The Task at Hand
As an evangelical minister, I found myself both disappointed and a bit disturbed as I watched my portion of the church respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, racial strife, and political polarization of 2020 and beyond. Being married to Dr. Emily Smith, the Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist, I am aware that I am not alone in this feeling of disquiet. Throughout the past year, Emily has heard from many Christians who have expressed similar sentiments. For many of us, a sense of homelessness has set in as we feel more and more disconnected from the faith community that raised and formed us. More than this, the evangelical faith that provided structure for our lives has been found wanting. For some of us, it lies broken on the floor. What are we to do when our faith and faith communities no longer feel like home?
First, we mourn. Like the Psalmist, we pour out our pain to God in unflinching honesty.
Second, we begin the hard work of reconstruction. Here it is important to note that it is the dominant evangelical expression of faith that has failed us rather than the faith itself. As such, we are able to survey our broken down faith with hope. To continue with building and construction imagery, over decades and centuries, we evangelicals in the United States of America have built our house of faith in problematic ways. Needed things have been missing, while suspect and sometimes harmful things have been present. And, even the good things have at times been fitted together strangely and at odd angles. This house, which provided a home for so many years, has been deconstructed around us. Yet, all is not lost. Many of the broken pieces are worthy and needed materials in the house of faith, and we can embrace them as such. And, we now have the opportunity to examine and reject those pieces that have been found wanting. In hope, we can begin the task of picking up the pieces and fitting them together in new and better ways.
The task of reconstruction is what this newsletter - Welcome the Kingdom - is for. As a pastor and theology nerd, I’ve had the opportunity to think deeply about the church in the past year. Actually, I’ve been thinking in this direction for quite some time - the white evangelical house has always seemed a little wonky to me. Welcome the Kingdom is the place where I’ll be sharing my thoughts, reflections, and conclusions about a new faithfulness for a new day. It is my hope that these ponderings might be helpful to you in your own work of reconstruction.
In creating this newsletter, I am aware that I am joining a wider conversation. Many evangelical churches comported themselves well in the difficulties of 2020. To borrow wording from Paul the Apostle, they acted in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. My family recently joined one of these congregations, and we are seeing the fruit of faithful community. I am also aware of other capable voices who are actively engaging in the same conversation. Thank God for those who are reimagining evangelical faith from the inside out and those on the outside who are willing to offer insight and aid, often at a personal cost. I hope my thoughts will prove worthy contributions to this wider conversation.
As we undertake the hard task of reconstruction in this particular space, I know we won’t get everything right - I’m sure that I won’t. But, by God’s grace and the leading of the Spirit, we can engage in a hopeful conversation about what our faith will look like in the days and years to come. And it may be that God, who is gracious beyond measure, will take our broken and halting speech and make it into something beautiful. May he grant us wisdom and strength for the task at hand. May he bring beauty from ashes. By his grace, may we eventually stand together in the light of a new dawn.
Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash
I tried to copy my previous comment so I could delete then re-write, but it didn't copy, so I'll just write something new.
Mike, thank you for joining Emily on this writing journey. I'm one whose heart has been shattered by what I have experienced at the hands of "church" people in this past year. My faith in *Christ* is firm. My faith in the *church* has been severely battered.
Twenty years ago, our family returned from nearly 11 years of life in Japan. We had a teen, pre-teen, and a five year old at the time. I saw some disturbing trends in the church, trends toward a "shock-jock radio" style of outrage fomenting in "Christian" media. After a year or two, I quit trying to listen to Christian radio. Our older children did not fit into a church where there was little place for serious faith formation. They still struggle years later to have a place where they truly fit. 2020 was the year that so much of what I have observed in the last 20+ years came to a head, on full display for the whole world to see.
During social distancing it has been so difficult to connect with others who are also grieving all of the things in this post. That has amplified the sense of “homelessness.”