What We Lost in the Fire

Tis really a requiem for those verdant hippy days of yore 

So - do you remember the 80's? Do you remember the 80's in the United Church? Oh those heady days when we were clearly the largest protestant denomination in Canada and quite a lot of people still went to church. 

I was younger then, and easily influenced, and as a teenager joined the church - my family was not United Church and yet - for me - it was everything. 

I was a kid who wanted to change the world. I joined Greenpeace, I advocated for ecology, I did all those 80'ish type things. 

And each and every year the United Church came out with a powerful position on world events - and mission themes to go with them.

It was the United Church that made me aware of South Africa and Apartheid. It was because of them that I read the book BIKO and became an advocate. 

And that was true of women in ministry, of LGBTQ++ rights, or Palestine... of so many things. 

You see, I have been spending an inordinate amount of time lately thinking about why the church exists. 

I work in a small congregation where there are few people and few resources. I also minister to a huge university where there are thousands of people and little desire. Both things serve as a sort of crucible of thought - allowing me to ask specific questions of myself and others in comparison to entirely different cultural and social realities.  

Or to make that entire paragraph into a simple sentence - I get to ask why old people and young people do not come to church. 

And I really think the idea is tied up in the "what good do we do?" question.

There seems to be a trend lately to pretend that what we do is saving souls. I think this started because people in mainline churches were thinking evangelical churches were still in good shape because of this emphasis. This is entirely incorrect - evangelical congregations attract a mere 2% of Canadians while the United Church can still claim around 6% (the Catholics were at 38% or they were before this latest round of scandal)

But you know when people really paid attention to the United Church? When we advocated for social issues. We were the people the government of Canada consulted with around Gay Marriage. You know why? We had a history of standing up for, fighting for, and developing new ways of seeing those said underdogs.

We were LGBTQ++ before it was cool. We ordained women before women were seen as equals. We stood for something Jesus liked to call the Kingdom of Heaven... or as we might say it now, making things right here on Earth.

You know what truly does not matter to most people, or to the world, or even to God? Whether or not you accept Jesus as Christ and your personal saviour. Whether or not you believe in God or call God father, sister, mother, brother. Whether you believe in the Trinity and virgin birth... or whether you have been saved - whatever that means...

When people worshiped Jesus in his own day and age he kept saying, Cut that out. I am no one. I am just trying to point the way.

And when people said, ok, what is the way? Jesus said - love everyone, love yourself, love God, take care of widows and orphans, don't lie cheat or steal, etc. etc. etc.

JESUS' WAY WAS SOCIAL JUSTICE

And when we concentrated on what Jesus cared about - people cared about us. We were a player on the world stage.

Now our concern is about doctrine and thought policing, about saving souls and things we did not care about in our heyday.

Why is no one seeing the correlation?

Mental Health and Culture Clash

Can an organization have a personality?

I think most of us if we thought about this, would determine that the answer is yes. A political party has a personality, a hospital has a personality, even a restaurant has a personality.

We tend to use the word "culture" to describe this. In fact, a lot of organizations adopt a particular culture for a particular reason. Think about Google and the culture of openness and creativity and fun they try to create for their employees so that said workers do better work.

I think we can even imagine what clashing personalities would look like in this scenario - like when someone who is used to bartering goes to Walmart. Or when you are a relaxed beach bum and go to a swanky gourmet restaurant. There is an obvious culture clash.

In some way or another, your personalities do not mix.

So what does this have to do with the church? I maintain it is everything that goes wrong - we pretend a church does not have a personality when in fact each and every individual congregation has a separate personality and culture.

When I was ordained, lo these many years ago, there was a belief that the training and preparation I received allowed me to serve in any congregation in the United Church in a completely interchangeable way. In fact, that was back in the days when you did two internships, one in a congregation in your home region, and one in a far-flung location... just to prove the point.

I don't know if at one time it was true that every single United Church was the same - But it is certainly true that our personalities and culture continue to grow apart. This is probably true of every denomination.

What if we thought of each congregation as a sibling of every other congregation, who then moved away from home and went out on their own. That might bring us closer to the reality of individual personalities.

Just because we are both United Church Congregations simply means we had the same parents and the same upbringing, but now we are totally different. We are not clones, we are not even twins.

Not only that, but each and every single thing is evolving in its own way.

Back in the 80's the United Church as a national entity appeared to be a pretty easy going parent. I could call up the executive secretary and ask a question over the phone and they would laugh and answer it - both of us would feel our connection growing and I would go off and be a good little kid, basically knowing that I was following in my parent's footsteps.

The institution has grown different in the last couple of decades. I don't mean to argue if it is better or worse, but it is different - sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally.

So now, the parent has become more distant, or the children have, and we grow further and further apart.

We have adopted subgroups that delineate us in ways I wish had never happened - things like Affirm and Cruxifusion divide us into liberal and conservative  - and not in a helpful way.

And what we are left with is a bunch of congregations out there in the world, being led by a bunch of ministers, being attended by a bunch of people - all of whom are situationally the same, but globally different.

I preach in Penniac and Marysville and those two congregations in the same charge are different. They are different again then each and every other church in Fredericton, and on it goes.

So no - I am not trained to work in every congregation - I probably never was. There is no uniformity.

Should there be?

I think at the very least we should have more and deeper roots. We should be recognizable as being in the same family. We should be able to look at each other and instantly understand each other in an "insider" way.

Our individuality and congregationalism have led to an identity crisis. We all know this - but for some reason, we pretend it is not true and we pretend that it does not matter. But it does.

I go to McDonald's, when I do because the cheeseburger I get there is identical to the cheeseburger I got there 45 years ago. The decor, the sounds, and sights have changed - the cheeseburger is what I go for.

We have given up on a solid identity as the liberal thinking left-wing social justice church. That is who we were for the longest time, and that is what people expected to find when they walked in the doors.

As we have decreased in numbers some have decided that we need to change the core of our personality in order to attract more people and do more work - I disagree.

We need to go back to fighting for justice and welcoming all - that was what made us a power to be reckoned with, so much so that our moderators consulted with prime ministers on social issues.

I wish it was still true.