“The movement of the Spirit of God in the hearts of men and women often calls them to act against the spirit of their times or causes them to anticipate a spirit which is yet in the making. “The deep things of God” are put off another week (1 Corinthians 2:10). Coopted by the American empire, crushed by its political machinery, tongue-tied by tradition and under the surveilling eyes of its benefactors, the North American church’s leaders waste much of their time crafting a safe message to ensure continued employment. It is no longer on Sunday mornings at 11 a.m. When shall I come and behold the face of God?” (Psalm 42:1-2, NRSV) My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. The psalmist says the soul has an appetite and craves the divine: “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. Imagine the surprise of those who came to church to learn about and worship Jesus. Increasingly, more Christians have no interest in Sunday morning attendance, which doubles as recruitment for committees rebranded as ministries to participate in the insular work of whitewashed tomb maintenance and institutional support.īecause if you sit in church long enough, then you will see that it is often a game of musical chairs, as the same participants move around on the program but are secretly waiting for the coveted seat of the pastor.
Many believers are saved but not satisfied with church bulletins and programs printed on old wine skins. Churches must submit to a background check and references are required. Pollyanna visions that are overly optimistic or focus on heaven in “the sweet by and by” with no theological commitment to the justice needed here and now need not apply. Wanted: Churches that prioritize an inward orientation and an internal freedom with societal ramifications while connecting us to our soulish longing to abide in the presence of God. The predictable strivings and infighting caused by race and its progeny, bigotry, capitalism, political partisanship, patriarchy and white supremacy is exhausting and completely misses the point of Jesus’s gospel: human being and belonging.Ĭonsider this a church announcement.
There is a growing spiritual weariness of divisiveness. We need an ecclesiology that satisfies the soul’s hunger for deeper connection. Put away from me your segregated worship services, conferences, workshops and annual gatherings.
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