Something's been stewing in me since the General Theological Seminary (GTS) debacle began. (The firing of 80% of the faculty for striking! Find details at SafeSeminary.org and then sign the petition calling the Board to Reinstate the 8! bit.ly/ReinstateThe8)
Follow the money
Money over mission. The Episcopal Church is in decline, just as is every mainline denomination, and evangelicals are just beginning the descent. Kurt Dunkle, Dean/President of GTS, resurrected a church in Florida, both in attendance and finances. I could imagine the Board of Trustees at GTS thinking, “That’s what we need! Someone to come in here, kick some serious ass, and whip this place into shape! Our churches are in decline! (sense panic here) We need more people in our churches, to give more money so that we can not only survive, but thrive… just like Kurt helped the church to do in Florida! We need our students to learn and apply what he knows and did in Florida! We need to train our students in church growth and financial recovery! He’s perfect for that!”
The problem with that logic is it doesn’t reach far enough into the cause of the decline. Why is the church in decline? Because people aren’t attending, and they aren’t giving enough to sustain us? Why are they not giving? Why are they not attending? Why have we lost a whole generation? Because we are not giving enough to sustain them. What do people need? What is the existential need of people in your community right now? Visitors, if they come, enter a mostly empty church and sense the panic, sense the members smelling fresh meat, and they run away. They sense the survival mentality, the we-need-to-fill-our-boards-and-committees thinking, the I-did-my-part-when-I-was-young-now-damnit-it’s-their-turn-to-work pointlessness, the clinging-to-tradition-when-it-has-far-outlived-its-purpose mindset.
What does the church have to offer the world, or at least its mission corner of it? Nothing less than the very love of God through Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit! Nothing less than community and belonging to something bigger than self, nothing less than healing restoration community self-worth, nothing less than a friend on the journey, nothing less than meaning and purpose, nothing less than continually redeeming this already redeemed world that God so loved that God sent Jesus and God sends us!
We need a zero-based approach to Christianity, or it will continue its death spiral in the mainline denominations! We need to re-interpret, re-contextualize, re-think, re-envision everything! Theology, liturgy, pastoral care, the priesthood of all believers! We need to unleash the saints to BE the church to each other and to the world! We can become a permission granting, empowering body of believers if we ask the biggest why?
Why does the church exist at all?
Here’s my two cents worth as experienced through my reading of the community of John. We know more about John’s community (at least scripturally) than any other! We have the Gospel, the three Epistles, Revelation, Ephesians (locale of John’s community), the Timothys (Pastor at Ephesus). So when the writer of Ephesians says God gave some apostles, etc. for the equipping of the church, until we reach full maturity in Christ… I still ask why? For what purpose? Sounds more like a strategy to me.
I read and reread Ephesians and each time nearly puked when I got to those horrible household codes! Wives submit, Husbands love, Slaves and Children obey, Masters be nice… blah blah blah! What could be less relevant to today’s families? So I asked Why is maturity important? Well, ask John… ask Jesus in the high priestly prayer… Maturity in Ephesians produces unity, and unity in John 17 lets the world know that God sent Jesus.
But again… WHY is that important? Why does it matter?
Ask John again in Revelation about Ephesus…
You lost your first love
What was their first love? Was it God? Jesus? Each other? What?
Ask John again in the Gospel! What’s the most famous love verse in John? Of course 3:16! God so loved Christians, that God gave… er… God so loved the church that God gave… No.
God so loved… the WORLD!
O. M. G. Now that horrible household code can make sense! At least the husbands part… because the key is in what the writer claims to be truly speaking of!
“This is a great mystery, but I speak of Christ and the church!”
And there it is. The answer to the biggest why! Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. But it’s not even about husbands and wives!!!
It’s about Christ and the church!
So indulge a bit of theological play with me. God so loved the world that God sent Jesus.
So let’s go back to that horrible household code and replace Husbands with Church and Wives with World.
And we have mission… the biggest why… the reason the church exists at all!
Church, love the world as Christ loved you and gave himself for you!
The church exists to love the world through Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit, as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her!
Church, Love the world, and give yourself for it.
For it’s continual redemption, its continual liberation, its continual reconciliation! Now THAT’s something to live and die for!
THAT’s why seminaries exist.
That’s why seminaries have boards and faculties and deans and presidents and students!
So that God can continue to love the world through us!
Thank you. I really needed that view point. I do not have a very pastoral priest but do have dear friends in our church who have kept in touch during a very trying time. My greatest comfort has been God's love for me and my family. HE is always there and as my health improves, I am determined to work harder to spread the word of that love and care and comfort. He does not promise that life will always be easy, but He does promise to always be with us.
ReplyDeleteI pray you continuing improvement in your health! As you rest and recuperate in God's love, may you be filled to overflowing so that "in your going" throughout life God's love pours out of you!
DeleteI inadvertently "deleted" a comment I meant to "publish." So here it is from one Joe Herring, a GTS Alum:
ReplyDeleteDale, admittedly the passage from Ephesians 5 is repellent to our ears today, whether we're active feminists or not. We're in fact so repelled that we don't even notice the impossible standard with which the writer confronts the husbands, " Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her..." So hold the puke for when it's really necessary. Joe Herring GTS 60and 71
I am aware that "The Church" is changing beyond our control. Your comments are insightful, and the maturity spoken of in Ephesians has yet to be achieved. The church community to which I am connected also has a declining Sunday morning attendance. BUT, there is a great deal of ministry going on elsewhere. Feeding, alternate worship (both styles and times), and God's love is fueling it all. Whatever the church becomes, it will be because we listen to God and respond with a love of our own. The great LACK OF LOVE in our culture in these poet modern times needs our energy to restore Love to the world. We get it . . . we need to return it.
ReplyDeleteYes! Preach it! Amen.
DeleteJoe, Thanks for you comment. The fact that the writer of Ephesians calls on husbands to "love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her" in no way diminishes the hierarchical nature of the household codes. I still almost puke when I read Slaves submit, etc. My point is that, all puking aside, God calls us, the church, to walk the way of the cross for the world! To love the world as Christ loves! To lay down our life if need be... for the world! To as you say "do the impossible." If we take the household codes literally, without applying the mystery I puke every time!
ReplyDeleteDale, I am following with complete disgust the saga of the GTS8. You did not mention which one of them is not coming back, or why, but I imagine someone will post that in Facebook or already has ( I have a life and don't sit around following GTS posts but rely on bloggers and Winnie+ Varghese for my 411). I am definitely NOT a cradle Episcopalian but am reasonably active in the life of the Diocese of NY.I don't know squat about theology or ministerial teaching but I do know a bit about employment discrimination and labor law having done it for 32 years; as far as I am concerned reinstating people " provisionally " is just threatening them with the Sword of Damocles, rather than reconciling. Thank God the Mennonites have stepped in. THEY have their heads screwed on right.
ReplyDeleteBr. Hal Weiner, OUM
Br. Hal Weiner,
DeleteIt has not yet been made public who the non-returning faculty member is, just that he/she took the retirement option. I totally agree with you about the Sword of Damocles! It is nothing short of more intimidation and evidence of an unsafe work environment. Thanks for your comment. If it's alright with you, I'd like to pass it on to the GTS8 Safe Space on Facebook.
Severance option... not retirement option.
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