Encouraging Participationby Rev Allister Lane

23rdSeptember 2012

James 3:13-18

Mark 9:30-37

Last Sunday I explained that for three weeks we are doing the sermon a bit differently.

I mentioned that for three Sundays we are departing from the usual expositional style of preaching.

Why are we doing this?

Stuart (the other minister here at St John’s) and I want to share with you all, what the St John’s Session (the elders of the church) has been discussing and discerning over the last 6 months.

And we are confident in preaching on this because of the considerable dedication given to carefully and prayerfully seeking God’s will by the elders of Session.

We are excited about where we believe God is leading us as a congregation, and we feel we are truly being led by God’s Spirit.

At the same time, Session doesn’t have a monopoly on understanding God’s Word. Session fulfils certain responsibilities and duties in the life of the church, but the Word of God comes to us all, speaks to us all, and calls us all to respond.

And so preaching about what Session have been discussing and discerning allows us to explore biblically and theologically the way forward, and to do that together, together as a church family.

What has emerged from the Session discussions are three goals, and these are shown on page 8 of your bulletin:

growing faith

encouraging participation

building community

Today I want us to reflect on the second of the goals ‘encouraging participation’.

Last week, one of the points I mentioned was that, in the discussions Session had about where God is leading us as a congregation, there was one tool that was particularly helpful.

That is the Church Life Survey.

This was a survey for all churches in NZ (that we at St John’s were given the opportunity to complete in November last year), asking us about various aspects of church life, including our involvement in the life of our church.

[NB: The full survey results were made available shortly after, and are still available on the St John’s website...]

And to summarise the data in basic terms, our responses in the Church Life survey indicate we have low levels of participation compared to other Presbyterian congregations.

To be more specific, we indicated in our survey responses lower rates than other Presbyterian churches for involvement in small groups, discussion groupsorBible Study groups.

And to be fair, our participation in small groups was only very slightly lower than the average Presbyterian’s.

And some of this may very well be attributable to the fact that we are a ‘gathered’ congregation, and (comparatively) we don’t all live nearby; it requires more effort and organisation to get together with others from St John’s during the week.

And I think it’s worth mentioning that we did indicate higher levels of participation (than other Presbyterian churches) in youth and young adult groups.

What about when we ARE gathered together?

Again, we indicated relatively low levels of participation in

teaching/preaching in church services,

music ministry, and

leading, planning or assisting in church services.

Other areas of church life in which we indicated relatively low levels of participation were

pastoral care, and

small group leadership.

Interestingly, (again) we indicated a much higher-than-average participation in youth ministry.

We have twice as many people participating in youth ministry than the average Presbyterian church.

So our responses in the Church Life Survey show us that we have relatively low levels of participation in the life of our church.

We may well want to ask why this is...

  • Well, as I mentioned, it might be because we are a gathered congregation.

Coming to the city from various places could mean that our networks don’t overlap or naturally ‘cross-pollinate’ as they might in a suburb, small town, or other geographically-defined population.

  • It might be because we are a congregation with relatively high levels of highly educated and professional people (something else shown through the Church Life Survey). We, here in the Capital, are busier than the average Presbyterian...!
  • ..or perhaps the opposite is true...it might be that we are lazy!
  • It might be we see church as a consumer ‘product’ to come and receive, without needing to actively contribute.

In some ways, I don’tcare what the reason is.

What it reveals is an opportunity to increase our levels of participation.

It reminds me of how churches are sometimes compared to a rugby test match:

30 people giving it everything they’ve got, desperately needing a rest – while many, many others watch on, all in desperate need of exercise!

Whatever the survey results capture about us is partial, and it certainly doesn’t mean we have to stay there – these results do not have to define us.

Because (importantly) we have a theology of participation centred around Baptism.

And we have an opportunity to recover some of this;

to remind each other of who we actually are in Christ;

to live into who God has made us to be.

As we sang earlier “to be the Church Jesus wants us to be, the church he wants the world to see.”

How do we understand who we are and what we do?

Jesus calls us and leads us along the way.

Baptism expresses how we go where Jesus goes.

In Baptism we use these words:

In baptism God claims us,

and seals us to show that we belong to God.

God frees us from sin and death,

uniting us with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection.

Baptism expresses how we go where Jesus goes.

Baptism plunges us into death and into chaos.

We see in Eastern Orthodox icons of Jesus’ Baptism, death/chaos represented by the ghoulish river god figures (depicted by Jesus’ feet).

