A few days ago I returned from east-central Africa, where I spent time with Anglicans in the Diocese of Nzara in the Episcopal Church of the Sudan. Today I woke up feeling I might have something to say in the wake of it.
I guess maybe consider this pastiche a kind of spitball of the urgings that have begun to stir in me in the wake of all I have seen and heard.
Let us:
- Put Jesus Christ at the center of things and keep him there
- Quit keeping score and embrace a theology of the cross
- Move beyond “being on the right side of history” to stand permanently with the oppressed and marginal
- Move beyond schism and factionalism
- Not give a damn about being Number One anymore
- Stop trying to fix everything (especially using the Magic Bullet approach)
- Put an end to one-upsmanship
- Stop interrupting/talking over each other and start listening to each other
- Start reading large amounts of Scripture with each other for the pure joy of it
- Start praying with each other because we want to and it’s a privilege to do so
- Stop selling people short and unapologetically put them to work
- Infuse liturgy with space enough for people to really insert themselves
- Revive the art of sympathetic, Christ-centered preaching
- Revive the art of transformative catechesis
- Start congregations as small, mobile units
- Welcome everyone and mean it
- Deal with antagonism using the cures offered by Scripture
- Combine congregations as necessary
- Ensure that the costs of participation in the Body of Christ are known up-front
- Have everyone come together as often as can be done
- Teach everyone and learn from everyone
- Remake the church the center of civic life, with or without buildings
- Bring everyone with something to say to the table
- Listen to the artists and ask them to help
- Make it clear that we can only do as much as we can do; that it is vain to do any more than that
- State with absolute certitude why we need a building before we build it, and be prepared to move out if our reasons change
- Stop fighting about money and move together toward fiscal solvency
- Throw grand funerals
- Choose to exercise the virtue of joy so often that at some point – in maybe a century? – it is the common birthright of our people and sewn into our DNA
- Resolve to take a voice in politics that transcends party and is consistent with Christ alone
No comments:
Post a Comment