N. T. Wright on the Church
“I use the word ‘church’ here with a somewhat heavy heart. I know that for many of my readers that very word will carry the overtones of large, dark buildings, pompous religious pronouncements, false solemnity, and rank hypocrisy. But there is no easy alternative. I, too, feel the weight of that negative image. I battle with it professionally all the time.
“But there is another side to it, a side which shows all the signs of the wind and fire, of the bird brooding over the waters and bringing new life. For many, ‘church’ means just the opposite of that negative image. It’s a place of welcome and laughter, of healing and hope, of friends and family and justice and new life. It’s where the homeless drop in for a bowl of soup and the elderly stop by for a chat. It’s where one group is working to help drug addicts and another is campaigning for global justice. It’s where you’ll find people learning to pray, coming to faith, struggling with temptation, finding new purpose, and getting in touch with a new power to carry that purpose out. It’s where people bring their own small faith and discover, in getting together with others to worship the one true God, that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. No church is like this all the time. But a remarkable number of churches are partly like that for quite a lot of time.”
from Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense
That’s the irony, isn’t it? We all have our frustrations with the church. Most have been burned at one time or another by someone acting unchristianly “in the name of Christ.” We’ve hated the shallowness, the meanness, the legalism, the disappointments.
And yet . . . the church is also a force of great transformation. It’s a place where the greatest story of life is faithfully proclaimed and lived. It’s where grace and forgiveness can be learned. It’s a place with hope amid death, joy amid defeat, and meaning amid confusion. It’s the older men and women we’ve known who exude compassion; it’s the young women and men with dreams of justice and mercy; it’s the children learning to sing “Our God Is an Awesome God.”
Good words by NT.
I just started reading NT Wright this past summer. The Last Word is a fantastic book. Right now, I’m reading his book on Paul.
I really don’t have frustrations or negative thoughts about The Church. It is after all the Bride of Christ. What I often have frustrations with is our particular brotherhood. It seems that we are sometimes a great influence on the church for love and unity and on our wost days we are selfish, petty and divisive. It has always puzzled me how a denomination built on the idea of unity could be so divisive.
That’s been my experience. The best and the worst and lots of stuff in between. Church, in the best sense of the word, is where “I heard the song and strove to join.” And what would I have, who would I be, without that?
Amen, Mike. Amen. When I’m hugging people at small group on Sunday night, or listening to a passionate discussion in Bible class, or holding baby Brynn Reese, or looking out over the Highland auditorium and helping lead people in worship, that is church. We are church. And I keep coming back and back and back because it’s changed my life. It’s family as it should be.
Thanks Mike – and that’s what compounds the frustration. Very few people I speak to regularly are looking for the “perfect” church, but they are looking for a church not on life support (in some cases literally – there are many churches with 10 funerals for every one birth announcement).
“If we could just do a little of what_____ church is doing” is a common thread I hear alot, or “if we would just implement 10% of what is suggested here we’d really be doing well”, or “if only a couple of our elders would open up and read this book, or go with us to this event” etc. etc. It’s beyond frustrating. So, the question is – how many churches look like the one described by Wright? 2%?, maybe 8% if we’re being generous?
I do share an optimism with others when I see what our younger generation is doing, and I do think many want to remain in our “church”, but so, so many have moved on. The numbers don’t lie – they have moved on.
Once upon time there was a small church of Chirst that had a small summer camp. This church wasn’t perfect and didn’t grow much and is still the same size it was 30 years ago. The camp wasn’t all that great either. No pool, horses, lake…small wood rustic cabins with no AC.
One year a deacon from that church invited one of his son’s friends to a church camp. Actually, he told the friend that if he won the game (he was pitching on the son’s team for the city little league championship) he (the deacon) would pay for him (the friend) to go to camp. So the kid pitched good and the deacon sent him to camp.
At camp the boy heard about God and raised hell and chased the girls. He also sang the song, “Father Abraham” and his favorite part was the line, “and I am one of them”
Last Sunday the boy (now in ministry for 20 years) preached on Matthew 6:5-15 and told his church that God is our Father and he wants to be close to us.
I thank God for the church.
In reading your excerpt and thinking about what you say this morning, Mike, my thoughts immediately went to a graphic reminder to me of what this is all about.
One week ago today on my blog (Oct. 11) I posted a “travelogue” sort of post about coming home from vacation in New Mexico and near-death experience in ICU in a hospital in Colorado, and posted a couple of photos from a small southeast Arkansas town (population 3,733) where Tom had lived as a boy for two or three years. We’re talking about mid-1950s
One picture was of the tile on the concrete where the old tiny movie theater had been that his uncle ran. The other photo was of the vibrant, well-manicured First Baptist Church that looks picture perfect still today. It was the church in which Tom was baptized.
