Some Thoughts on Forty Years
I was Ordained to Christian ministry in the United Church of Christ in Rutland, Vermont forty years ago today. This heavy-duty anniversary four decades later invites reflection on what has transpired in the meantime. Thus, these observations.
Subtly, oh so subtly, the ways the Church of Jesus Christ lives and moves and has its being have changed tremendously since I was educated for ministry and ordained. It is now another world.
Will Herberg’s classic three-part division of American society into Catholic, Protestant, and Jew, the accepted analysis in my younger years, no longer reflects the realities of the wider population, and hasn’t for some time. I have not lived in a “church-going community” at any point in my ministry. Still, the benefits which a Church might provide its members and its community seemed clearer then, and more widely understood by both those inside and those outside the Body of Christ. Because one’s individual identity more often included a clear religious identity, communities of faith were more widely cherished, supported, and believed to be a vital resource for the community. (Oddly, as the culture has become less supportive of religious institutions, that bygone respect for the Church in days of yore seems to have stayed alive in governmental and political circles more than anywhere else.)
Also then, in the days of the Second Vatican Council, an unprecedented hope for Christian unity pervaded the mainstream and Roman Catholic communions. It seemed as if exciting new patterns of cooperation and collaboration and mutual recognition were on the verge of enlivening the entire Christian venture.
I suppose a number of trends have played a part in the changes which have occurred over the years. But it seems to me a large factor is the phenomenon of increasing individualization: being a Christian seems to have become much more a matter of “I” than of “we.” The popular evangelical megachurches appear to pander to this trend. Among other consequences of such unrelenting focus on personal needs is a far greater fuzziness about the role of the ordained minister. Taking into account the various responsibilities a minister might be expected to fulfill -- worship leader, educator, supporter of community values, administrator, counselor, advisor, friend -- the range of expectations is sufficiently extensive to be impossible to fulfill. As Michael Caine, the New York Metro Regional Minister of the United Church of Christ puts it, “Doing church has just plain gotten harder.” The result is more stress, less fun.
Then, too, the ecumenical promise of the 1960’s, when my own united denomination was only ten years old, has faded over the years. At the beginning of my ministry I was excited by possibilities of ecumenical advances among Protestants and wonderful new relationships with Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians. But the “updating” which Vatican II introduced has been qualified and constrained to the point of apparent reversal in many important respects.
So much for the challenges. Other changes, however, have been heartening.
There has been a marked revitalization in worship. Fresh patterns for liturgy, new music, even innovative ways of communicating the Word (as through skits and expanded lay involvement and film clips and computer-generated Power Point) have become much more widespread. I believe few would want to go back to the typical church service of the 1950’s with its thirty-minute plus sermon. I know I wouldn’t! Sunday morning nowadays seems more alive.
And in many places a much wider kaleidoscope of people inhabit the pews, reflecting important demographic trends which have brought all “sorts and conditions” of individuals into the community of the people of God. More single people, more people of color, more gay and lesbian people. I have found that such variety enriches not only the community life of the parishes I have been privileged to serve, but also my own work as a minister and my life as a Christian.
And some things do not change. Good people continue to believe. They pray. They give of their hard-earned money. They show up on Sunday mornings. They ask probing questions, and offer time and energy and resources to support the life of the Church and to carry out its mission in the world, and to the best of their abilities, in their day by day lives, they keep caring, forgiving, and living in hope as they follow the way of Jesus Christ.
Subtly, oh so subtly, the ways the Church of Jesus Christ lives and moves and has its being have changed tremendously since I was educated for ministry and ordained. It is now another world.
Will Herberg’s classic three-part division of American society into Catholic, Protestant, and Jew, the accepted analysis in my younger years, no longer reflects the realities of the wider population, and hasn’t for some time. I have not lived in a “church-going community” at any point in my ministry. Still, the benefits which a Church might provide its members and its community seemed clearer then, and more widely understood by both those inside and those outside the Body of Christ. Because one’s individual identity more often included a clear religious identity, communities of faith were more widely cherished, supported, and believed to be a vital resource for the community. (Oddly, as the culture has become less supportive of religious institutions, that bygone respect for the Church in days of yore seems to have stayed alive in governmental and political circles more than anywhere else.)
Also then, in the days of the Second Vatican Council, an unprecedented hope for Christian unity pervaded the mainstream and Roman Catholic communions. It seemed as if exciting new patterns of cooperation and collaboration and mutual recognition were on the verge of enlivening the entire Christian venture.
I suppose a number of trends have played a part in the changes which have occurred over the years. But it seems to me a large factor is the phenomenon of increasing individualization: being a Christian seems to have become much more a matter of “I” than of “we.” The popular evangelical megachurches appear to pander to this trend. Among other consequences of such unrelenting focus on personal needs is a far greater fuzziness about the role of the ordained minister. Taking into account the various responsibilities a minister might be expected to fulfill -- worship leader, educator, supporter of community values, administrator, counselor, advisor, friend -- the range of expectations is sufficiently extensive to be impossible to fulfill. As Michael Caine, the New York Metro Regional Minister of the United Church of Christ puts it, “Doing church has just plain gotten harder.” The result is more stress, less fun.
Then, too, the ecumenical promise of the 1960’s, when my own united denomination was only ten years old, has faded over the years. At the beginning of my ministry I was excited by possibilities of ecumenical advances among Protestants and wonderful new relationships with Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians. But the “updating” which Vatican II introduced has been qualified and constrained to the point of apparent reversal in many important respects.
So much for the challenges. Other changes, however, have been heartening.
There has been a marked revitalization in worship. Fresh patterns for liturgy, new music, even innovative ways of communicating the Word (as through skits and expanded lay involvement and film clips and computer-generated Power Point) have become much more widespread. I believe few would want to go back to the typical church service of the 1950’s with its thirty-minute plus sermon. I know I wouldn’t! Sunday morning nowadays seems more alive.
And in many places a much wider kaleidoscope of people inhabit the pews, reflecting important demographic trends which have brought all “sorts and conditions” of individuals into the community of the people of God. More single people, more people of color, more gay and lesbian people. I have found that such variety enriches not only the community life of the parishes I have been privileged to serve, but also my own work as a minister and my life as a Christian.
And some things do not change. Good people continue to believe. They pray. They give of their hard-earned money. They show up on Sunday mornings. They ask probing questions, and offer time and energy and resources to support the life of the Church and to carry out its mission in the world, and to the best of their abilities, in their day by day lives, they keep caring, forgiving, and living in hope as they follow the way of Jesus Christ.
posted by David at 3:51 PM
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