Back to basics: Rx for congregational health

Christian Century, July 26, 2003 by Anthony B. Robinson

WHAT IS A healthy congregation? For some clergy and laity, health is simply the absence of conflict. But we may be confusing a healthy congregation with a placid one. While conflict is seldom fun, its absence may be less an indication of health than of an insufficient sense of urgency or challenge about being the church.

I believe that a root cause of disarray, confusion and acrimony in congregations is theological amnesia, and that the origin of some of the unhealthiness that afflicts congregations is a lack of theological clarity, confidence and conviction. Time and again, when facing challenges or issues in congregations I have served, I have turned to basic Christian teaching in order to see what light our faith can cast into the current state of murkiness. Not only did this deepen the congregation's theological foundation, it also cast me, as a pastor, in the right role. Rather than masquerading as organizational consultant, conflict mediator or resident therapist, I endeavored to be a teacher of the faith. More often than not the church was strengthened, its conflict resolved and healing effected when we turned to the core convictions of our faith as a primary source of instruction.

But all too often pastors and congregations do not respond with a theological perspective to the joys and travails of a congregation. Instead we tend, as it says in Deuteronomy 30, to look in far places for help and edification when the word we need may be very near, in our hearts and on our lips. Pastors can strengthen the links between theological conviction and congregational health and vitality.

Taking the categories of a traditional systematic approach, I'll begin by exploring the implications of several of our affirmations for congregational life and health.

First of all, our affirmation of Christianity as a revealed religion can help congregations define a clear center. "We're not sure who we are or what we believe" is a frequent lament in mainline congregations. This is almost always followed by a rejoinder that pulls the other way. "Attempts to define what we believe make me nervous!" Many congregations find it difficult to define their center, and the consequent vacuum results in a lack of purpose. Energy for mission is sapped. Endless amounts of time are spent trying to establish direction and priorities. Or congregations are spread so thin that their lives and ministries lack depth and coherence. Congregations wander in various wildernesses when their sense of appropriate authority is lost or absent.

Many are helped to learn or be reminded of the distinction between natural and revealed religion. Natural religion holds that God is everywhere and in all things--a blade of grass, the morning paper, a homeless shelter, a stirring concert. Christianity affirms that God is potentially present everywhere and in all things, but not equally present in all things. In our revealed religion, God chooses to reveal the divine self more in some events, lives and books than in others. Specifically, the church affirms that God has revealed the divine will and way in the Exodus events, in the prophets, in the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. In these we see the patterns of God's activity: liberation from bondage, comfort for the afflicted and affliction of the comfortable, life overcoming death.

This may strike some as so obvious as to hardly merit mention. And yet Samuel Johnson advised, "Never hesitate to remind people of the obvious--it is what they have most forgotten." The point is that Christianity does have a specific and particular content. It is wide but not limitless, open but not without a center.

The doctrine of revelation has two implications for congregations seeking clarity. First, that there is an actual content to Christian faith that cannot be overlooked, gainsaid or surpassed by more current or compelling "revelations." And second, revelation entails a certain humility on the part of its recipients. Revelation, by definition, comes not from us but from beyond us, from God. It is not something we find, figure out, get or achieve. It is given. It is grace. It is revealed to us.

Thus, revelation can help a congregation be clear not only about what is conceptually central, but also about what is existentially central. Congregations that forget the meaning of revelation and revealed faith tend to become self-focused and self-preoccupied. Everything is about "us"--about what wonderful people we are, or our proud history as a church, or our sense of' being a special community. Revelation reminds the church that in a very basic and crucial sense it is not about us. It is about God, what God has done, is doing and will do. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels," said Paul, "to show that the transcendent power belongs not to us, but to God." There lies our center.

CLOSELY RELATED to revelation and revealed religion and also important to questions about the center and purpose of the church is our understanding of scripture. Questions about the role and status of scripture may not be a problem in the fundamentalist or evangelical churches, but in the theologically mainline or moderate to liberal churches, questions abound. Why do we read every week from the Bible and not from other books? Couldn't we hear from the Qur'an or a Zen philosopher or the Upanishads? Aren't they sacred books too? Our ability to respond to such questions with clarity and conviction is crucial for the church's identity and vitality.