Bishop’s Address at 194th Convention of the Diocese of Georgia November 2015

On November 13, 2015, in Body of Christ, Community, Convention, Diocese of Georgia, discipleship, Evangelistic Witness, faith, gospel, grace, Laity, leadership, mission, by bishopbenhase

The field of moral psychology endeavors to understand why people make moral choices and the rationale they use to justify their choices. One of moral psychology’s recurring findings is that we have a higher opinion of ourselves than we ought to have. Of course, St. Paul arrived at the same conclusion about human nature nearly 2000 years ago when he wrote that very same message to the Church in Rome (Romans 12:3).

Experiments and surveys have repeatedly shown that we believe we possess attributes that are better or more desirable than the average person. For example, we believe by a wide majority that we’re above average drivers. The same is true when we’re asked about a virtue such as honesty. A high percentage of us report that we’re more honest than the average person. Even folk in jail for theft report such superior honesty. High school students consistently judge themselves to be more popular than average. And nearly every state claims that their average student test scores are above the national average. Of course, since we know something about statistics, we know that such judgments about ourselves cannot be true.

Moral psychologists have termed this phenomenon The Lake Wobegon Effect. It’s named for the fictional town of Lake Wobegon from the radio program A Prairie Home Companion, where, according to host Garrison Keillor: “All the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.”

What these moral psychologists are documenting is as old as humanity. Our tradition names it as sin born from the cardinal sin of pride. Our creation story reminds us that Adam & Eve were quite clear that their judgment about a particular fruit in the Garden of Eden was superior to God’s judgment.

This truth about ourselves needs to be front and center when we spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. Yes, when sharing our faith with those who aren’t Christians we do need to have a “I-know-something-you-don’t-know” quality to it, because we do “know something they don’t know” when it comes to God’s grace in Jesus. But it’s how we share our faith with others that matters. It should be humble. We’re not morally superior to those outside the Christian faith. We may not even be morally above average.

So, from this humble stance, what is it we are to share?

I want to propose three Bible verses that will help remind us of how we should spread the Good News of Jesus.

The first verse is Isaiah 55:1: “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and drink!

Notice how the Prophet Isaiah pronounces God’s word here. Everyone who thirsts is invited. All should come and drink and eat without money or price. God’s invitation to humanity is complete and without condition. Isaiah’s prophecy is a bold declaration of God’s intention, made perfect in Jesus’ words in John’s Gospel, that Jesus when he is lifted up on the cross will draw all people to himself.

That means Jesus is doing the drawing. Our congregations then must be places where we’re trained for our role, not Jesus’ role. It may be a conversation you have in the living room at Columba House. It may be you comforting an exhausted Scout Leader after his troop meets one night at your church. It may be you listening to a co-worker over coffee about her current troubles. Whenever and wherever, we need to say to everyone in our communities: “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come!”

The second verse is Isaiah 25:9: “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.”

Spreading the Good News involves us waiting for God to act. Our salvation, indeed the world’s salvation, isn’t our own doing. But our waiting should never be passive. It must be an active waiting, all the while recognizing that salvation is God’s action and God’s property, not ours.

If we remember that, then we’ll maintain a humble stance with those outside of our faith. Even though the Gospel is God’s bold declaration to the world, we should be compassionate and tender in how we share it, because we know many people have only received a false, toxic version of the Gospel.

Waiting for God to save is actually liberating. We’re free from playing the age-old game of who’s in and who’s out. We can collaborate with anyone, regardless of their faith, if they’re willing to do Gospel work with us in our communities.

If someone wants to partner with the Food for a Thousand Ministry at St Patrick’s, Albany or the community garden at the Oak Street Mission in Thomasville, we won’t worry if they don’t share our faith. We’ll feed hungry people with anyone. The Community Cares Café in Darien serves children whether or not they or their parents believe as we do. After all, we’re not on God’s “Program Committee.” We’re on God’s “Welcoming Committee.”

“Lo, it is God who saves us.” And we’ll share that Good News with anyone.

And the third and final verse is Matthew 28:19: “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

It’s not a liturgical accident that each Sunday our deacons send us out with this short, powerful verb: “Go!” “Go” doesn’t mean, “stay.” “Go” doesn’t mean hang out inside the church walls until somebody shows up. And “Go” doesn’t mean being so hamstrung by political correctness that we refrain from sharing with others God’s forgiveness in Jesus. “Go” means, “Go!”  

Go into the communities of this diocese with a “humble boldness.” Go share good news with the poor. Go tell the spiritually blind that God wants to give them sight. Go speak to the spiritually thirsty and let them know how you’ve learned that Jesus is the Water of Life.

