ReThinking Church Part 4: The Church as a Minority Insurgency

All month long, we’ve been re-thinking church – what it is, what it isn’t; who we are and what we’re supposed to be doing as a church community. In today’s final installment of this series, I’d like us to consider the Christian Church’s proper place in society.  

            As everyone knows, Christian churches, across denominational lines, are in rapid decline. Membership is in a free fall, and this has church leaders deeply worried, not only about their shrinking numbers, but also about the church’s loss of status, power, and influence in society. I understand their worry, but I don’t share it. I happen to think that the less power we Christians have in our society, the better!

            Perhaps a little history lesson will help explain my unusual perspective. We know Jesus lived sometime between the year 1 and 35, and we know that his church got rolling in the years following his death, resurrection, and ascension. In its first 300 years or so, Christ’s Church was nothing more than a bunch of tiny, unnoticed, secretive communities. We know that there were all sorts of codes and symbols – like the fish and IXTHUS – that early Christians used to get the word out of a gathering in someone’s home or basement for prayer and worship. We also know from the account in Acts that the apostles were traveling around doing the very things that Jesus had done: preaching, teaching, and healing.

            But something dramatic happened in the fourth century that would change the place of Christianity in society for the next 1700 years. First, in 323, the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and issued a decree protecting Christians and limiting pagan practices. Then in 380 AD, Emperor Theodosius went even further, declaring Christianity to be the official religion of his entire empire. In very short order, Christianity went from a barely visible, persecuted minority to occupying the seat of power, prestige, and influence at the emperor’s own table.

            So, thanks to these two emperors’ decrees, quite rapidly, this little, counter-cultural, obscure, minority insurgency was not only protected throughout the Roman Empire, but also catapulted to prominence and power within it. It was this new status for Christians that led to the construction of the first church buildings. And with each successive generation, churches built larger, more dramatic buildings in every major town, and soon there were even huge cathedrals in major cities.

            To be fair, much was gained for 4^th century Christians and those who would follow them – relative safety, far less persecution, the ability to “come out of the closet,” as it were. But I believe that a great deal more was lost than was gained when Christianity wedded itself to the powers that be. In fact, I would argue that Constantine’s and Theodosius’s decrees may be the worst things that ever happened to Christ’s Church, in terms of Jesus’ followers staying true to His vision.

            As I scour the New Testament – particularly the gospels and the Book of Acts – I find no evidence that Jesus wanted his church to become huge and powerful. Look at the passage that Mary read; Jesus compares his kingdom to a tiny amount of yeast. Yeast does its invisible work gradually, slowly, subtly working its way into something much larger than itself. Jesus also compares his kingdom to a mustard seed, the tiniest of all garden seeds. While a mustard seed does grow into a nice, healthy tree, it doesn’t take over the entire garden; it isn’t a pernicious, aggressive plant, over-growing its allotted space, or devouring other unsuspecting plants. Jesus taught us to “render unto Ceasar that which is Ceasar’s,” not to dethrone,replace him, nor climb into bed with him! Let’s not forget that Jesus disappointed a great many of his disciples by submitting to the powerful authorities rather than becoming the new authority himself.

            A great deal of Jesus’ purpose and his desire for his church can be discerned from that temptation story that I shared earlier. In tempting Jesus, the Devil offered him fame and popularity: “Throw yourself off this high building!” He offered Jesus power and authority: “I offer you all the kingdoms of the world!” Jesus consistently walked away from worldly and political power. But then, ironically and sadly, when he was gone, Constantine and Theodosius “gave” Jesus and his church the very things Jesus had rejected.

            To me, these emperors’ acts would be akin to someone leaving our church a wonderfully generous memorial gift with particular directions for us as to how it was to be used. And then we take the money and use it for something entirely different – even at odds with the expressed intention of the deceased.

            As I look at the relatively short history of American Christianity, I see this very same, sad, grab-for-power story repeating itself. Obviously, the huge indigenous population of Native Americans was not Christian, and neither were the majority of immigrants who risked life and limb to come here, escaping famine, disease, and all manner of ills.