I was very struck, and asked my readers to think about it and comment, by the fact that he spent a lot of time both places, one temporal, the other eternal, and which one is still living and moving forward today. The church is, not the movie theater. The church is.
P. S. I forgot to mention that hotspot of activity is Dermott, Arkansas. Anyone ever heard of it?
I told Tom there should be a historical monument placed there at the First Baptist Church in commemoration of his baptism. He was glad the church was still there and so was I. That’s why I took pictures.
It makes me sad that when some people hear the word church it has very bad associations for them. It can be such a wonderful thing, but unfortunately it doesn’t always work out that way.
Me, I’ve got a love/hate thing going with the church.
Quile said it all.
How many of us were impacted this way or impacted others this way?
Well, maybe not the bribing thing…
“…hope amid death..” A few weeks ago, a young man committed suicide. He was in his thirties and left a devastated wife and his young son behind. He and his family were a vital part of our church. He was also a leader in the community. I have been very proud and overwhelmed at the response of the church. People stood in line at the visitation for hours to give hugs and words of encouragement to the wife and family. Food poured in from all over. Support came from many corners for the family. None of that may seem remarkable given the circumstances. (I think many churches would have responded similarly) However, what was different was what was openly said in the pulpit. Suicide has historically been a taboo subject in the church, in which many not knowing what to say or how to think theologically, said nothing, leaving the survivors alone and labeled. Our minister and one of the shepherds spoke of the life of the husband and then spoke from Romans 8 about the idea that nothing can separate us from the love of God…including death! The family was loved again as they came forward asking for support for the days and weeks ahead. I know thay felt completely embraced by this church, and I think, because of the thoughtful and graceful words of our minister and shepherd, went away with a bigger concept of God than they had before. There will always be issues with the church, because it is made up of very fallible human beings , but sometimes it can be such a vessel of transformative healing.
Mike,
I just left a fairly lengthy response, and noticed it is “awaiting moderation” Did I break some rule? Could you check on that somehow?
When starting full time ministry my view of the church was perfect, a place of love, concern, harmony, and all that changed. Full time ministry gave me a different view and God opened my eyes to reality. I had to work with elderships who we authoritative and controlling and abusive. People who fussed and fought and gripped about any the smallest things. A place where the most vocal and financially influencial get their way. I have now come to understand that the church isn’t perfect. It won’t be until we are united with our groom.
I am thankful where God has taken me in my ministry I am at a place in my ministry now where God is doing great things. Where people are authentic, caring, compassionate (it doesn’t have elders either which might make a difference.
). I have freedom. It has become a place that was once laking in community to are true family of God and of love, acceptance and grace.
I believe church is a place where sinners come and find healing, forgiveness, acceptance, grace and experience a God who love them unconditionally. A God who desires that relationship. Church should be a pep-rally for Christians. Church should be a place where Christians come feeling better and more challeged before they came so they can live the Christian life better the rest of the week. I try to do that for my congregation. As a minister I am no longer ashamed of the gospel. I am no longer afriad of what other people are going to think, respond, act. I am going to continue preach Christ and Him crucified with relevance and concern for circumstances that Christians find themselves in today. I know I am going to do my part to make the church of 21st century a better image than it has had in the past.
I pray that God’s church will become a place in the 21st century that the world turn to and find Him.
Thanks Mike for this great post.
Quile, Thank God for that church.
“It’s where people bring their own small faith and discover, in getting together with others to worship the one true God, that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.”
I like that.
Being raised in a family of ministers (dad, grandpa, and great grandpa) and now married to one myself, you can imagine I’ve had some issues with church along the way!
I think John heard Andre Resner say once that we need to develop a “second naivete” in regards to how we view church and spiritual things. Wherever that idea came from I think it is so applicable to those of us idealists who think we know how things ought to be done all the time.
And looking at the church through a second naivete has shown me the incredible blessing of church. And how much I have taken for granted through the years being included in the body of Christ. That’s huge!
I love the Church – it is my international family. Wherever I happen to land, God’s Church is there to welcome me into that particular arm/leg/whatever of His Body. Jesus said He would build it, He considers the Church His bride which awakens love and excitment in my heart. In spite of our efforts to bring her down, she survives and thrives in ever changing forms, but she survives and I’m part of the LORD’s bride and body. Hallelujah!