Baptism plunges us into the chaos which is the neediness of the human condition.

Baptism does NOT put us in charge of our circumstances.

We are going where Jesus goes – into the full depths of the human condition;the full depths of neediness, suffering, and anguish.

To go where Jesus goes is to be in solidarity with all humanity.

Just as Jesus’ Incarnation is in solidarity with humanity, in following Jesus (to go where Jesus goes) is to be in solidarity with all humanity.

Having entered chaos and death in solidarity with humanity, Jesus is raised in victory from the chaos and death. Jesus is raised in new life, and raises humanity to new life – resurrection life.

Jesus Incarnation is both the plunging into the depths and being raised to life – both movements are where Jesus leads us. Both movements are crucial to understand God’s committed love for us.

In the Incarnation, God radically alters reality;

In the Incarnation, God is creating a new humanity.

And to go where Jesus goes is to participate in a new humanity.

Far from isolationist and self-serving, this new humanity-in-Jesus is characterised by radical openness to God’s promised Kingdom of justice, freedom and peace.

To be Christian is to participate by faith, hope and love in the new humanity in Jesus.

Understood properly, primarily in the example given in Jesus, we are invited to plunge into an adventure, where we let go of trying to stay in control; (as I said before) where we are not in charge of our circumstances.

This is a radically counter-cultural lifestyle!

And it’s important to emphasise that this is actually freedom.

Understood properly, primarily in the example given in Jesus, love is an act of freedom.

It is the willingness to live for others.

Love is not a duty of obligation; it is the joyful practice of a new humanity where love is given as it has been received.

In this sense, Christian love is always preceded by God’s surprising love for us. Scripture says “We love because [God] first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

Daniel Migliore says:

“We become and stay human when we acknowledge our solidarity with brothers and sisters everywhere, because this is the way we were created to live – not in self-important isolation from others but in deep and costly solidarity with others.”[1]

To be in Christ (to go where Christ goes) is to enter into an inclusive family where we are all children of God;

where measures of status are turned on their heads;

where “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35)

To be in Christ (to go where Christ goes) is to participate in a reality that anticipates Christ’s ultimate fulfilment of the Kingdom of Heaven.

To participate this way is to courageously express confidence in a God not only of the past and present but also of the future.

Our participation is a courageous expression of confidence that God can and will bring change; that suffering, abuse, and destruction are not inevitable, and that (because of God’s grace) redemption, reconciliation and restoration is possible.

Jesus reminded his disciples that the important currency in the Kingdom of Heaven is HUMILITY.

To make his point Jesus embraced a child, reminding us all what true greatness is – to be children of God in a family that looks after one another and supports one another; that stands in solidarity with one another.

When we baptise someone, we ask them to promise to commit themselves to the life and mission of the Church.

Not as a condition to receiving baptism, but as an appropriate outworking of the call from God given in baptism.

And so we the church (the community of the baptised; the Resurrection Community) go where Jesus goes together, sharing the Journey of faith – not just sharing in the sense of we are all doing the same thing, but also in the sense of participating together;

making our unique contribution;

offering the particular gifts we have to serve God and others.

What we need to think about now is: how is this theology of participation (centred around Baptism) expressed in our daily lives?

In our everyday conduct, how do we express the truth of our Baptism – that we participate in the life of God;

that we go where Jesus goes;

that we share the ministry of reconciliation to bring together all humanity in God?

Specifically, how do conduct ourselves as a church community – what makes us different to a club or other organisation?

We can give a sound theological answer to that question, but what is it about our conduct that matches that identity?

Next week Stuart will reflect more about our identity as a church community.

For now let me reiterate that for us as Christians, participation is to go where Jesus goes:

  • the cross of suffering (curbs our envy and selfish ambition)
  • chaos/death (curbs our desire to be in charge of our circumstances)
  • new life (directs our daily conduct to always be life-giving)

Sharing the journey of faith together gives encouragement and promotes understanding of ourselves.

Together, we can help each other discover gifts and passions for serving – sometimes buried deep within; maybe gifts we’ve never imagined we had.

I hope and pray that as we pursue the goal of encouraging participation in the life of St John’s we can explore what gifts each one has and by encouraging each other to put our gifts to use, we can grow faith and build one another up – as the Body of Christ.

1

[1] Daniel Migliore, Faith Seeing Understanding (2004), p161.