Behind the Post: Beyond the God-Box
Each week I write a column, actually more of a letter, to preachers. It’s usually on the Gospel reading appointed for the coming Sunday and often offers not just some perspective on the reading but a suggestion or two for how to involve the congregation more directly in the sermon. I won’t often comment on those pieces here – too much else to write about! – and I promise I’ll never simply repost those pieces, but I feel so strongly about the issue that animates this week’s letter that I wanted to touch briefly on it here and engage you in the conversation.
I’ll link the article here, but in case you don’t want to read the whole thing :), here’s the gist: we have somehow conveyed the idea that what matters most to God is going to church on Sundays. Further, we have absorbed the idea that to talk about “a Christian calling” is to talk about what we do in church (teaching Sunday School, singing in the choir, etc.) and speaking about “connecting faith and life” is actually about evangelism (something most of us don’t feel terribly competent to do in the first place).
So here’s my concern. While I obviously think there’s a lot to commend about going to church, singing in the choir, and sharing our faith, I’m really worried that we’re missing out on all that God is doing in and through our everyday roles at home, work, school, and all kinds of other places. As one of the preachers remarked in a comment on this week’s letter, when she asked her parishioners to bring in pictures of where God was active in their lives they didn’t bring in pictures from home and work but from church!
Again, I think church is great. But I believe strongly that church is not the destination; rather, the world God loves so much is the place we are called to live out our faith. Church, at its best, is the place that trains us to recognize God at work in the rest of our lives and prepares us to join God in that work.
So what do you think? Do you consider the things with which you spend most of your time worthy of God’s attention and the church’s? Does what you do day in and day out “count” as a call if it’s not in the church? And does your congregation invite you to come to church, or prepare you to leave? Finally, what would help you claim more arenas of your life as places where God is at work to love and bless this world?
Let me know and I promise I’ll share what I hear with today’s working preachers! 🙂
Hey Dr. Lose!
This rings true of many conversation in classes throughout my senior year there at Luther Seminary. One thing you said in this article which was helpful for me to think about how I’m doing ministry now in my first call was, “does your congregation invite you to come to church or prepare you to leave?”
One thing we’re hoping to do here next month is we’re having during the adult education hour a panel of adults talk about their vocations and how their faith is active in their daily lives. This is advertised as for the high school youth initially–hopefully a tool to help them as they consider their own vocations post-high school–but is also intended for the whole congregation. THEN, during the services we are going to have a vocation blessing. I’m still working on putting the blessing service together, but I’m imagining a series of petitions, hopefully touching on everyone’s careers and other areas of vocation, which uplift the work that people do as God’s work. I would then invite people to stand for all of the different vocations which they identify with. Examples: People who work in the field of medicine, People who work for the government, People who teach, People who are students, people who work in real estate, people who are parents, people who are children, people who are siblings, people who are friends, people who are social workers, etc.
Of course, I’ll admit this framework idea came from Rolf Jacobson and his idea…”what if we blessed the tax assessors around April 15th?”
I’m hoping its enlightening for our people here and gets them thinking!
David, thanks for all the posts in this series, and especially the WP site, which is excellent.
Today though I am resistant to your pitch on 3/6 (and this week’s web letter).
Of course we don’t want to propogate churchianity, and of course God is with us everywhere. But i see the NT emphasis is on church as Christ’s incarnational body in formation and reformation. Our failures at this don’t let us off the hook.
My take is that we are so highly at risk of becoming really biblically illiterate that we need to if anything over-play the church participation card (the church if course has to do its part and proclaim the word of God including the church incarnating the Word)…
The other difficulty with your theme is that we don’t (with few exceptions) do well at discerning the Word at work in the world — at least not without also getting a serious dose of Word in church.
I hear you always going for balance, but here in the Northeast, where I pastor three small struggling churches,I hear the emphasis in scripture and experience differently. Many of our parishioners are leaders in their small communities. Many do connect their lives w the gospel. (Not that we don’t all need to continually get better w this.)
Why not balance your good emphasis on following Jesus into the world with an equal emphasis on the NT letters focus on church and all its multiple roles in worship, teaching, proclamation, service etc?
thanks again for all your ministries,
Tim
Thanks for your response, Tim. I’m all for going to church, honestly!:) The difficulty, I think, is that church attendance – from the NT period through the Reformation and up to today – was never meant to be an end in itself. It was, as you rightly point out, meant to be the place where we could count on hearing the Word so as to better see and partner with God in the world. But somehow, at least in many quarters of the world (and I spent my first 35 years in the NE), attending church became the measure of being Christian rather than as a support to help us live as Christians in the world. It may be that we’re both trying to articulate something similar but with slightly different emphases; either way, I appreciate your engagement, dialogue, and faithful ministry!
Thanks David.
I know you’re for church, and you know i’m for going into the world too. I’m just looking for better ways to say it maybe. (As a methodist, I envy you Luther’s gift for one-liners!)
From Paul’s and John’s new creation language, maybe a better working draft would be something like — what matters is new creation in church and in the world. (Since we’re co-crucified together in my hearing of Gal 6… we’re also both called into newness of resurrection life together…)
anyways thanks again for engaging on this…
blessings, Tim