Go to everyone. Go to the NSA, the NRA, the NAACP, the Rotarians, the Elks Club, the Booster Club, the Garden Club, the Optimist’s Club, the Pessimist’s Club, just Go! Wherever God has placed you, Go!

When we actually do go, God does some amazing things.

  • The community youth group in McIntosh County decided to go and this last year we baptized five young people.
  • The Cornerstone Ministry in Augusta chose to go and now regularly has 35 or more youth participate. And some of those aren’t members of our churches. They’re being evangelized by our youth.
  • In the summer when we go to Lake Blackshear with the Good News, people respond. Because the people of Christ Church Cordele decided to go, their worship attendance has doubled in the last few years.

What might God do in our communities if we all decided to “go?” Because when we “go,” we discover God’s already there. When we go to the ends of the earth or just to the end of our block, we find Jesus already pitching his tent there.

My friends, I firmly believe that the future vitality of this Diocese is directly related to our collective willingness to “go.” Our vitality will only grow in direct proportion to the number of us who are willing to “go.” And, this going can’t be a clergy-centered movement. A few laity still think that since we pay many of our clergy to go, they themselves don’t have to go. But that’s not true. The clergy’s primary task is to equip the laity to be the ministers of the Gospel. As the great lay teacher & preacher Verna Dozier wrote: The layperson’s primary function is out there in the world.  And the wise Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, wrote: Nine-tenths of the Church’s work in the world is done by Christian people fulfilling responsibilities and performing tasks which in themselves are not part of the official system of the Church at all.

That means when we “go,” we don’t go to church, we “go” to the people and places of our lives taking the Good News of Jesus with us. And if the Good News of Jesus saves us, it will save anybody and everybody.

I know I’ve gone a bit long here, but please stay with me for a few more minutes. I want to end on a personal note. Some of you know that I was diagnosed with cancer two months ago. I’m happy to report to you that I’m cancer free today. And I’m most thankful for all of your prayers. I felt each one of them.

The Diocesan Staff has been amazing, as usual, dealing with their already full responsibilities while also picking up after me, which is nearly an impossible task.

I also couldn’t do even one small thing as the Bishop of Georgia if it weren’t for Kelly, who puts up with me even as I am and loves me anyway, far beyond what I deserve.

There were upsides to my getting cancer. It’s been a great excuse for getting out of stuff. When someone asked me to do something I didn’t want to do, all I had to do was say: “You know, I’d love to, but I have cancer.” That worked every time.

The other upside is that it’s sharpened my mind and soul. It’s helped me see how often I’ve taken for granted the truly wonderful people and blessings that surround me.

And cancer has helped me get clear about what I want my life to stand for and how I want to spend the rest of my days on this earth, however long that is.

So, to quote that wonderful hymn by the Reverend James Cleveland:

Right now, I don’t feel no ways tired!

I’m ready to “go!” And I hope you’re ready to “go,” too.

“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters”

“Lo, this is our God who has saved us.”

“Go, make disciples”

Deacons, please stand now wherever you are.  Please help me dismiss all of us from this overly long address with one powerful verb. It begins with a G and it ends with an O. On the count of three: One, two, three – Go!

 
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Bishop’s Address at 193rd Convention of the Diocese of Georgia November 2014

On November 7, 2014, in Body of Christ, capital campaign, congregational development, Convention, culture, Diocese of Georgia, Episcopal Church, Evangelistic Witness, gospel, grace, Laity, leadership, mission, by bishopbenhase

Some of you know I’m a huge fan of the singer-songwriter John Prine. And it’s a testament to my love and devotion to the Church and to this Diocese that I’ll be present at this evening’s Convention Eucharist because John Prine is performing tonight at the Savannah Civic Center. Prine’s lyrics are magical and almost always funny while also plumbing the depths of the human condition. A song he sings as a duet with Iris Dement evokes an affect that I want to share in my Bishop’s Address this year. The song is entitled “We’re not the Jet Set,” and part of it goes like this:

No, We’re not the jet set. We’re the old Chevro-let set
Our steak and martinis, Is draft beer with weenies
Our Bach and Tchaikovsky, Is Haggard and Husky
No, we’re not the jet set, We’re the old Chevro-let set. But ain’t we got love

In this Diocese, we’re not the jet set. Most of us are more comfortable with draft beer and weenies than we are with steak and martinis. Haggard and Husky are more likely to be on our play list than Bach and Tchaikovsky. Here in the Diocese we don’t have what a lot of dioceses have in terms of financial resources. We don’t have many large metropolitan areas that provide amenities that would draw people to move to them. With a few exceptions, the counties in our state that are projected to have significant growth are all in that certain diocese to the north, just above the gnat line.

