Text: John 15:9-14 (see below)
On Thursday, I wrote a reflection about an experience I had at a recovery meeting and how it stimulated me to reflect about the institutional Church. Today I want to continue my thoughts on the subject. To have readers up to speed, here is an excerpt from that blog posting:
“At a recovery meeting last night, the following portion of text was read from Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions: “Who wishes to be rigorously honest and tolerant? Who wants to confess his faults to another and make restitution for harm done? Who cares anything about a Higher Power, let alone meditation and prayer? Who wants to sacrifice time and energy in trying to carry A.A.’s (D.A.’s) message to the next sufferer? No, the average alcoholic, self-centered in the extreme, doesn’t care for this prospect – unless he has to do these things in order to stay alive himself” (page 23).
“There was a deafening silence after the reader had finished those words for a profound truth had been shared and everybody knew it. In my own process, I remembered how I resisted being “rigorously honest”; not wanting to “confess faults”; not giving a rip about some other person who might be the “next sufferer.” Self-centered to an extreme, the addict continues to pretend that all is well until faced with his or her immediate survival.
“Jesus said, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
“In recovery, there is much talk about moving from vagueness to clarity. This is an aspect of the program that I have been diligently working on. Until one becomes rigorously honest of what is happening in one’s life there can be no chance of transformation or renewal. Until one deals honestly with one’s faults, allowing God to “remove those defaults of character”, and attempting to make restitution for harm done, a person continues to live in a paralyzed state. Until one becomes radically tolerant of others and wants to sacrifice weekly time and energy to bring the good news of salvation to another lost soul, a person continues to live in darkness. But all of that can change in an instant if the person is willing to embrace truth which liberates and transforms.”
What set my mind spinning after the meeting and drove me to reflection deep into the night was how descriptive those words from Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions were for the institutional Church. How many persons are in leadership positions in local congregations who care nothing about God, “let alone meditation and prayer”, and have no desire to develop and nurture a spiritual life? I wager that number is more than we Christians care to admit.
Many years ago now I served in a parish where a prominent member of the community wanted to be elected to the vestry. She had one driving ambition: to make sure that she had the definitive say in the deciding of what type of tree would be planted in the circle in front of the church. When that action was completed during her first six months on the vestry, she was lost for the next two and a half years of her term.
We ask the wrong questions when choosing folks to serve in leadership roles in the Church. Desperate to fill positions, church officials seem to be content with filling “round holes with square pegs” instead of seeking persons who are spiritually mature and committed to seeing that other members in the congregation are growing in their walk with Christ. January is election season in the Episcopal Church for leaders to serve on vestries, in all of the newsletters that I received both snail mail and online, none of the following questions were asked of candidates wishing to serve:
· Describe for the congregation your prayer life?
· Have you ever been involved in an incident leading to the reconciliation of persons or parties? What was your role in such an experience?
· How often do you read the Bible during the week? How often do you attend church services during the month? What ministries in the parish are you actively involved in? How have you served the Lord?
· Jesus commanded his followers to “love one another as I have loved you.” Give an example of your following that commandment.
· Do you feel that you are “God-commissioned” for your service on the vestry or are you driven by personal ambition?
· Most importantly: What is it about your relationship with Jesus that the world cannot live without knowing?
These question, I believe, begin to get to the heart of the matter of leadership in the Church.
Now, my detractors will contend that I do not know what I am talking about! “We need leaders, Brian, who are esteemed in business matters, who will make sure that the ‘bottom line’ is adhered to and that our church will be in fiscal order,” they will say. I am not arguing that position. I agree that parishes need folks to serve in leadership positions who have had experience running a business.
But the Church is not IBM, Bank of America, or the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company! The Church is so much more!! The Church invests in souls of men, women and children. The spiritual well being of our members is just as important if not more important than the fiscal “bottom line” of the institution. When dollars and cents and buildings take the priority over the souls of our members, the Church is lost.
I will finish this reflection on Monday pondering the question raised above: “Who wants to sacrifice time and energy in trying to carry A.A.’s (D.A.’s) message to the next sufferer?” and how that relates to the Church. I hope you will return and reflect with me. Have a good weekend.
Love One Another - Brian
Acceptance
Nancy Compton Williams
When your past comes to live
in the woods ... behind your house,
you must go to the window,
forgive yourself once again,
and welcome the creature
that suns himself on the sill.
Source: Sacred Journey
John 15:9-14
Jesus said: As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
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