(also on
Episcopal Cafe)
Why Church?
Kathy Staudt
A recent NPR story about Americans’ widespread claim that
they believe in God but not “institutional religion” has left me feeling
impatient (read it at
here )
and I’m trying to tease out why.
Part of it is that this is just more of the same discussion that we’re
having within the church about what needs to change to attract the next
generation -- too often I think it goes to “how do we get more people to come
to church?” i.e. it remains about institutional survival. Further, I’m starting to think that
when we listen to those who are offering critiques of the church from the
“spiritual but not religious” perspective, we are listening to at least two
different streams of thought -- both important, but worth distinguishing
because they’re different audiences for our witness, if we decide that
witnessing to the gospel is ultimately going to be what we’re about. On the one hand, there are those who
have left the churches they grew up in or attended for many years because they
are disillusioned by the controversies, the fighting, the focus on institutional
politics rather than on God. Those
are the people who say, rightly, that they are not hearing in church the
transformative gospel that Jesus proclaimed, the Gospel that calls us to change
and grow for the sake of a broken world.
They can say that because at one time or another they
did hear that gospel, probably in church -- but they now
see churches that seem to have lost their way.
On the other hand, there are the Seekers and the unchurched,
people who were not raised in any religion and who are curious about what
Christianity is all about. Some of
these folks wander into churches and encounter the gospel in something they
hear, or in the experience of worship -- but many others I’ve talked to have
been just puzzled: they have basic
questions about why we do what we do, why we use the words that we do, and
often no place to take those questions.
I’m wondering how many of us have a good answer, if someone who is
disillusioned, or unchurched or
puzzled by religion asks us: “What’s the point? Why Church at all? (I should note that a young person, Jacob Nez, has
already opened this discussion on the café with his
“Why are
Youth in Church” - read it here--
so that gives me courage to pose the question positively for all of us).
Why do I keep going
to church? What is it, for me, that makes the desire to worship so strong that
it doesn’t matter whether services are sometimes boring or people in churches
are fighting? I wonder if this is the place to start, rather than looking at
marketing strategies or polling or tweaking of our Sunday practices: What is our testimony, those of us who
do keep showing up, week after week, for worship? Why church at all?
I’m asking that of myself
In an interview reported by Barbara Bradley Haggerty, a
churchgoer says that the church “puts skin on God.” “Putting skin on God” - I like that. It expresses what I hope is true: that
it is possible for human beings to draw near to be touched by, a mystery that
is beyond our full comprehension and in our gathering to lend a human face, a
story to that Mystery that we experience as also reaching out to us. That’s the main reason I go
to church, I think, even in a culture where it seems fewer & fewer people
do so. I want to spend some time
each week around people who have glimpsed the same hope, and who express that
hope by gathering together, in words, song, bodily movement. Even when it’s inconvenient or I don’t
feel like it, even when some of the people irritate me, showing up regularly in
this way does me good. I would
even say that over the years it has been a transformative practice for me.
The stories we tell, the words we use, the prayers we say in
church, if I listen to the words, proclaim that there is something greater than me or even than “us”,
the particular people gathered on a given Sunday. When we gather for
worship, we are putting ourselves
in the presence of something bigger than all of us, and yet people down through
the ages have written prayers and hymns to try to touch this experience. I’m a word-person, so in any given week I always listen for words that may
speak to me. Often nothing
speaks; sometimes what I hear offends me or puts me off -- but I remember that
these are words that have spoken to others, that are speaking to people who are
at worship with me now. And they
are speaking of something that is ultimately beyond our words. And there is
something powerful about our gathering to listen to these words together, even
as we may hear different things on any given Sunday.
For me the practice of going to church is a way of saying,
to myself, to God, to the world,
“I want to be part of the Better Thing that is still happening, even
beneath and within the brokenness of the world around us. And I know that in order for this to happen, I need to keep
growing and changing.” The
Biblical images of leaven in the world, a lamp shining in the darkness, a treasure hidden in a field, all speak
to this intuition. The
teachings of Jesus and St. Paul call us to be transformed into people who will
be a blessing to the world. It’s
the churches that have to hold up that vision. That many churches don’t is not a sign of the demise of
Christianity, though it may be the sign of the need to shake off some ways of
“doing church” that have become entrenched and dysfunctional.
It is also true that a little time spent in governance and
leadership in church be very discouraging. And it is a tough time in history to be someone whose
livelihood depends on the church as it is currently structured, so it is no
wonder that many clergy are disillusioned and angry, though many others are
rising to the challenges. We can
get so anxious about institutional survival and so embroiled in our own power
struggles that we wind up wounding each other and losing track of what we’re
doing here. I do understand why so
many people leave the church and decide they can live the teaching of Jesus
better outside it, undistracted by the human ugliness that is so particularly
distressing in many church “families.” And yet for those of us who stay, the hard work of
listening to one another, holding one another accountable and seeking
forgiveness and reconciliation is part of what helps us grow in faith. Life in community, with all its
messiness, is part of the answer
to “Why Church?”
Why this Church?
In the Episcopal/Anglican tradition, our Sunday worship is
centered on the celebration of Eucharist or “Holy Communion” and that
celebration speaks, for me, beyond the limitations of words. It invites each one of us, whoever we
are, whatever we look like, however we are feeling today, to come forward and
join with everyone else present, and be fed so that we may be energized to
bring blessing to the world.
The experience of receiving communion with a community of people not
necessarily at all “like me” or in the same place in faith, life or culture
also raises the possibility of a God who is bigger than any one person’s
preferences or beliefs. I
sometimes experience that mystery, as an overflowing sense of love and
presence, when I receive communion.
Sometimes.
Even more, the Episcopal/Anglican tradition appeals to me because
we have always paid a lot of attention to the mystery of the Incarnation, which to me is
the most exciting
idea that Christianity brings to the table,
in the conversation among world religions. (I appreciated Bill Carroll’s post about this on a recent
Episcopal Café http://www.episcopalcafe.com/daily/episcopal_church/the_episcopal_church_not_neces.php_). Frederica Harris Thompsett has
called us the “church of Christmas Eve,” and it is perhaps not an accident that
even people who do not have a church tradition may be drawn to a Christmas Eve
service in an Episcopal Church, or a service of 9 Lessons and Carols during the
Christmas season. We celebrate,
not just at Christmas but always, the joyful mystery of a God who becomes
human, shares our suffering and our joy, and understands our humanity, and
calls us constantly to renewed and transformed lives as companions and friends
of God. Other Christian
denominations also preach this of course -- it is the heart of Christian
faith. But the Anglican focus on
the mystery of the Word made flesh keeps us always rooted in this world,
seeking transformation rather than escape, and holds out the hope for the
presence and participation in our lives of a God who knows our brokenness and
offers Resurrection. And who never
gives up on us.
All of this, I know, is holding up an ideal that is far from
the reality. But my point is that
in addition to looking at what is driving people away from church, it might
still be useful to ask those who are still in church, “What is it that sustains
you about the regular spiritual practice of church-going, at a time when so
many people seem to be leaving or disaffected?” How do you answer the question “Why church?”