So the demographics aren’t very favorable to us. Demographics, however, aren’t destiny and dwelling on them isn’t faithful. We trust in a providential destiny only God provides. Plus, as John Prine sings, “ain’t we got love.” We have God’s love for us incarnated in Jesus and we have our love for one another. And we have hope, hope that God is moving in our midst working out through us God’s plan of salvation.

Our call, then, isn’t to bemoan what we don’t have or what’s not favorable to us. It’s to celebrate and be thankful for what we do have and the favor God has shown us, and then to put all that we have and all that we are into the coming of God’s Kingdom on this earth, as it already is in heaven.

No, we’re not the jet set. We’re the old Chevro-let set. But this Chevy has many great miles to go and we’re fueled by the hope of what God will do through us to bring about the Kingdom.  And I want us to dwell on that sure and certain hope for these next few minutes. For as the Scriptures say: such hope will not disappoint us.

Now, we’re schooled by cable news and through social media to be afraid of just about everything from Ebola to the dirty ring around our bathtubs. If that were all the news we had, then it would be prudent to be afraid and to feel hopeless. Yet, if we have eyes to see, there are hopeful signs all around us.

1. While as a whole our diocesan Sunday attendance is basically flat, we now have more congregations that are significantly growing than are declining.

2. The core leadership training we’ve offered for clergy and laity through the Church Development Institute (CDI), Emotional Intelligence training, and peer coaching has now begun to bear fruit in many places. Clergy and lay leaders in many congregations are now better equipped to lead growing, vital congregations in the 21st century.

3. Our support for and focus on community ministries has led many congregations to reach out in real, concrete ways into their neighborhoods developing signature ministries that serve to transform people’s lives. We must remember that Jesus did not leave people stuck in their hunger or their sickness or their sin. He fed, He healed, and He liberated them. That’s what our community, signature ministries are all about. From Thomasville to Augusta, from Cordele to Darien, our congregations are embracing a vision of vitality through engagement with their communities.

4. Honey Creek, as you will see this afternoon, is being reborn into a more strategic missionary asset of the Diocese. In the last year, 70% of its ministry directly supported the mission of the Diocese. And 93% of its ministry was church-related. That didn’t happen by accident. We consciously renewed Honey Creek’s mission to be all about supporting God’s mission in and through this Diocese. And, I should add, we’re doing all this operating in the black for the 3rd straight year. When you see Honey Creek’s Director, Dade Brantley, this afternoon, please give him a big hug and a thank you.

So, there are many things we’re doing to help our congregations thrive. And thriving congregations must be our goal if we’re to accomplish God’s mission.

In this last year, while I was on retreat with the Sisters of St John the Baptist, I spent long periods of time praying for you. I did. I spent hours of time praying just for you and for each of our congregations.

There on retreat, thanks to Canon Logue, I brought with me the Field Guide to the Diocese. With that objective data and with my own direct experience with each of our congregations over the last four years, I placed each congregation in three, separate categories: Those that were thriving, those that were treading water, and those that were in decline.

I had some assumptions ahead of time about what congregations in each of those categories had in common that would tell me why they were in the category they were in. I discovered that my assumptions were mostly wrong (it’s good to have our assumptions challenged on a regular basis). It wasn’t the congregation’s location, or its size, or the amount of financial resources it had that defined whether it was thriving. The thriving congregations were of all sizes, in vastly different locations, and had widely differing resources.

There’s only one variable that all the thriving congregations have in common and it’s this: they’re all focused beyond their own doors and their own property lines. They’re concerned with that co-worker who had given up on God saying that if Jesus were real, then he must not love him. They’re focused on that hungry child down the street who won’t have enough to eat tomorrow. They’re alarmed to learn about that senior citizen who was all alone in the nursing home across town. Those are the topics dominating coffee hour conversations and discernment at vestry meetings. How might we reach them with the Good News of Jesus? How might we love them? How might we humbly serve them? Those are the questions being asked and discerned in our thriving congregations.

In contrast, what about the congregations in the two other categories? They’re anxious about their inward issues and talk mainly about surviving and protecting what they now have. Rather than be open to their community, they may feel that they have to struggle against it. While not always the case, this may lead to an unhealthy focus on things like the color of the new carpet in the narthex, or the rector’s recent haircut, or the choir’s lack of musical range. Or more dangerously, they may become focused on finding someone to blame for why their church isn’t thriving. And that blaming, often of the clergy, becomes what fuels the congregation’s life.

