Who is Out of Touch?

Introduction

I should note that all of my musings below about a “Plan” are about the plan I set forth in my last blog (“Follow Jesus and…Kill the Zombies and Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing”, August 31), a plan to renew and reboot the church denomination of which I am a member and in which I served as an Active Roster Pastor for over 39 years and now serve as a Retired Roster Pastor. This church is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. I’m thinking that my plan, however, is applicable to more than just my Church. I encourage you to read the Plan first, then my comments below.

On the Plan

There are those who will certainly consider this Plan at best naïve and at worst counterproductive because in some, perhaps many, ways it does not march to the beat of those with political and economic power in our church. What is the beat? Listen to its drumming: budgets, job security, constitutions, facilities management, pensions, community and cultural prominence, and more.

These will say this Plan is out of touch with “reality.” But our church has struggled within the boundaries of this “reality” for years now, all the time trying to be relevant and renewed, only to be found by so many outside the church as irrelevant and by the commonly accepted metrics of success, membership and money, decidedly declining.  How has this “being real” advanced the church’s witness to the Gospel?

Is there another reality of being church that is just as real and could be in fact even more real in that it gives the Gospel access to us that uncovers and exposes our allegiances to (and making idols of) power and control?

 In facing the deification of the State and Market and the collapse of the Church, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote of how the way forward for the faithful to Christ was two-fold: Prayer and Action.  “Prayer” meant what Bonhoeffer called the “arcane discipline” of bible and sacraments (including community of believers) and “Action” meant any work on behalf of our neighbor’s concerns (and not our own). What I am suggesting in this “Reboot/Renew” Plan for the ELCA is that we will not be able to resist the evil in our world and our captivity and complicity with that evil unless we lay ourselves bare before God through this “arcane discipline.” And, not to be missed in this proposed Plan, we must all do this together (all expressions of the ELCA) lest we fall prey to isolation and competition.

The Plan too, it will be noticed, is decidedly not top-down directed and thus not consultative or authoritarian in nature. Each entity, congregation and otherwise, will develop and decide its future based on its own deliberations with God and each other. They will not have a model or strategy imposed on them. In these days where there is significant suspicion of experts who claim to know what’s best for others, this Plan empowers the congregations themselves to examine the data while simultaneously listening intently to the Holy Spirit. Then, when such examination and listening is done, take responsibility and risk to step into their future.

 There are costs to be expected. Many church members will not be interested in investing time and energy into bible study and discussion or serving in their community by volunteering. Many will bemoan the fact that the reason they support and attend church activities is because it provides programs for seniors, children, and families and that all this programming is being suspended as the focus turns to “Prayer” and “Action.” Many will leave the church because it doesn’t serve their desires or needs anymore.

 But the benefits will far outweigh the costs: the church will be invigorated by the grassroots attention to the biblical narrative and the freshness of being able to discuss faith questions without judgment or fear. The church will be invigorated by the changes in life that happen when Baptisms occur that are not culturally necessitated but rather faithfully called for. The church will be invigorated by how the Table (Eucharist) is set for and includes all genders, races, classes and all other identities because it names only one identity: the body of Christ. The church will be invigorated by the feelings of satisfaction and peace as well as community friendships established by all the volunteering to help those in need.

 So, the Plan will likely be dismissed because it is out of touch with “reality.” My question: what “reality” is it that the church wants? If the preferred future is Christ-centered for the sake of the world, how is our current “reality” helping us get there? What about trying a different Plan?