Church Wars

 

 

Once upon a time in this galaxy, not that very long ago....

 

 

Before I start this tale, I must first make a disclosure. When it comes to churches, I know of what I speak. I have served on two church counsels, a church Treasurer, worked at a large church as Executive Director, been a Director of Stewardship, Social Ministry, and Alpha Ministries, as well as taught confirmation for five years. In other words, I have seen under the covers, looked behind the curtains. I have seen the good, the very good, the bad and sometimes the ugly. Not to sound jaded, even though I have not seen it all, I think I am close.

First the good. A wonderful church that we belonged to in the outer suburbs had a habit of doing truly wonderful things. I was serving on the church counsel at our former church when my family started to dribble away. First it was my older daughter who found this wonderful youth program at this church; then she took my youngest daughter over there; my wife, dying of curiosity followed soon after. I was left sitting in the pew by myself. I decided to venture over to this church and find out what the big deal with the church was about.

Right off the bat, my wife introduced me to the Senior Pastor. There was something about him that attracted me like a moth to a flame - he was bold. He asked me to go to lunch with him the next week so we could talk. We met, and he shared his vision for the church - in particular, Social Ministry. His vision for taking care of the least of us was far from timid. After the lunch was over I made my decision - we would leave the church we were members of for the past 15 years and join this new church.

This new church that we just joined to had a habit of doing the most amazing things. Bold ideas followed closely by bold action. A relevant church - a church that made a difference. I had just finished reading a book called Why men hate going to church. Bottom line - church was boring to most men. Not relevant. Want to serve? Be an usher. This new church however, choose to involve everyone, men, women and youth, in daring things. The church put on a Passion Play with live animals, they had weekend events such as Come to the Well, where well known authors and theologians would visit, speak and mingle with the congregation, they hosted Quake, an annual meeting for church leaders from all over the Midwest to discuss important faith based topics.

However the very good with this church was how they served - and serve they did. They hosted a free vacation bible school for all to attend - no questions asked. The church worked with the local food shelf as well as four or five grocery stores to collect food for the needy every March. It involved hundreds of people from the church and the amount of food collected was staggering. There was a festival, free of charge, in the autumn called Harvest Fest. It was an open house, come as you are, a celebration and party hosted by the church. There were rides, games and events. Just about everyone at the church was involved. There were also many other events that the church either hosted or was involved with. People at the church had a passion for serving, they had a passion for each other. As the Senior Pastor would say, this church was a place to love and be loved, serve and be served. In my oldest daughter's words, walking into our church was like "walking into a hug".

Now the bad. Churches, like anything else, need care and feeding. In the case of the church, the care and feeding is lots and lots of prayer. Churches are constantly under attack - spiritual attack. The more relevant a church is, the stronger the attack. In particular, church leaders are the biggest targets and suffer the strongest attacks. A great divide started to grow within the church. Part of it was from the synod that had just adopted radical new views on emerging social issues. The other part was the Senior Pastor had retired and the new Senior Pastor had a different vision. Things became so bad, a divorce took place. Half the church left to start a new church. The wonderful things, the bold things, the relevant things that made this church special - gone.

Now the ugly. There is very little interface between the two churches. Some remain very bitter towards the others. Grace and forgiveness, that we all learned about and practiced together, became history. The old church has become a traditional church - men can become ushers once again. The new church has the burden of being unable or unwilling to reconcile with the old. We have little to do with either church - we, along with many others, were casualties of this war, collateral damage resulting from a bitter divorce. Our wonderful church broke into two churches, both broken with many broken hearts and broken dreams remaining on the field of battle.

In the movie Camelot, once the round table was broken, and before the kingdom went to war with itself, King Aurthur shared the wonders of Camelot with a young man. I also feel the need to tell the tale of our church as it was. As sad as I am our church is no longer, I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to have been a part of something very special - something that really mattered. I will never forget it. The Senior Pastor, who brought us into that church, will always be my pastor in my heart. He showed me, as well as many others, that church is much more than just dressing up on Sunday morning. Church done right is truly a bold place - it is a place to "love and be love, serve and be served".