So my epiphany while I was on retreat is really quite simple: if we want thriving congregations and thus the transformation of our Diocese, then that’ll only happen when, as Bishop Lesslie Newbigin wrote, local congregations renounce an introverted concern for their own life, and recognize that they exist for the sake of those who are not members, as a sign, an instrument, and a foretaste of God’s redeeming grace for the whole life of society. (The Gospel in a Pluralist Society)

Now, it would be wonderful if the Diocese had the financial resources to help congregations engage the Gospel in their communities. We’re trying to raise those financial resources. We’re working to get every ounce of mission out of the limited resources we have in the Diocese. We have one of the smallest diocesan staffs in the Episcopal Church for a diocese our size. Frank, Mary, Elizabeth, Rudy, Vicki, Gayle, and Libby, not only put up with me on a daily basis, they’re committed to help all our congregations thrive. I’m blessed to serve with these amazing people.

Yes, it would be wonderful if we had more money and as I said, through the Capital Campaign, we’re working on finding those financial resources.

But, you know, we don’t need money to love our neighbor. We don’t need deep pockets to care about what happens to kids in the school next door or the overwhelmed single mother across the street or the lonely man in the nursing home around the corner. Each of our congregations can make a Gospel difference in their communities without having a dime to do it. All we need is the will to set aside our inward focus and embrace our neighbors with the Good News of God’s redeeming grace in Jesus.

I see hopeful signs of this in so many of you and in our congregations. We must not lose heart or believe we’re incapable of changing our local mission strategy. As a church, we’re facing nothing short of an avalanche of social and cultural change. I don’t need to list all those changes for you. You’ve read about them and you see them every day in your community.

When I was first ordained in 1983 to serve Lake Wobegone Episcopal Church, all we needed for what we understood to be “success” back then was a nice church building in a semi-decent location with passable worship and acceptable music. It didn’t hurt if the priest’s sermons were mildly entertaining, but not too challenging. If we added a clean, safe Church school, then we had a congregation sizable enough to pay all the bills.

But those days are gone and they’re not coming back. Please hear me when I say this: Those days are gone and they’re not coming back. Nostalgia for the past is hindering us from embracing our present mission.

The old road maps for “success” in our congregations are no longer applicable. We can’t just show up anymore, say we’re the church, and people will pay attention. We must take the Gospel into the public life of our communities with a passion and a commitment we’ve not had before. The people of our society are suffering from a lack of grace and compassion in their lives. They’re living in the “mean time” in both senses of that term. Mercy and empathy for one another is in short supply. Only the Gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to renew and redeem us and our neighbors.

As Bishop Newbigin wrote: If the gospel is to challenge the public life of our society…it will only be by movements that begin with the local congregation in which the reality of the new creation is present, known, and experienced, and from which men and women will go into every sector of public life to claim it for Christ, to unmask the illusions which have remained hidden and to expose all areas of public life to the illumination of the gospel. (The Gospel in a Pluralist Society)

Many of you are realizing that. That’s why I see so many hopeful signs of God’s redeeming grace in our congregations. You and I need to see more of these hopeful signs from one another, so we can encourage each another to live into the changes we must make locally in order to grasp the new mission God is placing before us.

The congregations that recognize what time it is will be the congregations that will thrive in the future. Those congregations who don’t, who insist on making the church’s mission only about those who show up, or only about what’s good for me and mine, those congregations will die a slow and banal death. That’s simply the truth.

So, can we let go of our inward focus and embrace our neighbors with Jesus and his Gospel in new and creative ways? Can we take the Gospel out of our churches and into the public square, not to nag or cajole, not to finger point or to blame, but to love and to serve and to bring hope to those who, as St Paul so aptly described, are literally perishing without the Gospel?

Can we do this? I know we can.

It’s true. “We’re not the jet set. We’re the old Chevro-let set. But ain’t we got love.” We sure do have love. We have the love of Jesus for us and for this wonderful and beautiful, yet sinful and broken world in which we live. And the love of Jesus is all we truly need.

 
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eCrozier #141

On June 28, 2012, in Body of Christ, discipleship, leadership, mission, by bishopbenhase

Ron Ashkenas, whose latest book is Simply Effective, says that many organizations over time develop what he calls learned helplessness. This occurs when leaders in the organization slowly create a list of excuses and explanations for why the organization can’t change or improve as it seeks to accomplish its mission. Ashkenas says that rather than finding ways to make things better or generating ideas for how things might be different, leaders instead gradually accept the status quo and blame external forces to explain and then to excuse the “stuckness” of the organization.