            But over time, Christians began to build our numbers in America, gained popularity and strength, we built even more church buildings, as big and as ornate as we could! We flexed our muscles, pushed our way into political power, and even lobbied for a Christian government.

            All of us who are over 40 today grew up in a time when Christianity in America was right where Constantine and Theodosius wanted it – large and in charge, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the religious world. But that’s no longer the case today. Christianity today is in a free fall. Churches are closing their doors and going belly up at a rate of almost 3000 a week according to some reports. We’ve reached a tipping point, where soon more Americans will not attend church or affiliate with a Christian community than those who do. What this means is that we Christians have, once again, achieved minority status, and while the Christian Right and many other Christian leaders lament our descent into both minority status and far less cultural influence, I’m not sure Jesus is bothered by it at all…and I know for a fact that I’m not.

            It’s high time we got back to our roots. We’re supposed to be mustard seeds; we’re supposed to be yeast, leaven, salt. We’re the little guy – David, not Goliath; The widow’s mite, not Bill Gates’ billions; Jesus, not Pilate or Herod. We’re supposed to be the voice crying in the wilderness; we’re supposed to deliver the minority report, not the edicts of Constantine or Theodosius. Power corrupts, and we’ve had centuries to see what happens when Christianity gets into bed with the powers and principalities of the world. The results have not been pretty. They include the Crusades, the slave trade, the horrific colonization of Africa, the Holocaust, and the Religious Right, to name a few.

            I believe that a great and necessary pruning is going on in the Christian church in the 21^st century. I believe that God is undoing the damage that was done going all the way back to 323 and 380 AD. I believe that the only churches that are going to survive are the ones who, rather than grasping for power, give themselves away in mission, in service, and in love through millions of tiny acts of Christ-likeness.

            If you read my second book, you’ll remember a story I told in it of a little dying church in NYC, The Church of the Holy Apostles. Its denominational leaders sent a priest to that congregation with the instructions to conduct its funeral and bury it. As this designated “hatchet-man” priest delivered the bad news to the church council, they decided that if their church was going to go down, they might as well go down “doing a little something Christ-like.” So they decided to use their remaining funds to start offering free lunch to homeless people in NYC five days a week. It began with sandwiches and 30 people or so lined up outside their free lunch sign. In a week or two, it was more than a hundred people. Just as their supplies and church coffers were emptying out, some passers by noticed the line and the feeding that was going on and offered both to provide funds and to volunteer. Soon there were 300 people in line and almost as many folks volunteering, donating supplies, and offering funds to support it.

            About this time the church roof sprang a leak, and its historic sanctuary with solid oak pews anchored to the floor were being damaged. The roofers detached the pews and moved them out of the building until the roof was fixed. Meanwhile, the feeding program continued to grow, but the coffers were somehow filling up rather than being further depleted. Local businesses were now giving large sums of money to support this simple cause, and the volunteer corps now included Jews and Muslims, Atheists and Christians of every flavor. The homeless guests were being fed in the church basement, but with the leaky roof now fixed, something even more Christ-like occurred. The roofers asked the pastor if they should put the pews back in the sanctuary and anchor them down. But the pastor said, “No, let’s leave them out and sell them. We can use the money for the feeding program, and if we keep the sanctuary pew-less we can move the lunch program up there and serve way more people than we can in the basement.” And so they did.

            That little church has now served lunches to millions of hungry homeless folks. And by the way, their church didn’t close down. That funeral the priest was supposed to conduct never happened. The Church of the Holy Apostles is alive and thriving, and that lunch ministry is at the very core of their congregation’s life and identify.

            The Christian Church’s days of power and social prominence are over. And thank God for that; for now we can get back to the Christ-like business of giving ourselves away in love and in service. We can get back to being sprinkles of salt, pinches of yeast, and tiny mustard seeds in our very need world. Amen.