The Way (Church) Life Should Be

In spite of the message of Diana Butler Bass’ new book – Christianity After Religion – in which Diana correctly notes many ways in which the institutional church no longer works for people in terms of nurturing their Christian faith, I experienced something profound yesterday:

A young woman was ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in the church where she had been baptized as an infant, confirmed as a teenager, and nourished as a young adult.  And clearly the institutional church was at the core of her Christian journey.  Amazing.

The miracle of this day included the fact that:

• Vows made by parents on the day of their infant’s baptism had been kept.  (They really did pray with and for her and raise her in the faith.)
• Vows made by a congregation on that same baptism day had been kept.  (The congregation really did know, love, and nurture this infant throughout her childhood, teenage years, and young adulthood – through kindergarten, middle school, high school, college, seminary, and beyond.)
• Vows made by a young woman on the day of her confirmation had been kept.  (She actually grappled with her faith and allowed herself to be mentored by adults, and led by God.)
• The institutional Christian community worked.  (An individual and her extended family were loved, inspired, held accountable, set free, and launched for ministry through a church family for the entirety of one young woman’s life.)

Sadly, we don’t see this much.

Most of our ordained pastors, much less, those called to serve apart from formally ordained ministry – have experienced their journey a more difficult way:

• They have been hurt by the church, even after baptism and confirmation, or  – at best – their home churches have been indifferent towards their spiritual growth.
• They have wandered from the faith and nobody noticed.
• They were raised with no spiritual community at all.
• They crave spiritual nourishment now but still can’t find it in the church.

God has a mysterious way of calling us even when we wander, even when the community around us has failed.  But yesterday I witnessed with my own eyes an   institutional church that got it right.  Congratulations L. and welcome to this ministry.