The Gospel of John, as we have explored, is significantly different from the other three Gospels. In some ways it is the most poetic and it takes great care with the flow. Last week we heard Jesus’ implore us to abide in him, using images of the vine and fruit. This week, we build on that passage. All of these come toward the end of the book and are grounded in Jesus’ farewell and so we hear these words in that context of Jesus trying to make sure that those who will carry on his work continue to be grounded in his message of love.
Even before I started serving in my first call, I knew that what was waiting for me in the life of the church had very little resemblance to the church of my parents or grandparents. Seminary conversations were often heavy with a somber tone about the rate of decline in churches across the country and how we were and were not being equipped to lead in a time such as the one in which we find ourselves. The life of the Christian church in this country has experienced nothing less than a seismic shift and there is no going back.
Long ago in a galaxy far away the Christian church was the heart of life in every town across the country. It was assumed that each and every family went to church- the same students who went to school together, were in youth group together, did confirmation together and went on mission trips together. The local business man could not even think of being successful if he wasn’t a member of a church at the very least and at best served faithfully on the Board of Deacons. Clergy were invited to pray on the Town Hall lawn and at civic meetings and were granted authority in the community simply by virtue of their profession. The weekly sermons were just as much a part of the conversation as what appeared in the newspaper, which of course everyone read. The Christian Church and American civic life were so closely interwoven that it might have been difficult to separate one from the other. Our government, our schools, our churches and all other institutions worked together with the supposed goal of making us good citizens, and this seemed like a good thing at the time. In fact, some of us miss this time and still long for a return to this era that has long gone by. It was a time of course when American Churches reigned and it seemed as if we were in charge. Religious and civic life flowed together with so much ease that the downside of such an arrangement might not have been evident at the time. The slippery slope that comes with walking too close to the Empire led us to a place where the Gospel of Jesus Christ could easily be reduced to something like good advice instead of a wildly different path from the one set forth by the wider culture.
But the truth is that the marriage between American culture and Christianity wasn’t profound, rather it was one of convenience. The culture’s accommodation of Christianity was found to be weak, lulling us into the false idea that the world would somehow do our work for us. “When the culture at large tipped its hat to religion, we in turn became complacent enough to assume that the job of shaping Christians would be done in the world, rather than the church.” And of course this was not so. At its heart, the Gospel is at odds with the wider culture so it is no surprise that such a relationship could not last and would not produce much fruit. There are so many ways in which the message of the Christian Church is radically different from the world around us, which might be part of the reason that we have seen so much decline in this country in the last fifty years. Once the separation between the Church and the culture began to emerge, it became clearer and clearer that following Jesus might often lead us to stand in stark contrast to the message of the culture.
A new Pew Research study released last month showed that the group that has grown the most in recent years is those who no longer identify with any church at all. The study shows that two-thirds of former Catholics who have become unaffiliated and half of former Protestants who have become unaffiliated say they left their childhood faith because they stopped believing in its teachings, and roughly four-in-ten say they became unaffiliated because they do not believe in God or the teachings of most religions. Further, the study contends that many people who left a religion to become unaffiliated say they did so in part because they think of religious people as hypocritical or judgmental, because religious organizations focus too much on rules or because religious leaders are too focused on power and money. The life of the Christian church in this country has experienced nothing less than a seismic shift and there is no going back.
But, unlike many of my fellow clergy I am do not recite this tale in a spirit of lament. I find such yearning for “the church that was” to miss the point entirely. I read this Pew Research study and I recall the conversations I have had with countless people who no longer have a spiritual home and I believe that we stand on a precipice moment. The Christian Church and our church could become irrelevant. It is happening all around us. The Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ closed nearly one hundred churches in the past few years. And many of these churches went down slowly thinking that they simply had to do what they had always done, only better.
In the past years, we have seen growth in worship here and we have felt God’s Spirit working through us and in us. And yet, I find myself wondering if we are willing to become that which God is calling us to be. Those of us, who are a part of a Christian Church now, are those who have rarely been away from the church. We tend to love the old hymns, love the stories of our faith, like Noah and the flood, Jonah and the whale, Jesus welcoming the children. We tend to be rule followers and people who appreciate tradition, but the irony is that we need to be the ones with courage, the ones willing to take a leap of faith, to step out and risk losing what we have to find what it means to be the church in this time, at this moment, in this place. Throughout the Gospels Jesus says again and again in different ways, “you have what you need to do what I have asked.” And today he says, “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” I struggle with the idea that complete joy involves risk. I wince at the notion that God might be asking us to risk what we know to find complete joy in a place that is not yet our home. But what if that is our call?
It seems to me that the difference in part between where the church has been and where it could be going is about the joy that comes from being a disciple of Jesus Christ. The difference between where the church has been and where we could be going is about forming faithful hearts. So, what would it look like for us to move from a church of members to a place filled with joyful disciples? Let me share some of the differences. In the membership mindset, the congregation has low expectations of members because if we expect too much, people won’t join and if they do join, they won’t be around for long. In the discipleship mindset, there are high expectations because following Jesus requires prayer, worship, generosity, learning and service in Jesus’ name. In the membership mindset, the goal is to get and keep members to keep the budget from running a deficit, to keep the building maintained, to keep the church alive. In the discipleship mindset, the goal is to change hearts to change the world. The goal is to form disciples of Jesus Christ, where we are more eager for a growth in faith than a growth in the bottom line.
It probably won’t surprise you to learn that I don’t care much about adding people to our rolls so we can say that we have grown, I want to add disciples. I want to be a church full of disciples. I want to seek the complete joy that comes with following Jesus. And I think you do too. What would it look for us to focus on becoming disciples together? In the nearly two years since I began here, I have seen many of you pour your heart and soul into this place and I have often wondered why. I know for some of you it is because you want to make sure the work gets done or you want to do your duty or because it is what you have always done or you simply want to help keep the church going. For others of you, you don’t do much here because you don’t know where to start and are often left feeling like only a certain group does the stuff of church. But what if we scrapped all of that and focused on becoming disciples of Jesus Christ? After church today, each and every one of you, whether this is your church home or you are just beginning to journey with us, each and every one of you is invited to join us for a baby step forward as a church. We will be taking an inventory of our gifts together in the hope that not one of us will be asked to fill a slot, to serve on a committee just because we have an opening- that is the membership mindset, instead you will be called to become a disciple and invited into a ministry in this place because of the gifts that God has given you to serve in Christ’s name.
The life of the Christian church in this country has experienced nothing less than a seismic shift and there is no going back. We need to take up the job that was always ours to be begin with, and it is the work of becoming a community in which Christian lives can be formed- where our joy is made complete. Thanks be to God.
Martin B. Copenhaver in Good News in Exile: Three Pastors Offer a Hopeful Vision for the Church. (Eerdmans, 1999). 10
Throughout this report, analyses of the reasons respondents give for leaving their childhood faith and joining their current faith do not include those who say they changed religions as minors as a result of their parents' decision. See Q.2 and Q.15 in survey topline for details.
Faith in Flux, April 27th, 2009. http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1204/religion-changes-affiliations-survey