Home / Faith & Spirituality / Featured / The Church: A Mighty Fortress or a Crumbling Institution?
Author: Amy Sevimli
A very wise person once told me that the Church is like a wall. To those outside the Church, the wall is like a mighty fortress, cold, unwelcoming, and impenetrable. To those inside the Church the wall is crumbling, porous, and in danger of falling to pieces at any moment. It seems like it needs constant fortification to keep it standing, just the way it is.
But the Church has never been intended to be a wall or even a building. In Christian history, the Church has always been understood to be Christ’s body in the world. Teresa of Avila described it this way:
Christ has no body now on but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion is to look out to the world.
Yours are the feet with which Christ is to go about doing good.
Yours are the hands with which Christ is to bless all people now.
In the history of the Church, well-known saints like Tereas of Avila and less well-known saints, even some like you and me, have always understood that the Church is not a building; the Church is the people in it. Together, the people of the Church are to be Christ’s body in the world. Apart we are each to be what Martin Luther called “little Christs” in our neighborhoods, communities and in the world.
Yet, there are many people who have experienced the people of the Church to be anything but an embodiment of Christ, and current reports show that this trend is growing. (http://religions.pewforum.org/reports) In addition to reports like these, many of us have anecdotal evidence to corroborate it: we talk to lots of people who don’t see Christ when they look at the Church; they see a wall.
But why? What would it take, in your opinion, to change that? What would it take for the Church to look less like a wall and more like the eyes, and hands, and feet of Christ, both to our neighbors and to the world?
Photo courtesy of: Spoon
March 12th, 2009 at 11:14 am
I think many congregations have an inward focus. Most of the hours that people spend for their congregations is devoted to doing things that make the people in our congregations happy.
When planning worship, do we focus on what songs and styles we like, or on how our worship might best share the Gospel with both regular attenders and those who walk in the door for the first time? How do both feel welcomed and enabled to grow in faith?
When on a building/remodeling committee: are we just focusing on what those inside the community like, fixing things that aren’t broken, and trying to please ourselves? Or are we thinking about how our architecture, landscaping, and interior design openly share the Gospel with those pass by or visit for the first time? (I don’t mean we should write scripture passages across our exterior walls, but rather I wonder if we give thought to whether our architecture proclaims that all are welcome here, etc.)
Are we considering whether our construction budgets could be better spent feeding hungry families or housing people who are homeless?
Do our congregations spend large amounts of time feeding the poor face to face, establishing relationships with the same people on a daily or weekly basis? Do we form friendships with those who are outside of our social, ethnic, religious group? Do we allow homeless people to sleep on our premises any night of the year, year round? As the body of Christ, should we really turn people away?
Are our churches open and available for use by the community in the evenings when people aren’t working or in school? For example, some comgregations offer ESL courses. Congregations could also run a coffee shop, a community center, a game room, or other place to hang out and grow as community. Or do we lock our doors at 4pm most nights of the week?
I love the Church, but these are questions I’ve heard from young adults, sometimes frequently. These are things I struggle with. If we are going to connect with young adults, I think we need to take these types of questions seriously.
Jesus turned the systems of his time on their head, looking at new interpretations of the law, eating with sinners, touching the untouchable, and loving the unlovable. Martin Luther questioned everything, asking what traditions should stand and which should be abandoned. Maybe we need to reclaim this aspect of our heritage.