Ya! I think the church is a catalyst, but existing structures can get in the way. Doesn’t mean the structure didn’t serve a purpose at one time, just that the environment has changed and with the internet, perhaps less is more when it comes to structure…(i.e. discerning God’s work in one’s life doesn’t require alot of what we typically associate with church today.) I’ve personally benefited so much from relationships that were catalyzed by a common cause in Christ (often across multiple churches/denominations/nonprofits). Amidst the pandemic my core friend group has come from 4-5 different local churches!
By the way, in saying the church fails in its role in spiritual community, do you consider that a failure of it’s leaders or of the community itself?
One thing I wanted to clarify is that when I use the word witness as a vocation, I don’t solely mean personal evangelism, or altar calls, but more that the community itself is the witness, the testimony, the illustration, the evidence that the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Sort of like when Jesus told his disciples, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34-35 NIV that’s witness too.
Thanks for the clarification on “witness”. Makes sense. Totally agree.
No, I think the failure of the church is a failure of leadership, which means it hasn’t helped the community understand what it means to exist in community and in dependence and communion with God. Here’s why I think that.
We started a nonprofit 11 years ago to help resource the church in the area of formation, which is to say, relational growth and health with God, with others, and with ourselves. As soon as small groups were given these resources and a trained leader in facilitation health small group dynamics, community and love flourished. People said they had never experienced this before in a church environment.
So, no, I don’t think the problem is inherently in the church, or in the community, but in leadership’s awareness of these needs and how to effectively address them. Instead, we focus, for example, on intellectual growth alone as a means to forming people in Christ. It isn’t enough. Intellectual growth/biblical accuracy was an important step for the church to take. But intellectual knowledge does not equate to a formative experience. Or we give people a fun experience, which as we’ve seen in the last year, becomes an easy thing to forgo with so much else occupying our attention. Or we give people an emotional experience without helping them understand the meaning of emotion as a component of spiritual development and Christlikeness.
By the way, if you keep tracing this failure back, you have to go to where pastors/priests were trained–their churches and seminaries. So there’s plenty of responsibility to go around. But the good news is that these are not hard problems to solve, once leaders understand the true nature of the problem and has the tools to solve them. That doesn’t mean it is fast. It takes time. But it can absolutely be done and is being done in a few communities. (As an example, Peter Scazzaro’s book The Emotionally Healthy Church talking about his experience is one example.)
A friend of mine coined the term “the Great Virtuality” to describe what he sees the church undergoing:
He references how the model of “church as messenger/herald” has been extended by going virtual while suggesting that “church as body of Christ/community” has been hindered.
Although being physically present is far from a foolproof way to hold our attention, we are much more likely to be spectators than participants in online ministries. Moreover, the further away we get from rich, loving, intense bonds, the higher the challenge for stewardship.