Unity, Diversity and the Body of Christ

I recently went to a highly celebrated Italian restaurant in Atlanta.  It had a huge opening and much publicized debut on the trendy north side of Atlanta.  This restaurant is owed by a family group in Atlanta that manages some of the most unique eating places in the city.  This place sought to bring authentic pizza from Naples to the south complete with the finest ground flour and freshest ingredients that can be placed on a pie.  The setting was impressive and the two large 800 degree cooking ovens for which the restaurant was named clearly evident when one walks through the door.  I was shocked when I got to the menu however and found printed across the bottom something like…our pizzas are perfect like they are and we do not add or subtract toppings.  I tried one of the most popular but ended up picked the arugula off myself.

I realized a couple of things that night.  I don’t have a sophisticated enough palate to appreciate double zero ground flour and the finest ingredients and secondly, being forced into conformity with others made me feel like I lost my identity and uniqueness in favor of the more thoughtful and sophisticated connoisseurs who had planned the menu.  It made me wonder about the church and the terrible loss of creativity, energy and passion when people are made to practice their faith in small unoriginal boxes.  I wonder how many people have felt the call to change the world for the good and have gotten swept away on some useless committee in the church or told that they could only exercise their faith according to the traditions of their denomination.

I have seen people almost come to tears because others would not be as passionate about a particular ministry in the church as they are.  Why will everyone in the church not sign up to volunteer in the  nursery some have asked me?  Then who would work in the youth department?  Why does everyone not fight for the same cause that I fight for?  Because that is your cause…and they have another cause.

Do you care about the environment?  Great…be the best environmentalist that you can.  Do you care about animals?  Then your interest in caring for animals may mean God has given you that passion to fight for animal rights in the world.  Your passion for that topic is your calling.  Your passion for an issue is your indicator that you are called to raise concern and fight for your passion.  Our goal is to fulfill our role without forcing others to think or believe the way we do and without becoming disillusioned because we cant win the world to thinking that our cause is the most important in the world.

Unity in the body of Christ does not mean conformity.  Conformity is when all people act, think, look and live out the same values.  Diversity makes this very complicated in the church.  The drastically different life experiences, personality traits, family values and cultural experiences mean that we all come into the church with very different passions, interests, approaches, and ideas.  Our goal is not to have a group of people who all think the same or even who care about the same things.  Success in the body of Christ is not gathering a group of people together and convincing them to care about our passions.  My passions are mine and I am here to make sure they receive attention.  You are here to make sure your passions get the attention they need.

Unity means that we all work together, fulfilling our role, doing our part, fighting for our passions and making a difference however we can and when we all work together for the kingdom of God, then all our passions receive attention.  Check the bottom of your bulletins this Sunday and make sure you don’t ever think that your church, like the restaurant I mentioned earlier, is perfect just the way it is and has no room for customization or creativity.  Allow everyone who comes with a skill, passion, talent, gift, or even curiosity to offer their loaves and fish.

With all my heart, soul, mind and strength

Brian

Is America's Greatest Generation the Church's Worst Nightmare?

I know two men who worked for the same employer for 60 years.  One man worked for the Dekalb County school system for 60 years before retiring and the other worked for Atlanta Dental for six decades before he finally stopped going to the office every morning.  Both men also live in the same homes that they bought in their young adult years.  It occurred to me recently that these may very well be the only two people I will ever know to accomplish this feat.  It is a remarkable testimony to their stability and commitment to their jobs and companies.  Many of the people that I worked with in my church job were of the WWII generation, labeled the Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw.  As young teens and young adults, they were called on by their country to leave their homes and lives and fight tyranny overseas.  They responded with tremendous patriotism and freed Europe from the clutches of a madman.

When they returned to America after the war, our nation experienced a boom.  Suburban neighborhoods began to pop up all over the country.  Housing could hardly be built fast enough for the exploding families and schools, shopping and places of worship followed these young families to their suburban neighborhoods.  Many of these people stayed in their homes for 50 plus years and built strong stable neighborhoods that remain today.

For the church, the post WWII years were one of great prosperity and populace.  Churches were built in every neighborhood and would be full within a few months as new families flocked to new faith communities.  In my city of Atlanta, almost all the churches inside the perimeter, it seems, were started in a 20 year period around the end of WWII.  Of course this is an exaggeration but many were started in these years.

            These patriots fill houses of worship and faith communities flourished with their stable and deeply committed life styles.  Churches came to depend on them and began catering to them as the shape of American Christianity was transformed.  Their values of local neighborhoods, stability, patriotism and institutionalism became synonymous with the Western church.  Their generosity and commitment, especially as they retired, made them vital to the life of thousands of faith communities around the country and they became the driving force in Western Christianity.

The type of religion that grew in America alongside the WWII generation gave rise to some of the hallmarks of our histories.  They built fabulous buildings, schools, printing presses, newspapers, mission agencies, and their loyalty to their denominations and churches made almost anything attempted prosper.  Their institutional stability and resistance to change drastically altered the way church was organized and run.  Missions became sending money to cooperative projects rather than serving hands on.  Education became synonymous with denominational curriculum rather than true spiritual formation and commitment was shown by loyalty to denominational programs rather than by a life lived in accordance to Jesus’ teachings.

Today, many mainline and Evangelical churches are still predominantly filled with the members of the greatest generation.  Some of the churches that were founded in the post WWII boom are still populated with their original members.  Some of those churches still look relatively the same today as they did fifty years ago when they were started.  What impact does a generation of people who worked at their jobs for 40+ years and lived in the same home for 40 + years have for the modern church?  Could the values (denominational loyalty, stable to the point of resisting change) that made this generation so vital to the church in the 60s and 70s be hurting the church as it seeks to move into the future?

In no way do I mean to lay responsibility for all the churches problems at the feet of a stereotyped group of people.  I am merely pointing out that the majority of church attendees in my denominational tradition are from a generation that strongly held to the ideas of spectator religion, conformity and as little change as possible, then newer generations who value modern expressions of faith and live in a fast paced world where innovation and change are prized possessions are not going to feel at home in our WWII generation churches.  I would love to hear your thoughts.

With all my heart, soul, mind and strength

Brian

A New Blog for a New Beginning

I am so glad you have found your way to this site.  This is the place you can keep up the the new exciting journey that God is allowing me to be a part of and read and comment on the posts and articles that I write.  Please pass it around and invite your friends to follow.  My first article is coming next week: "Is the Greatest Generation the Church's Worst Nightmare."  I am sure the research I am currently doing will be fodder for a great discussion.

With all my heart, soul, mind and strength
Brian