We
have taken both worship and nurture for granted. As leaders
of the church, we need to answer these questions individually
and corporately: How do we live out our lives as believers?
as followers of Jesus Christ? and as participants in a covenant
community? The answers should not—must not—be assumed.
The individual and corporate responses about living the Christian
life are expressed through our stewardship of all life’s
gifts: by caregiving, by providing nurture rooted in the sacraments
and the living Word, by concern for justice, and by active mission
in the world.
The content of one’s life that flows from response to
the call to worship and stepping out in mission completes who
we are and how we live life together in the Body of Christ.
Underlying the question “What’s really important
to church leaders?”—be it heard as a judgment or
a challenge—is the assumption that we have a “faith”
problem in our church.
To illustrate, consider the “Around
the Fireplace” reflection on the Synoptic Gospels’
three views of the sleeping Jesus being awakened to calm the
life-threatening storm.1 The “faith”
problem we observe during the storm is most instructive, and
suggests three levels of faith.
The travelers had enough faith to get in the boat with Jesus
and start the trip to the other side. After the storm is miraculously
calmed, their faith has the benefit of having been tested. In
the calm aftermath, they have an opportunity to reflect on having
been saved. But when the turmoil seems to be at its height,
shaky faith is expressed in three different ways. In Luke’s
version, faith was expressed as a declaration of need: “Master!
Master! We are perishing!” By Matthew’s account,
faith was a last resort plea: “Lord, save us. We are perishing!”
And in Mark’s Gospel, what we today may describe as an
attitude of entitlement colored the expression of their faith
in Jesus: “Teacher, don’t you care that we are perishing?”
Don’t take worship for granted!
The answer to how we live our lives as faith-filled followers
of Jesus Christ is rooted in worship. This is our common experience.
In it we are reminded that all who respond to the call to worship
are in the same boat. What happens in worship is, or should
be, our primary concern.
A Sacraments Study Group of the PC(USA) led by the office of
Theology and Worship has issued a call to all congregations:
“This call is to renewal, through Word and Sacrament,
of our life together in Jesus Christ, by engaging in practices
that deepen baptismal life and discipleship.” This call
is the progress report to the 217th General Assembly (2006),
as congregations prepare for a 218th General Assembly (2008)
response to recent overtures.
Specifically, for the next two years congregations are invited
to:
- set the font in full view of the congregation;
- open the font and fill it with water on every Lord’s
Day;
- set cup and plate on the Lord’s Table on every Lord’s
Day;
- lead appropriate parts of weekly worship from the font
and from the table; and increase the number of Sundays on
which the Lord’s Supper is celebrated.”2
The following quotes are a window into the Rationale for the
progress report and its challenge: [read
more]
The Spirit of God is at work, through the Word and Sacraments,
to form and reform the church. Therefore, we invite the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) to renewed sacramental practice—expanded,
deepened, reflected on, in all of our congregations. We trust
the Church to be the body of Christ, and we trust God’s
Spirit to lead us. As we do this faithfully and well together,
God will be at work among us.
Our baptismal identity in Jesus Christ unites us as the church;
it is the foundation for our communal life and the ground of
our ministry in the world. A renewed focus on baptismal identity
and sacramental practice will enable us to live together with
our differences and enjoy the unity that is Christ’s gift
to his church. The church may become better able to recognize
this gift as we gather regularly and deliberately around the
font and the table.
Don’t take nurture for granted!
My other observation about the challenging judgmental statement
above is that the word “nurture” was used instead
of “Christian education.” Did you notice?
The replacement of the term “Christian education”
by other words supports the assertion that Christian education
is being taken for granted, if not ignored altogether by too
many in the church.
By taking Christian education for granted, we have let the
prevailing definition of this ministry classroom and its purpose
degenerate. Are we engaging in Christian education if children
are merely in a Sunday school classroom with an adult?
The challenge is that, whatever we call it, however we equip
members and leaders to do it and be nurtured by it, no matter
how many activities are named—nurture, leadership development,
discipleship, congregational support, program development, spiritual
formation, or lifelong learning—it needs to be language
that has a place in a comprehensive ministry of Christian education.
In Mark’s account of the storm, the savior being awakened
is called “teacher.” The teacher’s educational
question was “Have you still no faith?” To grow
in faith, the followers who climbed into the boats needed to
be asked an evocative and instructive question in order to be
nurtured by the realization that the teacher was their savior.
We can have many experiences as part of a church. We can do
a lot by being together in the boat. We can also weather storms
if together we nurture our troubled faith. Christian education
prepares us to learn from all that we experience in worship
and all that we experience as we seek to be faithful disciples.
But if the faith questions are not asked, we may become so preoccupied
with the storm that we forget Jesus is with us in the boat.
The questions remind us that he has already stilled the wind
and saved us.
We are reminded again and again that the Spirit of the living
God is with us on this journey through life. The Christian education
aspect of our ministry now asks, “So what’s next?
Now what?”
All right. Called, elected, and ordained leaders, as your members
return to their fall routines, how will you enrich their shared
worship life? How will you challenge and enable members to grow
in faith? These are questions you need to answer individually
and communally.
Your leadership challenge is to be sure that worship and Christian
education are not just part of the fall routine, but are lifted
up as vital to the lives of everyone who, by coming into your
church, steps into the boat with Jesus.
Notes
1. Mark 4:35–41; Matthew 8:23–27; Luke 8:22–25
2. Report to the 217th General Assembly (2006) Recommendation
“D,” from the Congregational Ministries Division
recommendation to the General Assembly Council. A link to this
study can be found on our Web site: www.pcusa.org/ideas. |
