Being Church Together

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous as I drove into the church parking lot for our working group’s first Reimagining Church meeting. I hadn’t met any of the group members yet and had no idea what their expectations might be for me and for our work together. I was also starting to feel daunted by one of the central questions of the program: how do we even go about reimagining church? The theme of the program had inspired me from afar, but as the rubber began hitting the road, I felt uncertain - where do we even begin? how will we know what direction to take? In a few of our practicum class sessions leading up to this first working group meeting, we had discussed the importance of us, as facilitators, trusting that God would be at work in our meetings and trusting that the Spirit would lead the way. To instill this trust, we were wisely encouraged to take personal time for prayer and spiritual centering prior to entering the church and setting up the meeting space. But even as I prayed before this first meeting, the nerves remained. I wondered, Why am I still nervous? Am I simply not trusting God enough?

As an initial meditative exercise, I invited the working group members to move silently around the church - the sanctuary, the hallways, the fellowship hall, etc. - and reflect on moments when they’ve most acutely felt the presence of God within the church. After about ten minutes, we re-grouped and began sharing. The memories they uplifted were stunningly tender and wide-ranging: the first time serving as a youth acolyte, retreats to a local Lutheran camp, being met with an indescribable feeling of warmth while first visiting the church, and the simple yet profound weekly ritual of Communion. As I listened to their stories, my nerves melted away and a sense of inspiration welled up within me.

I think part of the reason for my initial nerves was a fundamental forgetting of what church is. Church is not a building, a budget, a liturgy, or a list of programs that can be reimagined “on paper.” After all, church isn’t something that we do. Such an understanding of church would yield a Reimagining Church process that seeks - before anything else - to do church differently and to do church better. As a Lutheran, the resonance here with works-righteousness, the notion that we earn our salvation from God by performing enough good works, rings out clearly. After all, more fundamentally than anything we do, church starts with the very presence of us gathered together in community before God. The church is the people. But it’s not the people alone; in the gospel of Matthew, we read, “for where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” (Matthew 8:20). So, as I listened to group members share memories about when they had felt the presence of God at Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, their stories harkened me back to a more faithful and spirit-filled understanding of what church is really about: it’s about God, and it’s about God with us. Such a recognition doesn’t necessarily make the question - how do we reimagine church? - any easier, but it certainly re-orients us toward the task. Instead of asking how we might do church differently, an approach which centers ourselves in the process, we might first ask, what is God, and the promise of God’s grace, doing to us through the church? From starting here - from God and God’s grace rather than from ourselves - our reimagining work is cast in a different light: it is a joyous blessing to participate in God’s work.

I feel deeply grateful for the working group of congregants who have courageously and faithfully responded to the daunting and uncertain call to “reimagine church.” Each member brings a different perspective that is important and necessary, and the group as a whole exudes wisdom, energy, and heart. I’d like to close with a profound and moving prayer written by one of our working group members, Denise Lundgren. She read this prayer as we opened our second meeting together, and it beautifully calls us to center and trust in God as we set out on the path before us.

Lord we praise you for your everlasting love, for the wisdom you have given us through your inspired disciples and prophets, and for the hope and strength we find in you as our creator and redeemer.

We come to you now humbly asking for your guidance and inspiration as we move forward together in the hope of expanding your church on earth. We ask that this community of faith will be given the wisdom to know your desires, and we ask for your guidance as we explore how to help others to find a path into the fellowship of your holy church. Help us to do this work in joy and with patience.

May we always walk in your light and follow your way.

Amen.

Photo |  Hannah Busing on Unsplash