“…hope amid death..” A few weeks ago a young man took his own life. He was in his thirties and left a devastated wife and one young toddler son behind. He and his family were a vital part of our church. He was also a leader in the community. I have been very proud and overwhelmed at the response of our church body. People stood in line for hours at the visitation to give hugs and words of encouragement. Food poured in from everywhere. Support came in many different ways from many corners. None of that is necessarily remarkable in that I believe that most any church community would have done the same thing given the circumstances. However, what I think was remarkably different was how the leadership handled the subject of suicide from the pulpit and how the family was incredibly embraced by this church family. One of the shepherds got up in the pulpit and spoke from Romans 8 about how nothing can separate us from the love of God..including death! i had never heard that in that context. I realize that is contorversial to some and perhaps even sacreligious to others. But, we don’t know how God will judge, and our own church history of dealing with suicide has been very harsh and judgmental. There was a tremendous message of grace, and that public stand has allowed this church to fully embrace the family. There are lots of problems with the church, but I believe in this instance, the church has and will continue to be a wonderfully transformative healing experience for this family. There will certanly be tough times for this family, but this church body is shouldering the burden with them. Thank God for this church family.
Greg,
How wonderful that you are blessed to be at such a congregation. God is definately gloried.
Your congregation is the example of how churches should respond to such crisis.
I was a youth minister at a congregation and one of the teens in the youth group committed suicide. Of course I rushed to the high school to the high school to councel the teenagers. After school the teens met over at our house for counceling, prayer and support. Not one elder called to see how the teens were doing and that the elders were praying. Not one elder asked if they could come by and pray with the youth group. Not one elder come in the class to consult or pray for the teenagers. Not one elder at the funeral or afterward had any concern at all had concern for me and my wife, no thanks for prayer, counceling, support, encouragement, at all. Instead they played the blame game. “We had a youth minister”, “Why did something like this happen when we had a youth minister.” It was the progressive congregation from the other side of town, that our eldership had labeled and rejected, that came by and brought food for our teenagers, who prayed with our teenagers. It was the ministry staff at the other church who offered their support. And eldership at the other church who came by and visited, praying with our youth group and teens. Offering help and encouragement.
So your congregation should be an example for us all. Again I know that God is definately glorified by how your eldership has responded and how the church has been such a support and blessing to those who have needed it. Greg, thank you for sharing your message that church can shoulder the burden. Praise God.
Noel Whitlock at the College Church in Searcy had a wonderful lesson a few weeks ago about the church. He brought the song leader up to the front and talked about how great a song-leader, minister, guy in general he was. He then proceeded to bad-mouth the guy’s wife with insults like “she always asks you for $ and you keep giving it to her and she just keeps asking” and “she is so needy and I just don’t like her” obviously the songleader was offended. His point was that the church is Christ’s bride. How much more sensitive is he to something he died for. It was a much needed lesson for me.
Mike, what a great book Simply Christian is! Tom Wright is really able to put things into perspective for our church today. I’m glad I’m not the only Church of Christ-er that reads and listens to this Anglican Bishop!
The church is so much more than what we allow it to be. It is Christ’s bride, meant to shine God’s light on the world. Thanks Mike, for your insightful thoughts each day, and I really loved your messages at Zoe this year. BTW, who does your videos for the “Mike Cope Sings” series. It is AWESOME!
I don’t know if I’ll be able to express this well but here goes. In the church, I have been semi-disfellowshipped for a differing belief, (yeah, not scriptural, I know), I have seen hard liners abuse people right and left, and I have seen amazing hypocrisy and unkindness and heard a man stand up in church and say that everyone in church at that moment on the street that our church was on was going to hell but us. I have seen the worst of abuses from the most hard-nosed people. I have heard many people say that they would feel more uncomfortable missing church than having pre-marital sex. I have had an ongoing battle with staying in it, frankly. (Although never once have I wanted to drop Jesus Christ.) All this is to say that I finally learned that church just isn’t that group of people that I hang around with. Those people are just a small part of “church.” The church is a huge UNIVERSAL thing encompassing some precious soul in Kenya or someone in Bangkok; it’s the grown mustard seed; a “secret society” (C.S. Lewis); it’s my life hidden in Christ’s (Col. 3). We shouldn’t even think of it in terms of that group of people that we meet with – that’s far too narrow. We need to remember that the word “church” is not even used in the New Testament. It’s that King James usage of it that has restricted us to our narrow thinking of it. Once I finally realized the universality of it, I was able to shed some of its local, dictatorial power over me.
Somebody pointed out in an earlier comment that a lot of younger people have left the church. This isn’t a problem just with churches of Christ. Someone also said they really had no negatives about the church, just frustrations with our particular brotherhood. I have a feeling that a lot of the frustrations you feel with our particular brotherhood are felt by a lot of people in other groups. We have a lot of different practices and a lot of different theological ideas when compared to a lot of the “Christian world,” but I don’t think the problems our brotherhood is facing are unique. I think a lot of non-believers and unchurched people think of the church in general the way members of the churches of Christ think about a lot of the history (and even present) of our brotherhood.
