The eCrozier

Christianity has died many times and risen again, for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave. – G. K. Chesterton

The Anglican Communion News Service reports that West Africa’s new Anglican archbishop, the Most Reverend Solomon Tilewa Johnson, has identified “the threat posed by new churches” as one of the top priorities for the Anglican Church there. He expressed a concern that the Anglican bishops of West Africa share about losing young people to other churches or losing them from church altogether.

Archbishop Johnson stressed: “We need to be relevant in the first place. I would want to work with my fellow bishops to see what strategies we could come up with to make our message understandable enough for people to respond.”

The above should sound at all too familiar to us in the American context. Reports out of Africa for the last generation have informed us of the significant growth of the church on that continent. And that growth continues. Still, as Archbishop Johnson states, the Anglican Church is facing a struggle now for how to respond to the new challenge of the loss of young people from the church.

Parts of Africa are now going through what we in our context have been going through for a generation and what Europe has gone through since the middle part of the 20^th Century: the church losing its influence and relevancy in people’s lives. This should concern us, but I do not see this as a problem to be solved as much as I see it as an opportunity God is giving us to, as the Chesterton quote above suggests, to die and rise again.

So, let me provoke here: What in our church needs to die so that we might rise again? Another way of framing that question might be: What do we need to give up, or give over, or let go of in order to receive the new life of resurrection as a church? Going forward, what is essential for us to take with us and what can we declare to be adiaphora (look it up, if that will help)? A classic Anglican answer might be: we take with us the Scriptures, Creeds, Sacraments, and Holy Orders, the so-called four pillars. My hunch is we unconsciously pile a lot of other things on top of those four pillars that don’t need to be included. That is what we need to wrestle with as a church right now.

But let’s bring this to an individual level. What are each of us willing to let go of or give over that we might participate in this resurrection? This is called repentance; the act of turning around, changing our way of thinking and acting, and letting go of our past practices so that we might receive the new gift of resurrection. It is easy to suggest to the church, or even to criticize the church about what changes it should make so it can live into this resurrection. It is a far more difficult task to confront ourselves with a fearless spiritual inventory. So, what are you willing to give up, give over, or let go of in order to participate with your fellow disciples in the resurrection of the Church?

+Scott