Learned helplessness can become viral in any organization and the Church is no exception. As our Church prepares for General Convention next week where we will address major issues of restructuring, I’m aware of how this virus has infected us. In our congregations, I hear regularly how what happens at the national Church level inhibits local mission. This is no doubt true to some extent, which is why we need to radically restructure our Church’s organizational life to focus on the mission of making disciples. But it’s also an excuse for congregational leaders to do little to proclaim the Gospel in their communities by treating themselves as victims of the larger Church’s actions or inactions, as the case may be. This is learned helplessness in its most clear form.

Ashkenas offers two ways to get beyond learned helplessness and I will apply them to our context. He says that organizations should first name clearly what is going on. He suggests making a list of initiatives people say they want, but have not done. Then put together a list of the ten most common excuses for why there has been inaction. Creating dialogue helps everyone become aware of their complicity in learned helplessness. So, in the Church, we hear things like: “We don’t have enough people. We don’t have enough resources. We don’t have enough time. We tried something new before and it didn’t work.” These are all the words of people infected with learned helplessness.

A way to get the organization “unstuck” from the virus of learned helplessness is to find one initiative that, as Ashkenas says, can show even in a small way that the organization can accomplish something. I know this to be true. In a congregation where people have adopted the passive resignation of learned helplessness, too often church leaders try large, bold initiatives. This has the tendency to scare people and make them even less likely to become unstuck. What works is to find one simple thing that the church can do together, that’s likely achievable, and then to do it. Once it’s achieved, celebrate the success. I remember in one of my former parishes where we wanted to grow the Sunday School. We had one child and when we got a second, we celebrated that Sunday School attendance had doubled in just one week!

It is time to give up our excuses for not engaging in God’s mission to make disciples and, by doing so, to make a difference in our communities. No more passive resignation, please. If your congregation has become stuck with the virus of learned helplessness, then call it what is and then find one first thing you can do together for God’s mission. Take that first small step to become unstuck and then celebrate your way to the next.

+Scott

 

 
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Stop waging war and start washing feet (eCrozier #139)

On June 15, 2012, in Body of Christ, culture, politics, by bishopbenhase

Author Rachel Held Evans recently said that it was time for the Church to move “from waging war to washing feet.” She was referring to the culture wars in the Church over human sexuality. I could not agree more, even though I think “war” is too strong a metaphor for what we have been experiencing. Clearly, however, people have taken sides and are bent on their side winning. Maybe a more apt image is one of a circular firing squad. I believe it was G.K. Chesterton who wrote that the Church is the only known army in the world that shoots its own wounded. We are our own worst enemies. In some ways this is nothing new since human nature is nothing new. St Paul dealt with such partisanship in the Church in Corinth (and in other communities) where differing factions insisted that their way was the only way and if there was to be any compromise it would be by others coming to their way of thinking.

This sort of partisanship is steadily disempowering and marginalizing the Church. We are declining across denominational lines by just about every form of measurement one can use. Regular church attendance is in decline and the numbers of people claiming no religious affiliation is growing. The Church does not have much influence in the culture any more, it no longer is respected by a majority of the people outside the Church, and as Kinnamon and Lyons and other researchers have pointed out, two-thirds of young adults see the Church as being too partisan in its political engagement.

Robert Putnam and David Campbell, in a recent article in Foreign Affairs magazine, conclude that this partisanship is an important factor in the Church’s decline. They write: “In effect, Americans (especially young Americans) who might otherwise attend religious services are saying, ‘Well, if religion is just about conservative politics, then I’m outta here.'”

Of course, the Church’s way out of this is not to make religion about liberal politics either. That would be just as wrong and partisan. Nor is it for the Church to become a place offering a privatized religion disconnected from the world. The Church must be political, at least in the generic sense of that word meaning being involved in the lives of the polis (that is, the human community). Jesus was very much concerned with the lives of the polis. One can’t address the plight of the poor, the needs of the sick, the care of those afflicted with wounds of body and mind, or any other challenge of the human community without being involved in politics.

So the issue is not whether we as the Church should be involved in the politics of our communities and nation. The issue is how we do that. The partisan, divisive strategies adopted by factions in the Church are not only turning away young adults, they are not working! After 30 years of the so-called Culture Wars, all we have to show for it is more of the same vitriol and fewer people engaging with the ministry of the Church as we serve God’s mission.

Rachel Held Evans is right. It is time to stop waging war and start washing feet.