I think if the church is going to be the church, we must honestly address the issue of community–I think one of the main reasons younger people leave the church is that the church makes a show of being a community or offers platitudes about being a family, but we are in reality neither. If we are to truly be community, then a man must experience more companionship with the church on Sunday than he does at the bar. As long as people find more, deeper, and truer bonds outside of the fellowship of the church, we aren’t a community. As long as the church’s importance in a person’s social life is easy to replace or is confined to the few hours of the relatively impersonal assemblies during the week, how can we ever be a community? Why is it that the relationships I form with the 15 or 20 people that I study the Bible with in someone’s home on a Wednesday night are so much more meaningful and deep than those that I’ve ever formed in a church building?
I don’t think the young leave the church because they don’t like Jesus, or because they think that the church is incorrigibly legalistic; I think the church just ends up not being a very meaningful part of their social lives.
When did the word community become such a buzzword?
Not that the church shouldn’t be community, but I have run across the word more in the last few weeks than my entire life.
If we could get past worrying about what it is or isn’t and just be what it should be, we would be better off.
Chris,
I don’t see the word community as a buzzword but a word that should define how God sees and wants his church to function.
preacherman, I agree.
I was gonna say “the first century”
preacherman,
community is a real factor for us youth who are leaving the “church,” but the issue runs much deeper than that…
you see, we are searching for christianity that is a way of life, if you will, not just a weekly, one hour, 8 song, 20 minute lesson, pass the plate and hallelujah we beat the crowd to denny’s type of religion. we are looking for a place where we can ask honest questions and not be given simplistic, illogical answers. we want permission to doubt, but reminders to remain in the struggle. we want to question the status quo but revive tradition. we want to hear God, not hear others who claim to speak for him. we want to dialogue about how we see things differently without our perception being cast aside on account of our youth. we want to change the world, not build an 8 million dollar building with surround sound and a imax screen. we want engage the poor on a deeper level than slopping mashed potatoes on their plate at a mass feeding. we want radical orthodoxy, faith that moves mountains, love that changes the lives around us, and a community where these passions can be a reality.
Amen, kelly.
Kelly,
Yes. That is how I see our generation and community that it desires. I desire it as a minister more than anything. I believe the church has focused to much on the wrong things: form, worship style, what color carpet, etc…, has had the wrong attitude towards each other and undstanding of what church and Christianity is all about. I believe they have focused to much on form and not on function. It is the function of the church that changed lives in 1st century and it is how we function today in the 21st century that is going to make a difference in this world. I totally agree. I hope in the future the church can and will be that kind of community but I think it is going to start with our generation. You said it great. Thanks.
My, what a great discussion! Our ideas about the “church” are shaped by our past and present experiences, and hopefully what we find on the pages of the Book of God. I believe there are some valid reasons there is so much turmoil and frustration in many of our congregations.
1. It seems that most people believe that the churches of Christ (Or the total of all coC’s) are the same as the universal body of Christ. Not true! Our local congregations are made up of saved and lost people. Broadly speaking, those who are depending on Jesus are saved and those who are depending on church attendence and baptism are not likely saved. God is not obliged to save everyone we immerse.
2. We seem to believe that if we have great worship, nice buildings, and superhuman youth ministers, etc. that sinners will be attracted to us and become believers. Some of that might happen but it is not supported by the Bible or history.
3. Our history of outreach has been largely “corrective”, not redemptive. Our energies have been focused on how “right” we are and how wrong everyone else is. We have preached the church of Christ more than we have preached Christ, baptism more than repentence and faith, and a cappella more than almost any important Christian doctrine, and now in 2006 we are shocked that we are becoming marginal.
Christ is still the only way to heaven. God is still calling sinners to Himself by means of the good news about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus on our behalf. In the end we will not be judged by what church we attended or by what we know, we will be judged on, and by, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The model in the 1st century was to go after sinners where they are with love in the heart and good news on the lips of those who go. The plan has not changed. Technology has changed, buildings are now the norm (and not bad), but the model and method for reaching folks for the Kingdom is now and will be until He comes, Go and tell.
God bless the church.
Grace and Peace,
Royce Ogle
The sect/cult which calls itself “the Church of Christ” is inundated with with a severe fecality of envy.pride,greed.lust.sloth,anger, and whatever the 7th deadly sin is.
The worst day of life was when I met up with the COC sect in 1965 and the best day was when I left in 1971. Those were 6 years of sectarian hell, and I was brainwashed for a while to be as sectarian as the rest. Thank God I left.
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