a reasonable level of health…

Every denomination and institution has its’ problems. Everyone single one. The problems range from organizational to theological to most often a combination of the two. There is no way around it and anyone who attends or is committed to one is going to have to understand and accept that. While this is true, I often here this fact used as an argument against those who are contemplating “leaving” for something else or those like me who can tend to complain, critique and question a lot.

First of all, we have to understand that our congregations are just that – congregations. Those I meet with and I are not the only Christians in the world. We are one group of whatever size meeting together and pooling our resources together for some list of goals. Each congregation has its own personality, unique resources and abilities to do what they do. The church downtown will have a different “personality” than the one in the burbs. The bigger congregation will have more resources than the smaller one. One group will be able to pull off something that another group doesn’t have the talent to do. As much as 1 Corinthians 12 is about how we as individuals with our unique capabilities fit together to make up the “body of Christ” it seems it also could apply to how we as groups or congregations fit together. It is ok that one group can do something that another group can’t. It is ok if we play different roles based on our unique personalities. In that sense we can be less competitive and more mutually appreciative.

So, while every group has its problems we are also unique in certain ways. So, if a person is looking for a perfect place they won’t find it (no duh), but they may find a group that “fits” with them more closely in “personality” and even theology. I have heard these people who have “moved” from one group to another be labeled as “consumerists” among other things. While there may be some who are not sure of what they are looking for and tend to shop most of the time, I really haven’t met them. Everyone I know who has “left” one group for another has done so with long periods of agonizing. Our label of “consumerist” seems to me to be an attempt to marginalize someone in an effort to avoid really admitting our own short comings.

While there is no perfect group, we must admit that there are different levels of health. Yes, 1 Corinthians as applied to individuals explains to us that one part of the body can not declare itself more important than the other and no part of the body should see itself as unimportant. If applied to different congregations with unique personalities and abilities, I would conclude that no congregation should declare itself more important than another and no group of people should see themselves as unimportant. No doubt. But, if we step back and allow ourselves to think critically without crossing the line into marginalizing, we must admit that it is possible for a group to struggle with maintaining a “reasonable level of health.”

For instance, we all know of or have heard of some church that was once 200-300 and in just a few years eroded down to 20-30. Usually, this involves some “issue” or a plethora of “issues” over time that leaves people walking away with little hope of cleaning up the mess. Sure the “eye” can’t say to the “foot” you are not needed or less valuable, but the fact is that if the “foot” keeps walking around without some sort of shoe for protection it could become very unhealthy quickly.

While the things that make a congregation unhealthy include personality conflicts, poor leadership, divisive members and the like, so often much of it revolves around some sort of theological debate. It may not be about a specific verse or interpretation, but more so just about what someone or some group of someone’s think church is about. So many places are becoming increasingly unhealthy as they hold onto certain theological conclusions that continue to keep them from being effective and productive. The problem with many of these places is that they find ways to blame everyone else but themselves - the young people these days, other groups that just “entertain”, the godlessness of the nation and so on. Some have wrapped their fingers around a theology of “doing church” a certain way while at the same time members slip through their fingers like sand leaving them with an empty fist to shake at the world in anger as if it were everyone else’s fault.

While there are a number of reasonably “healthy” churches in my heritage, there are many that are not. Some have shrunk from 400-500 down to 300. Others have shrunk form 200 to 40. Some are wrestling with how to “grow” again and others are facing the reality that their resources have become so depleted they may not have what it will take to reverse the momentum and re-build.

I will be one of the first to agree that we have made this way of Jesus ridiculously more complicated than it truly is. But, at this point because of our over complication, we find the need to work back through the complicated mess. What I mean is that we can't just declare this way of Jesus to be simple while we ignore the tangled mess we have people wrapped up in. We must address the “knots” and work to undo them. I see a lot of people who have maybe grown tired of the knots or have untangled from them personally, but for one reason or another they keep sitting in their pew almost blatantly ignoring the knots all around them. I personally wonder how much longer my heritage can effectively hold onto the silly conclusions around music, instruments in worship and our exclusion of women from being heard in our gatherings and yet still claim to be relevant.

I understand that God can work through us despite our misunderstandings and human shortcomings. I started with acknowledging that no group is perfect. Yet, while every group has some value, it is completely possible for a group to become unhealthy and unproductive. I think until we face our theological failings and actually do something about it, we will see more and more groups tripped up by their theological knots and rendered ineffectual.