our thoughts, prayers, actions and advocacy around a triune love–love for the divine, Love for God, and Love for the church (God’s people)–forces that serious decision to say “I believe” and then live out the convictions that define that belief.
Enter / Depart
Follow this link to look back on the five Sabbatical Themes
Both Miguel and Japhet challenge us to live beyond ourselves—beyond our places for safety—and to be open to the Spirit’s witness of how others encounter the world.
This is where our Community inspires our Action.
Several years ago, our SEL-based youth outreach program was encouraged to apply for youth diversion grant to enhance its impact. The application was read by a local elected official, who responded, “Oh, it’s that church…”, dismissing the impact of the program because of the witness of the faith community that housed it.
Our members heard about this new moniker for our faith community, and embraced its impact. “What would it like to be that church?” they asked. Their communal convictions spelled out their answers:
- Embracing the call for creation justice as the first 100% self-generated solar-powered faith community in Illinois, and not stopping there.
- Accepting the challenge of striving to end homelessness; confront the issues of safety and blight affecting lower-income homeowners; and help people find simple, decent place to call home.
- Creating a safe place where youth who need to ask questions of identity, and relationship, and emotions, and mental health can do so in safety.
- Opening the church campus to partnerships that enhance technical education with high school youth; and provide before- and after-school care to families with younger children.
And they lifted up our two ongoing justice commitments:
- Our extravagant and inclusive welcome as an Open and Affirming (ONA) Congregation; and
- Our continued commitment as a Racial Justice Congregation.
This mission “to be that church” is love-sharing, hope-transforming movement of the Spirit. And I know we will keep listening to God’s still-speaking word, living these commitments into our growing future.
-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/