+Scott

 

 
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eCrozier #85

On April 15, 2011, in Body of Christ, discipleship, politics, by bishopbenhase

In a recent study, researchers postulated that since we humans have lived as foragers for 95% of our species’ history, it would be significant to study modern day foraging societies to see how human culture progressed and succeeded. They analyzed living patterns among 32 of these foraging societies. They noticed two consistent patterns among them. First, there was mobility among both men and women that allowed them to remain with their group of origin or move to another unrelated group. Second, most individuals sharing the same residential group were genetically unrelated. The researchers suggest this is why humans have had such biological success compared to other species. As we’ve evolved we’ve learned to include others outside our genetic family and this has led predominantly to cooperative, large social networks.

Our historical success as a species appears to be related to our ability to share with and include others outside our genetic specific group. In other words, we’ve historically thrived when we have included and shared. Other species that did not learn to include outsiders and share did not thrive. This is a good reminder for the American version of our species as we struggle to decide how to spend our common tax purse as the real problem of our national debt grows. Governments collect taxes to provide for the common good at the various levels of our large social networks (local, state, and federal). When faced with such a challenge we humans can reach inward and just try to protect what is ours or at least our perceived share of the pie available. But as the above study suggests, this might not be in our best interests. If our historical pattern holds true, it seems we would do best if we reached out and shared the pie equitably, or if the pie needs to be smaller to reduce our debt, make sure that the smaller portion of the pie is shared equitably in order to enhance cooperation and inclusion.

The study suggests something that we Christians have always known from the Biblical witness. In his image of the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12, St Paul contends that the “lesser” parts of the body should be shown greater honor in order for the whole body to function rightly and for bodily growth to thrive. When the body works together rather than as separate parts and when the body gives appropriate attention to the “lesser” members of the body rather than ignore them, then the body is in right order.

What questions would such a perspective raise? Well, for example, should we cut $8.5 billion for low-income housing, or $8.5 billion in mortgage tax deductions for vacation homes? Should we cut $11.2 billion in early childhood programs for poor kids, or $11.5 billion in tax cuts for millionaires’ estates? Should we cut $2.5 billion in home heating assistance in winter months, or $2.5 billion in tax breaks for oil companies while they earn record profits? And when General Electric pays no taxes and actually gets a tax rebate, something is out of order.

The challenges we face have moral, physical, and spiritual consequences. The thriving of our species may depend on how we meet these challenges.

+Scott

 
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eCrozier #83

On April 1, 2011, in Body of Christ, gospel, mission, by bishopbenhase

From our Catechism:

Q.     What is the mission of the Church?
A.     The mission of the Church is to restore all people to
 unity with God and each other in Christ.

The Church really does not have a mission, per se. Now please wait and hear me out. The Church does not have a mission, but God does, and it is restoring all people to unity with God and one another in Christ. But that mission is God’s property, not ours. The Church then should not be the grammatical focus of any sentence that contains the word mission. In other words, the Church does not have a mission to the world. Rather, God has a mission to the world and God compels the Church to participate in what God is up to in that mission through Jesus Christ.  Thus, the Church is a strategy that God has deployed to accomplish God’s mission.

When we understand mission from this perspective, we remove ourselves as the Church from the center of the story as if the Church were an end in itself. It was not God’s goal to establish the Church as a result of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Rather the Church is God’s strategy for the ongoing living out of the mission of God in Jesus.  Seeing the Church as God’s strategy rather than as God’s goal reorients our focus and helps reorder our understanding of mission.

It is very easy to fall into the trap of understanding the Church as God’s goal. When we do this, we tend toward complacency, self-satisfaction, and, historically, toward triumphalism. This leads us to a mindset that results in our making sure we have churches in as many places as possible so people can come to us when they are ready. If we are an end unto ourselves, if we as the Church are God’s ultimate end, then it stands to reason that we should wait patiently until those outside the Church come to their senses, so to speak, and arrive at the doors of our churches. And when they do, of course, we will welcome them. This sort of triumphalism, however, disorders the Church and distorts our understanding of the Church’s role in God’s mission.

So, the Church is God’s strategy and not God’s goal. The Church should be more verb than noun. This should be liberating news to us for this is more than mere semantics. It is the news that mission is not only about what goes on inside our churches. To be sure, our worship and discipleship formation inside our churches matters. But they matter in so far as they compel and constrain us to leave the confines of our churches and incarnate the Good News of God in Christ in our communities. We cannot restore all people to unity with God if we are hunkered down inside our churches.

This is cold water in our faces during Lent. It has the power to wake us up out of any complacency or triumphalism into which we may have fallen. If we are not participating in God’s mission, then God will surely seek out others who will participate in being the hands and feet and heart of Jesus in the world.

