Growth and The Great Commission

On Sunday, we were sad to share the news that Mary Bonnyman passed away last Thursday afternoon at Epoch, where she'd been staying for some time. Her granddaughter, Chrissie, was with her, and she'd had a good day. She was 95. The service for Mary will be this Saturday at 11 AM. She'll be buried later this summer in her family's plot in her native Nova Scotia.

In our "GPS" meetings, we've been talking about growth; what does it mean to grow? Do we want to? It feels like we're supposed to want to, but it can also feel good to be in a church where you know everyone. Is it OK to just want to be sustainable, with enough people and money to accomplish the things we want to do? Of course, there aren't really simple answers to any of these things. It's hard when things change--even positive changes. The Great Commission, which ends the Gospel of Matthew, tells us we have to. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (28:19-20).

Unfortunately, a lot of terrible things in Christian history have happened in the name of the Great Commission. In her excellent Pentecost letter, our Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, talks about how, "in their search for uniformity, our forebears in the faith have repeatedly done much spiritual violence in the name of Christianity," giving examples of the suppression of Native American cultural practices which, theologically, are congruent with Christian orthodoxy but made missionaries personally uncomfortable. Too often, that kind of missionary work ends up being a dividing line, with "Good Christian" on one side of the line, and "Condemned Heathen" on the other. And almost always in that scheme, the "Good Christians" are all supposed to think and act the same.

The good news is that it doesn't have to be this way. We don't have to be old-style missionaries who travel the world (or stand with sandwich board signs on the street corner) telling people to repent. But we are still called to share our faith. I was talking with Noah about this the other day and he put it rather starkly: "If my faith is important to me, and I don't share it with others, then I'm saying 'this wonderful thing is MINE, and you can't have it."

Instead, we can share our faith out of the example of our lives--how we are changed, how we learn generosity, and peace, and kindness and justice--and how we are fed, forgiven, and loved.

But what happens when people actually take us up on it? If everyone invited a friend to church, and our sleepy summer services ended up with as many people as Easter Sunday? What would that feel like? Are we ready to open our arms to just anybody? I hope so, and I also hope that when we do talk about growth, that we can get out from under the financial imperative. Yes we need more pledges. Yes we need to grow to support our building and our staff. But we also need to grow because it's part of our faith. Spiritually, I believe we are called to a kind of "holy instability" when it comes to our communities, because they don't just belong to us. We need to always be facing outward toward the world to welcome in that world. It needs what we have!

We need to take care of ourselves, too--but the good news is that we can do both at the same time. We can take care of ourselves by having a potluck supper and games night at the same time as we make that event Bring a Friend to Church party. It's not a zero-sum game, where being open to others means not taking care of ourselves. There's enough grace, and space, for everyone when we realize that it's not our job to provide it--it's God's. And God can always come up with enough for everyone.

Blessings,
Sara+

For Bishop Katharine's Pentecost letter, click here.
Her letter is a response to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, whose own Pentecost letter was a sort of reprimand of the American Church--For Diana Butler Bass' very good analysis of the conflict, "The REAL Reason for the Anglican-Episcopal Divide" click here. She points out that recent disagreements over sexuality are actually disagreements about how Anglicanism works--and what kind of church we want to be.