It’s one of my favorite scenes from the movie “Hook” – the 1991 Disney classic starring Robin Williams as Peter Pan. Captain Hook, played by Dustin Hoffman, kidnaps the children of the boy-who-never-wanted-to-grow-up-but-did, forcing Peter Pan to return to Neverland in order to rescue them. Upon arriving, Peter seeks help from the Lost Boys, but they are hesitant because they don’t recognize the adult version of their friend — that that is until one of the boys, Pockets, touches Peter’s face and looks deeply into his eyes. With surprised innocence, he proclaims “Ohhhhh, there you are Peter!”
There is something profoundly beautiful about the emotions that well up inside of us when we find something that we thought was lost, or when we discover that a perceived absence can be overcome if we just take the time to look hard enough.
That’s how I feel about the Church these days. At first glance, it seems no where to be found. Devoutly religious people who claim to be on the side of Jesus, continually deny his teachings and betray his love. The Franklin Grahams of the world speak, and we do a double-take because of the absurdities being proclaimed. White Evangelicals continue to stand behind the President, putting political goals and ambitions ahead of Gospel essentials, and revealing their uncompromising worship of empire. One of the largest Protestant denominations in America continues to deny the LGBTQ community “a place at the table”; and a Christian school in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio expels two young girls upon discovering that they have two different fathers. In so doing, both betray the One they claim to have “invited into their hearts.” Further, Sunday morning worshippers decline in numbers; and while many Americans claim to be spiritual, involvement with local congregations fails to be bear that out. While God is certainly not dead in America today, sometimes it seems like the institutional Church is!
So while the Easter Spirit of resurrection is still fresh in our minds, perhaps we need to look a little harder. For the Church is still here. Like God, it’s NOT dead; and it’s presence is one of the only things that can give us hope for these days in which we are living!
First, the Black church remains a cornerstone in many Black communities, and continues to offer support and encouragement to a people who have been suffering at the hands of White supremacy and privilege for generations. While Whites continue to grieve over the 11:00-12:00 hour on Sundays being the most segregated hour in American life, the Black Church laughs! That hour of segregation is the least of their concerns; and Black clergy continue to call their people to remain faithful to the Christ, in spite of the White bastardization of his Gospel. The Black Church has been the lynchpin in Black communities since colonial days and they remain alive and well across our nation: supporting their families, speaking truth to power, and mobilizing people to be agents of transformation. So if we want to see a vital church, we might start there!
Second, we might also want to look for the small denominational churches, rather than the large independent mega-church! For decades, American’s have been tempted to determine a church’s value based on the three “Bs”: butts, buildings, and budgets! The more people, and the bigger their buildings and budgets, the more successful and faithful they must be, right? Wrong! For while many are indeed led by charlatans, offering a perspective on the Gospel that has been so popularize it bears little if any resemblance to the radical message proclaimed by Jesus, I refuse to add my voice to the chorus of people who condemn the mega-church movement. Many are doing great things for the Gospel. But many small churches are doing great things for the Gospel as well! They too are growing passionate and faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. They have not given in to simplistic teachings of the Bible, and they aren’t afraid to push back against the superficiality of America’s Christian subculture. They embrace intergenerational forms of outreach and mission; and while their worship spaces may not be overflowing on Sunday mornings, they care for one another in ways that the mega-Church’s small group ministry never will! When it comes to Churches, size DOESN’T matter! And while one isn’t necessarily better than the other, the small church is much easier to find that the large mega-church. So don’t write them off, and keep looking to them for ‘kindom’ work.
Finally, look for Church leaders on the margins! While Scripture makes it clear that Jesus was drawn to the those on the social margins of his day: the poor, the oppressed, and the downtrodden; his refusal to identify with the religious establishment might also reveal an affinity with teachers and religious leaders on the margins as well. And here in America, that realization has never been more important than it is today! Like first century Judaism, the religious establishment in America today has also let the Church down. The leadership of Roman and Evangelical churches continues to deny the gifts of women for ministry, while at the same time covering up the sins of pedophile clergy and denying the blessing of same-gender love and marriage. Their passionate pursuit of wealth and power exposes their selfish hearts and should cause us all to question their Gospel perspectives. Today, the words of Jesus today are being best interpreted and translated by those writers and teachers on the margins: those who have not been afraid to challenge the religious establishment, and those who have refused to accept the false teachings of a racist, sexist, homophobic, and exclusivist Church. We are likely to find the most authentic and accurate accounts of the Gospel if we look to the work of writers and speakers, musicians and artists, who are living on the margins of the religious landscape of our day!
There are plenty of reasons to bemoan the state of the Church in America today. But it it NOT dead. You just have to look a little harder. You have to be willing to run with the women to the tomb — to that place of death and decay — and then stooping down, and perhaps squinting, look hard for signs of life. Because just as the Christ is alive, so too is God’s Church. It’s here, and it’s the only hope for our world!
Bob, who for you are the writers and speakers who offer the most authentic and accurate accounts of the Gospel?
Hope all is well Don. I think the people speaking the loudest to me these days are Bradley Jersak, Peter Enns, Richard Rohr, and Barbara Brown Taylor. There are also a bunch of ‘old timers’ who continue to speak into my life in powerful ways: Rob Bell, Marcus Borg, James Cone, and Brian McLaren. I also just finished Nadia Bolz-Weber’s “Shameless” and while her thoughts weren’t necessarily new for me, they are new for many in the Church and thus people need to hear what she is saying.