+Scott

 
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eCrozier #77

On February 18, 2011, in Body of Christ, mission, St. Augustine, by bishopbenhase

My life shall be a real life, being wholly full of Thee – St. Augustine in Confessions

The world is full of phonies – Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye

Historically in our culture people turned to St Augustine to read about a life well-examined and well-lived. Then, at some point, Holden Caulfield became a more popular source for such meaningful introspection and living. It is an irony of our time that Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, is a real person while Holden Caulfield is the fictional creation of J D Salinger. So it goes, to quote Kurt Vonnegut.

But the irony is deeper than that. For many people today, church is last place they look for truth, beauty, and meaning. There are many reasons for that. My hunch is you and I could debate why it is many people these days have rejected the church as a source of what is really real in life. My further hunch is that we would have substantial data to support our contentions for why this is so and we would both be right for the most part.

However interesting that would be, I don’t believe it would add much more than further bemoaning the loss of the Church’s influence. But what if we instead called people to a real life, as St Augustine wrote? What might people need to experience in church for that to happen? Here are some helpful questions for such a call.

When people enter our churches do they experience hope? Do they sense the possibility of a new and different life? In Biblical language: Do they get a glimpse of the Holy City? Do they get an inkling of what God has intended all along for God’s creation? Do they experience worship of such grace and beauty that they find themselves drawn into the very life of Jesus? Does this worship gladden their hearts? Does it open their eyes to see God’s action in the world? At the exchange of The Peace and at Coffee Hour do they sense among us a real humility, gentleness, and love?

Regardless of size or shape, every church can faithfully address those questions. Our common life on Sundays should be shaped by how we intentionally respond to those questions. When churches do so, a buzz begins among members and visitors alike and that then is organically carried to others because there is something that strongly touches and moves them. This happens spontaneously. It’s grounded in a passion about who we are as a local outpost of the Body of Christ.

Holden Caulfield was right at least in his contention that the world is full of phonies. Well, maybe not full, but full enough that people today take a much more cynical stance to their lives. They are turned away by what they see as the hypocrisy of the Church. And we bear our share in the causality of such a stance.

I believe people are still longing in their lives for truth, beauty, and meaning. Our call is to live real lives wholly full of God. Our common life on Sundays needs to reflect such a real life. That will make all the difference in the world to people we have yet to meet.

+Scott

 
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eCrozier #73

On January 14, 2011, in Body of Christ, epiphany, love, by bishopbenhase

I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their souls. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Throughout this Season after the Epiphany we’re fed each Sunday from St Paul’s 1st Letter to the Church in Corinth. I don’t know about you, but I find strange comfort in reading about the conflict and factionalism in the church there. Times have changed, but human nature and sin have not. The Corinthians argued with one another and almost forgot that they’d been brought together by God’s grace for a purpose: to be the Body of Christ for a hurting world that desperately needed God’s love. God has so designed the fabric of the Church that we can only proclaim God’s love poured out for us on the cross of Christ through the frail, sinful instrumentality of one another. Now we can question God’s wisdom in entrusting such Good News to a group like the Church. Yet, God has entrusted us with it. We are stewards of God’s foolishness, as St. Paul might say.

So, let’s not be deterred by any disagreement. God requires a great deal from us as bearers of the Good News of God’s foolishness. God calls us to hunger and thirst after righteousness. God calls us to love kindness and mercy. And God calls us to do all that with meek and humble hearts. Fortunately for us, we do not have to do this alone. We’re to live such a life together as humble servants of the Lord Jesus.

Years ago there was an Episcopal priest in a rural, remote parish who desperately needed a community of sisters to staff his school. He had a promise from one group of sisters that they would come, but not for another two years. So in desperation he brought in a small group of sisters whose superior was, to say the least, eccentric.  When the priest reproached her for her peculiar conduct, she was offended and said, “I’d like you to know that I may have many faults, but I‘m strong as hell on humility!”

