Moving Beyond the Labels!
While visiting with some church leaders yesterday, I was asked, “What sort of churches do you see that are having real trouble?” In the context of the larger conversation, the primary assumption of the question was whether a particular set of practices or a particular theological stance made a difference in the health of a congregation. In other words, the implicit question was, “Does being ‘conservative’ or ‘progressive’ in your doctrinal stance make a difference in congregational vitality?”
Such a question is common enough. Some people will argue that being very conservative can make a church unwelcoming and closed, so under that line of thinking, traditionalism is problematic. Yet others will argue that if you make a progressive set of moves, then a church can lose the very distinctives that make a church the church. Yet another factor that comes into play is that most humans, likely including you and me, tend to see categories like conservative and progressive in a self-referential way. That is to say, what I believe and practice is more at the center of things than not.
All of this is usually at play. And all of it neglects something very central and critical to questions about congregational health in the congregations that I see.
What is the central factor? It is simple and as clear as the witness throughout the book of Acts. Congregational health finds its source in the message of a God who arrives in our world through the living, dying, and living-again Jesus.
Throughout every narrative in the book of Acts, when some disruption or opportunity comes, what we discover is that God is showing up and people are encountering the living presence of God in the declaration of the gospel.
The Holy Spirit shows up in the festival of Pentecost. Peter tells the Jesus story, and people come to faith. (Acts 2)
Peter and John meet a lame person. They offer him hope in the name of Jesus, and healing occurs. (Acts 3)
The early church is telling and living the gospel story. It kicks up a lot of dust and attention. Local political leaders are concerned, and they are warned by one of their own (Gamaliel) to leave it alone because if it is God at work, there is nothing stopping it! (Acts 5)
Philip gets to engage with a high-level government official from Ethiopia and ends up in a baptismal pond. “What can hinder me from being baptized?” says the eunuch. Great question! (Acts 8)
Peter raises Dorcas from the dead, finds out that all kinds of animals are actually God’s animals and are clean, and then gets to share the Jesus story with a centurion. “What can hinder God’s work and the arrival of the Spirit?” “Nothing” seems to be the answer! (Acts 10)
Story after story unfolds in Acts, and it becomes so abundantly clear that what makes for health and vitality is that in every turn, in every new moment, and in every disruptive event, there is the space to look for God’s arrival and to name it! That is why there are so many gospel sermons and gospel moments in Acts. These folks actually believed that God was up to something, and they looked for it.
So, when I hear people in congregations today asking about congregational health and what makes for a healthy church, or asking questions such as “What can we do in our church” or “Do we need to become more progressive or traditional,” I think the wrong question is being asked. And poor questions lead us into poor places. The better questions, the healthy questions to ask are “What is God up to in our church and in our community?” and “Where do we see the movement of God’s Spirit?” We want our people to be like those crowds on the day of Pentecost, asking, “What does this mean?”
We need the leaders of God’s people to have their eyes open for those disruptive moments and opportunities. Such moments are constantly present in our congregations and communities, and we need to have the hopeful courage to show and tell the good story of the God who arrives in Jesus Christ. When that happens, you will find health!
You can be progressive, traditional, or whatever other label that you may wish to choose about your practices. However, if you are not looking for God’s action and declaring God’s story of grace, then you are missing the best thing of all. You are missing the source of life and vitality for a congregation, and bigger yet, God’s kingdom mission!
And here is the most encouraging news of all: what God is seeking to do is unstoppable. The gates of hell itself can not stop God’s arrival in the world. And the book of Acts signals this in a remarkable way. Luke uses a particular word throughout Acts to point to God’s relentless action. It is the word used with the eunuch’s story in Acts 8. The word is “unhindered.” Luke uses it a number of times to describe the arrival of the Spirit, as with Cornelius in Acts 10, along with several other incidents to reflect God’s action. And then, as Paul is under house arrest in what seems like a strange way to end the book, Luke closes the book of Acts with these words about Paul: “He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance” (Acts 28:30-31).
What is Luke doing? Luke is declaring that the way of vibrant, healthy faith lies in seeing God’s presence even in the hard things and using the gospel story as the lens through which everything else is seen. When that happens, when persons like Paul and ordinary congregations like your own congregation do this, there is no stopping God’s purposes in the world!
Blessings,
Carson
