patchwork Christianity.

Christians are a bunch of complainers.

I just got back from the National Youth Workers Convention put on by Youth Specialties in Pittsburgh. At the event, there were people from all over the spectrum in the church, from all denominations. The conference consists of large meetings where everyone is together, and smaller classroom type discussions/presentations on various aspects of the ministry, particularly youth ministry.

In any one of these meetings, there was talk about how the church doesn't value youth workers enough. There were some people talking about how the church was getting too secular, and others talking about how the church was getting too conservative. There were even others who were essentially saying that "the church" doesn't even really exist anymore, and we need to move to something else in order to express our Christianity, that the old way of doing things is completely a waste of time. All agree that change is happening, whether they want it to or not, or whether that change is good or not.

When you step back and reflect on it, it seems as though a lot of what Christians do is stand around how great things would be as Christians if it weren't for (fill in the blank).

...culture.
...conservatives.
...liberals.
...lazy church members.
...old songs and liturgy.
...people who don't understand us.
...the older generation.
...the younger generation
...mega-churches.
...mainline churches.
...rich people.
...etc.

We take a lot of energy pointing out why things are wrong, but often don't do much to change it. It conveniently is out of our hands, or at least we wash our hands of it.

I am no better. Look at me writing a whole entry that points at "complainers," insinuating that they are what is wrong with the church.

Hmm. Somewhere, there has to be a middle ground between complacency and complicity.

We need to be unified, and sometimes that means agreeing to disagree on certain things. That doesn't mean losing what it means to actually be Christian in the process, but figuring out what the differences are that we can live with, and center on the core beliefs that bind us together.

Some might call those "essential tenets."

Hmm.

What that might look like is a Christianity that understands who it is as a unified body, one with common goals and beliefs, but different ways of expressing those beliefs, with different cultures and contexts to which they must adapt and adjust, not for the sake of "fitting in," but for the sake of actually being "relevant." What a church looks like in the upper north west is going to be dealing with very different issues than a church on the gulf coast. A rural church of 50 members doesn't need to have the same structure and operational focus as a church in the inner city, or in the suburbs. Yet each Christian church must have a commitment to serving Christ in those contexts, and that may look different in different settings.

Paul talks about how we are all different parts in the Body of Christ, and that some are an eye and some are a foot, each with their purpose, but also each with their needs.

We should remember that unity does not require uniformity.

That's not what Christ calls us to.

I'm trying not to be a complainer. I haven't seen that complaining solves anything. I'm trying instead to have hope.

It is scary to be around in the midst of such change, but it is also a privilege to be alive in such a period. Real change is tumultuous, but it is at times essential.

I have faith that God's plan is at work, even in the midst of apparent chaos.
I have hope for the future.
And I want to try and be someone who does something about it.


[Note - while this wasn't really intended when I started writing, you could read this entire post over, and substitute "country" for "church" and it would ring just as true. Fitting on election day. Go vote for somebody.]