Jesus calls us to be humble, but not humiliated. He calls us to be poor in spirit, but not to sit idly by while others suffer the pangs of poverty. He calls us to love mercy and so we must speak up when we see others showing no mercy. Dr. King’s audacious call was addressed to our larger society, but he was first and foremost of the Church. The quote above reflects the Great Commandment’s focus on the heart, soul, and mind of each person: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

As the Church, we have the currency to call people to love God when we also work tirelessly to address their body’s need for three meals a day, their mind’s need for culture and beauty, and their soul’s need for dignity, equality, and freedom. Of course, working for such goals is the best way we have been given to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

+Scott

 
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eCrozier # 61

On October 15, 2010, in Body of Christ, by bishopbenhase

“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:18

There’s an important documentary in theatres right now called “Waiting for Superman.” It’s about how public education in many of our cities isn’t serving our children well. The title comes from a phrase coined by Geoffrey Canada the innovative leader of the Harlem Children’s Zone in NYC. Canada said as he was growing up in extreme poverty in the South Bronx his situation seemed so hopeless only Superman could save him. So, he spent his childhood waiting for Superman. Of course, Canada realized as an adult Superman was not coming and that he and others had to act if the next generation of children were to climb out of poverty.

I think we in our own way spend time waiting for Superman, especially in our faith. Jesus is the Superman that saves us from sin and death and brings us safely to heaven. And, of course, that is true. Jesus saves us from sin and death. But that is only half of the Gospel and it can lead us to a deadly passivity where we piously sit on our hands and wait for Superman Jesus to fix everything. We are not just saved from sin and death, we are saved for the ministry of reconciliation. We are saved so we can be the Body of Christ for a broken world. We are saved so we can be the hands and feet and eyes of Jesus in this world.

St Teresa of Avila said it best in her poem: Christ Has No Body

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,?

We’re full Gospel Christians called to witness to the reconciling love of Jesus with every fiber of our being. The world has for too long endured the words of half Gospel Christians who sit on their pious perches asking others if they’ve been saved. Such Christians are sung about in a wonderful old Johnny Cash song called: You’re so heavenly minded you’re no earthly good. It goes like this:

If you’re holdin’ heaven then spread it around
There are hungry hands reaching up here from the ground
Move over and share the high ground where you stood
You’re so heavenly minded and you’re no earthly good
No earthly good you are no earthly good

You and I are not called to “hold heaven.” We’re called to spread it around each day. We’re called to take heaven to the lonely, lost and left out. We are saved for great things.

+Scott

 
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eCrozier # 38

On May 26, 2010, in Body of Christ, Holy Trinity, by bishopbenhase

Have you ever heard of something called the “Butterfly Effect?” It’s a term physicists use to describe a mysterious phenomenon. If a butterfly flaps its wings in Australia, then molecules in Georgia are affected by the flapping. That’s weird, isn’t it? There is also something called the “Strange Attractor.” In this, scientists say that when one sub-atomic particle is affected it can have a corresponding affect on another sub-atomic particle. But here is the amazing thing: that other particle could be on the other side of the galaxy.

This coming Sunday is Trinity Sunday; the day we gather to offer praise to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. When we speak of the Holy Trinity, we’re speaking of the way God has revealed God’s own self to us. The Holy Trinity describes a God who is in perfect relationship. Just as God is revealed to us in the created world, God is revealed to us in the divine nature of inextricable relationship. So, such things as the Butterfly Effect and the Strange Attractor should not be at all surprising. It seems God has created the universe to reflect the very nature of God as Trinity.

Since God is Trinity, what does that say to the Church? It says that God is by nature relational, interdependent, and collaborative. If that’s God’s nature and God has revealed that to the Church, what do you think God desires the Church’s nature to be? Yes, relational, interdependent, and collaborative. Is it any wonder then that the Bible describes the Church as the Body of Christ? St Paul describes the Church as being like a human body. The body is relational, interdependent, and collaborative. Because God is Trinity, God calls the Church to model that very nature. Have you ever wondered why God created the Church to bear his message? If God were better organized he would have used a satellite to beam his message directly into everybody’s home. We’d get the message without ever having to leave the comfort of our lazy boy recliners. We wouldn’t have to ever be in relationship with anyone else. Everybody could get the same message without ever having to be dependent on anyone else, without having to collaborate with other people.

But it’s not in God’s nature to work that way. Instead of pristine wave particles from a satellite, we have one another to bear God’s love to the world. God has so ordered the Church that instead of isolated individuals, we have to be in relationship with one another. Instead of being self-sufficient, we have to be dependent on one another. Instead of being isolated operators, we have to collaborate with one another. The Church is the extension of God’s incarnate nature on the earth. The Church is God’s way of taking take up permanent residence on the earth. The Church is not a human organization even though it’s made up of human beings. The Church isn’t an organization at all, it’s not even a religious society, but it’s an organism, a body, on which God has endowed his very nature. The Church isn’t a place to come for fellowship and goodwill, although those things occur as a result of coming together. Rather, the Church is a place where we gather in God’s name and then go out to incarnate God’s presence in the people, things, and circumstances of our lives.

+Scott

 
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