Here’s what I long for in our denomination: that we fall in love with, and give ourselves to, the building and renewing of congregations as vital, necessary, communities of disciples that pulsate with God’s grace, such that the world can see in them visible, tangible, demonstrations of God’s transforming power. That’s what I think congregations are for!
Let me step back a little and acknowledge that in the rarified, intellectual circles of leading continental theologians, congregational renewal has not been a hot topic. Indeed well into the 20th-century, a great number of theologians ignored ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church. As for congregations, they belonged in some theological twilight zone.
Whether we like it or not, something of this theological tradition has affected us all, with the result that many still think of Jesus’ kingdom as an exciting possibility, but something that’s not linked to the ordinary life of our congregations. Not to worry. Up until the 1960s, at least, most of us knew that congregations were just fine, offering a chaplaincy ministry that celebrated the batching, matching and dispatching of our family and friends. But then came the cracking and then the crumbling of Christendom, leaving mainline congregations like ours reeling, and I suggest, at the mercy of an army of fearless new congregational gurus who said they knew how to put the congregational humpty-dumptys back together again. It has not worked for the Presbyterian Church in Canada.
So, to my enduring concern: Congregations, are they necessary; if so, what are they for and can they be renewed? Theologians haven’t spent a lot of ink giving us answers to these questions. Until recently. One theologian who has best reconnected Jesus’ kingdom teaching to the church, and to local congregations, is Lesslie Newbigin. In his theology, God’s kingdom or reign, inaugurated by Jesus, though not yet present in its full coming glory, touches the ground right now, in incarnate, visible communities called congregations. In God’s kingdom strategy, congregations matter!
Let me close with some words from Newbigin:
“The … danger to be avoided is the separation of the Kingdom from the church. It is clear that they cannot and must not be confused … [nor] identified. But they must also not be separated. From the beginning the announcement of the Kingdom led to a summons to follow and so to the formation of a community … which has begun to taste [even to foretaste] the reality of the Kingdom.”
Right now in our beloved Presbyterian Church we need to know that congregations matter and to know the place that congregations have in God’s mission. Newbigin offers a way to grasp what congregations are for, and provides a firm theological ground on which to build and renew them.
