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by The Rev. Mr. Reed Baer,
Pastor, West Parish of Barnstable (UCC)
February/March 2009
I don’t need to tell you all that we are now experiencing a fiscal and economic crisis that is impacting our nation, our communities, our families, and yes, our churches.
And in a time when many people are cutting back there is the fear abroad in the land that all this spells bad news for our churches, and that our response should therefore be to cut back as well. It is, many hold, the prudent thing to do – to pare our budgets, to hold back our giving to Our Churches Wider Mission, to preserve at all costs our core operations, and to reduce our expectations of what we might do as a church. And with this fear is its usual companion, despair.
But I wonder if this might be an occasion for re-imagining what church is, how we “do church”, how we might differently and more attractively live out the Good News of Jesus Christ of which we are stewards. An occasion not for despair, but even in the midst of this bleak winter, joy.
Let me explain why even amid the crisis which we face I am hopeful.
A couple years ago I had a chance to visit two congregations abroad, each of which serves villages of 125 or so.
The congregation in Etton, England, a church with which we have a twinning relationship, has all the advantages many of us long for: in many ways, money is not a problem, as the state both maintains the beautiful stone sanctuary and the ample parsonage and takes care of the rector’s salary; the community is prosperous; the country at peace; the religious tradition of the country is what we might call mainline Protestantism. The rector is on fire for the gospel, dedicated and hard working, And when my family and I attended worship, the six of us effectively doubled the congregation.
The other congregation is in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, an indigenous church, part of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India, with which West Parish of Barnstable has had a mission partnership of some eight years. Sri Lanka has experienced over two decades of civil war; the village is very poor, and women outnumber men by about 8-1, as the men and boys have been taken by both sides for soldiers. Jaffna is predominantly Hindu, and Christianity is very much a minority religion. A typical worship service there draws perhaps 75 people.
But “church” for this congregation is more than worship. In this traditional society where the men are the earners and the women’s place is at home, the loss of so many men cripples the family economy – so the church has set up a women’s vocational school, where the women can learn trades and crafts, sewing, cake making, computer skills, embroidery, so that they can make the money needed to survive. The church also runs a day-care operation and an after-school program, so the mother can take advantage of the training.
What, then, is church? Church is where redemption and salvation can be seen in a visible, communitarian way of life practiced by a distinctive people over time.
The old hymn might have been written for this congregation – “They will know we are Christians by our love” – as they are, even amid the poverty and deprivations of the war, a visible sign of the welcoming, healing, empowering love of Jesus Christ.
For me, the conclusion is obvious – prosperity, peace, an abundance of consumer goods, are not the staples of a living, faithful, effective, joyful church, and their absence is not a reason for fear and despair. The Gospel cannot only survive, it can thrive, in what the world might assume are the harshest of environments.
To crib from another old hymn, how then, even in these most daunting of times, can we keep from singing?