Blog Post
A H Harry Oussoren • Nov 11, 2020
Where two or three (or more) are gathered.....
[Past Post of the UpFront column by A H Harry Oussoren first published in the Journal for the Practice of Ministry in Canada, September 1995.]
Renewing Congregation Life
Where two or three or more gather in Christ's name, there you find not only the Spirit, but also a congregation. Christian congregations have been around almost 2000 years. So it's about time that the local church became an object of careful study and reflection. What a wonderful gift congregations are being offered today by people such as Bill Easum and Loren Mead. They and their colleagues are the source of an explosion of resources about congregations. This activity demonstrates that finally the basic building block of the church is being taken seriously.
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What else is a congregation? I see it as a gathering of Jesus' friends to worship God, to discern the Spirit's leading, and to be strengthened for participation in the ministry and mission of Christ. Like any other part of Christ's body, congregations need nurturing.
The day when congregations could be taken for granted has past. Canadian denominations need to become proactive in fostering, strengthening, and renewing congregational life. When a congregation dies, I believe there is great grief in heaven. When a congregation is born, the cloud of witnesses sings a thousandfold "AMEN." And when a congregation is faithful, God is present!
The sense of being "at home"
Why are congregations so crucial to the well-being of Christ's body? I believe it has to do with the homessness and the "at-home-ness" of human beings. When newcomers - often just enquiring about the faith - ask about baptism in our congregation, we have learned to respond respectfully, "When you feel 'at home' in [this congregation], then
le's plan for your child's baptism." This response signals that not just formal requirement must be met. Emotional and spiritual factors are at stake.
Waltern Brueggeman, in his typically helpful little volume The Bible Makes Sense, has provided us with a substantial theological rationale for this approach. He reminds us that Israel's key experience in the Babylonian exile was homelessness.
The Israelites were not harshly treated for the most part, but they felt enormously displaced. They knew in their life a terrible bitterness and deep hatred (Psalm 137), and some concluded either that God had failed or that all of [God's] promises were now void and empty. The same sense of displacement is pervasive among many people today who have felt the homlessness and alienation of our modern world dominated by urbanization.
(p. 83)
God's mission is to bring the people home - from the wilderness to the Promised Land, from exile to the secure places, from alienation to community. God will not rest untill all people can truly be at home! Bruggeman continues:
The good news... is that God has aligned himself [sic] against the organization of the world on behalf of the homeless ones who still yearn to go home (cf. Jeremiah 29:5-14, Ezekiel 37:1-14, Isaiah 40:3-4, 43:5-6)...
To bring people home is God's work. But it is work entrusted to us. We are also called to deal with the homelessness of our time. That means to transform public institutions which are a part of the alienation process. But it also means caring intervention in people's lives to end estrangement and to give to people a sense of belonging. It is a whole new self-undertanding to know that our vocation is to end exiles and bring people to a sense of being home.
(p.84)
A place to put down roots
"Come home," calls the old Gospel hymn to those who are weary and estranged. The alienated masses in Canada's cities and suburbs are looking for places where they can be at home - where they can put their roots down deeply into the fertile soiil of God's redeeming grace in Christ, where they can soar like eagles energized by the Spirit to be God's people of faith, hope, and love. That's what congregation are about at their best!
All those published resources and a growing cadre of experienced resource people are available to renew congregations so they can become homes and homebases for people who long to belong and be in mission. It's time to plumb the resources and work together for the renewal of congregation life so that God's people can be at home.
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Ed. note:
In the quarter century since writing the above and quoting Brueggeman much has happened to the church, to societies, and to me. The world has gotten smaller, while God's human family has grown, faith traditions are being called to be less tribal and more open to each other, and celebrating the divine presence requires more nuanced awareness. The decline of western Christianity has galloped along. Re-thinking congregations and congregational life has become an urgent agenda - particularly as people of faith have been affected by the Covid 19 pandemic and the need to move to virtual community. Inevitably however, people will gather to do the things congregations have always done in large numbers and small. There are many reasons to give attention to this phenomenon of faith.
Pilgrim Praxis
The genocide in apartheid and settler colonial Palestine urgently calls for urgent discernment and action. Could the ongoing rounds of blood letting and destruction finally end to begin a journey toward truth, and justice-based peace? I hope so for the sake of all who dwell in this (un)Holy Land.