“Sometimes we hear our friends talk in moony, romantic terms of the early church. ‘We need to get back to being just like the early church.’ Heaven help us. These churches were a mess, and Paul wrote his letters to them to try to clean up the mess.” (Peterson, Practice Resurrection)
“If we permit- or worse, promote- dreamy of deceptive distortions of the Holy Spirit creation [the church], we interfere with participation in the real thing. The church we want becomes the enemy of the church we have. It is significant that there is not a single instance in the biblical revelation of a congregation of God’s people given to us in romantic, crusader, or consumer terms. There are no “successful” congregations in Scripture or in the history of the church” (Peterson, Practice Resurrection)
At times in my life, I have lost trust in the church, rejected it, walked away from it, written against it, critiqued it, worked for it, gotten paid by it, bashed it, loved it, planted it, cultivated it, and more.
Over this time, I realize that my understanding of the church is extremely important. Too often, I looked to the church with with unfair expectations that lacked a biblical grounding. Church, I thought, was supposed to be perfect, meet most of my wants and needs, be centered in Christ without any entanglement in sin, deeply spiritual, and generally idyllic. When it failed to meet these criteria, I was left with 2 options: 1) criticize and critique it (and thereby, I would often remove or distance myself from that tangible community); 2) romanticize and mystify it (i.e. remove the theological dream of the church from its tangible reality). Over time, neither of these options satisfied.
Don’t misunderstand me- engaging in critical thought on the church and embracing the mystery of the church are both important. However, these things cannot be separated from the tangible, living-breathing, social and local, worshiping community. For so long, I struggled with this tangible, living-breathing reality called the church. It had too many warts and hang ups. Truth is, it was easier to critique the imperfect bride of Christ than to be part of it. If I privatized my faith, dabbling in occasional conversation with family and friends, I did not have to do the hard work of becoming part of the “body of Christ”. I reasoned, as a believer, I was part of the mystical body of Christ while refusing to engage in the tangible body of Christ. But biblically and historically, God’s people have always been a social and tangible reality in the world- warts and all.
It has been in the context of the church, the real, living-breathing community, that my faith has been sharpened the most. Reading books, talking to friends, writing blogs, listening to sermons are all great and helpful. But they easy. They engage my heart and mind, but not my humanity. It is in the context of the church, I am challenged with difficult people, actual arguments, differing personalities, real needs, and so on. This context, better than any other I know, helps me to grow up in Christ- taking up my cross, submitting my my brothers and sisters, encouraging and being encouraged in the faith, forgiving and being forgiven, etc.
I admit, that I also find my workplace, the neighborhood, “the world” as a context for growing up in Christ. This is important both for my maturity in Christ and the mission of God in the world. And there are many Christians and churches, who in avoiding the world, seriously hinder their faith and neglect God’s mission. But this is the church scattered, it is not the body gathered around the Christ’s body. I have certainly learned that I cannot be the church alone. It is both too easy and too difficult. Mostly, it is not God’s intention.
“I want to look at what we have, what the church is right now, and ask, DO you think that maybe this is exactly what God intended when he created the church? Maybe the church as we have it provides the very conditions and proper company congenial for growing up in Christ, for becoming mature, for arriving at the measure of the stature of Christ. Maybe God knows what he is doing, giving us church, this church.” (Peterson, Practicing Resurrection)
I really like this line “They engage my heart and mind, but not my humanity.” Very true.
But I’m not sure that I would agree (in my own experience) that “my faith has been sharpened the most” within the context of church community. Maybe my patience tested the most. My ideals challenged the most. My disappointments felt the most. But my faith, by far, has been challenged most by testing it in the world. Then the “pat answers” that pass in Sunday school suddenly begin to ring hollow.
Stop by here every once and a while-good thoughts and a formative book for me.
I think Peterson does a good job of re-centering church in the way of Christ. We often want to center the church in some of the characteristics of the USA-I measure the success of this church based on how it makes me feel (the highest good is feeling the least pain) or I measure the success of this church based on how broad and deep its impact is (the success of a corporation is in its productivity).
Jesus was not interested in making those who were already comfortable to feel less pain (pharisees, the rich ruler, etc-though of course different for those in pain) and he was also not interested in having the most productive ministry (he could have healed a lot more people)-but he did model the ways of God-something the church still aims for.
The church still falls horrifically short many times, but our aims should not be mis-appropriated American ideas of success but God’s model. I think this is where we often mess up. Call the church back to THAT.