There is a constant question within the church about how to practice Christian community well. What does it mean to follow Jesus in this time and in this place? What does it mean to speak a word of God’s freedom in this culture and this moment in human history? The work of the church is a practice of discernment, always attending to the questions of where God is at work and where God is leading us. But often, and especially in a culture of consumption, we can move from that holy discernment into judgement, from acknowledging all God has done for us and into a story about our deficiency. We are not rich enough, educated enough, orthodox enough, progressive enough, to follow God rightly. But the truth is, we already have what we need.
Entire industries have been built upon the false narratives of deficiency, and the church is no exception. Three quarters of the books published about the church seem to be most interested in where we fall short. And while analysis and critique are important elements of this practice of discernment, it is also true that we’ve created a market place whose self-interest is in a deficient church. I mean, no one is going to buy my book or attend my training if I’m not perpetually highlighting the brokenness of the church and my responsibility to fix it.
But I don’t think this posture benefits anyone, except maybe publishers and folks like me who write about the church. This is the same argument against needs-based community engagement, where we focus our attention in our neighborhoods on our neighbors’ needs and deficiencies. Asset-based community development and it’s allied imaginations, remind us that our neighbors and our neighborhoods already have what they need to flourish, and the work of citizens and, I would argue, the church is to highlight, amplify, and create opportunities for neighbors to share the gifts and strengths that God has given us.
Imagine if we focused on what is strong in our congregations and leveraged the gifts and skills of our community to attend to the very real challenges and gaps in our mission and vision. If we remembered that God has given each of us and each of our communities’ charisms for the flourishing of the church and our neighborhood. Imag,ine if we paid more attention to the faithfulness and activity of God within our faith communities, than our failure to design the perfect church. I think we might be reminded that the church is not something we create, but a gift that we steward.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book “Life Together”, says “…Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be continually taking its temperature. The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more assuredly and consistently will community increase and grow from day to day as God pleases”. This is God’s church, and a practice of thanksgiving and recognizing the gifts and strengths that God has granted each of us and our communities will sustain the kind of community that can respond to our biggest challenges.
Additionally, the deficiency narrative can become a useful tool for avoiding meaningful action and the actual work of community; the deepening of mutual and just relationships. This is something I see all over the church, where we invest our time and energy in endless training and education in the belief that if we just learn enough then right action will magically follow. But this has never been true, and is profoundly linked to the infiltration of non-profit culture in the life of the church.
Each of our communities already has what we need to be Christian community. We have gifts and skills like hospitality, pastoral care, communal singing, the practice of confession and repentance, a penchant for gathering around the table, an investment in multigenerational associations, and a profound hope in the world that God has promised. And most of all, we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ – the freedom from sin and death, and for the sake of our neighbor, in and through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Of course, we often forget these gifts, and we often respond to God’s grace with faithlessness. But what we need to be church, to be God’s people in the places where we live and worship, is not to be pathologically pursued outside ourselves and the Gospel. We cannot purchase or consume our way out of imperfection and brokenness. Instead, we can lean into the freedom we have in the gospel and the ecology of gifts, strengths, and assets that God has given us. We can trust that God has given us what we need to be the church here and now.
So, before you go looking for the next program, the next analysis of the church’s failures, or the next training, ask yourself some questions instead. How has God already prepared us to face the challenges in front of us? What gifts and strengths do I have to contribute to the flourishing and well-being of this community? Where have we learned from past experience? Why does the church, this faith community where I live and worship, matter?
When we focus more on what’s strong than what’s wrong, I think we may discover the courage and the creativity to take on the biggest challenges, and the humility to know that the church is not ours to create, but a gift from the God of love that we are called to steward. Thanks be to God!
Photo by Elena Rouame on Unsplash
