{"id":373,"date":"2017-03-27T21:15:43","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T01:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/candlerdmin\/?p=373"},"modified":"2017-05-01T11:39:13","modified_gmt":"2017-05-01T15:39:13","slug":"mattering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/candlerdmin\/2017\/03\/27\/mattering\/","title":{"rendered":"Toward a Contextual Ecclesiology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smaller World: A Modern Day Parable
\niframe src=”<\/span>https:\/\/spark.adobe.com\/video\/6CQFQecVdrywi\/embed<\/span><\/a>” width=100% height=540<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n

Light in the Electric City: Toward a Contextual Ecclesiology at First Baptist Church<\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Photo 1. First Baptist Church as seen from the end of Church Street, Downtown Anderson. Photo: Ron Anderson.\u00a0 Used with permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

What if that which has been unwell and consequently unwelcoming is not a person but a church?\u00a0 Churches, being imperfect institutions, get sick, too.\u00a0 There\u2019s an entire cottage industry dedicated to diagnosing churches\u2019 sickness and getting churches healthy and keeping churches healthy and determining what causes a church to become sick.\u00a0 While there is much about that work that is worthwhile and relevant, it\u2019s not really my purpose here.<\/p>\n

Rather, I\u2019m looking at one of the symptoms of church sickness.\u00a0 In my made-up story, the reason that the person stopped being so hospitable was some kind of sickness.\u00a0 I\u2019m defining sickness here as something that takes a church away from its God-given reason for existing while it turns inward in a survival mode mentality.\u00a0 While a person can be perfectly healthy without engaging his or her neighborhood and inviting people into the home, a church cannot be fully functioning and healthy without meaningful engagement with the world.<\/p>\n

What The Project Isn’t
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I dismissed in my project proposal some common approaches to beginning church ministries of community engagement.\u00a0 There may well be a place for replicating strategies that have worked in other places, but, short of drawing inspiration from other churches\u2019 success stories as I was doing my research, I didn\u2019t introduce those components into my work in this project.\u00a0 I also did not seek to develop a project that would immediately result in the development of a program that would engage the community.\u00a0 I acknowledge that this seems counter-intuitive, as is evidenced by those who tell me that the best approach to begin to engage the community is to formulate a new ministry by which the community is engaged.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo 2. Church members prepare First Baptist’s Historical Room. Photo: Anderson Independent-Mail. Used with permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the parable I told earlier, I tried to paint a picture of a person who longed to be hospitable but lacked the tools to be hospitable.\u00a0 Jumping into a newly-developed community engagement ministry for the sake of having a program to fill that purpose would be tantamount to inviting neighbors over for dinner while lacking cooking skills, dishware, and table to make a meal possible.\u00a0 As the priority of hospitality gave way to the priority of survival in my parable and the tools of hospitality were consequently eschewed as unnecessary in matters of survival, priorities must be altered before the tools necessary to living out those priorities can be redeveloped.<\/p>\n

The process I describe below may well lead to the development of a new ministry program in my church\u2014and I hope it does\u2014but that development will happen after the church understands who it is and who it is called to be, after it understands who its community is, what we church and community have to offer to one another, and why we are important to one another.\u00a0 In a residential community, this interdependence\u2014what I described in my modern parable simply as mattering is called being neighborly.\u00a0 In a church, I\u2019m calling what I have come to see as God-willed interdependence contextual ecclesiology.<\/p>\n

The Reason for the Project<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Photo 3. The sanctuary choir and orchestra during the annual Christmas musical worship. Photo: Jack Abraham. Used with permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

While members of my church would not be likely to say that paint is more important than people, the church’s budget allocations, passion, and conversations between laypersons reveal a more immediate focus on the concerns of the congregation rather than a deep engagement with the world.\u00a0 At times, it appears that some view faithful service to the institutional church as being in tension with the Christian practices of hospitality, generosity, and Christian charity toward people who live in the largely poor and largely black neighborhood around the church campus.\u00a0 I have determined that something must change in order for the church and for me to be in faithful ministry.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo 4. The church sanctuary as seen from the top of the Wilmary, home of First Baptist’s housing ministry.\u00a0 Photo by Josh Hunt.<\/p><\/div>\n

If change is to be meaningful and lasting, I need to more fully understand how and why the disconnect between church and community developed and what forces maintain it.\u00a0 In order to develop this deeper understanding, I engaged in a congregational analyis that paid careful attention to the history, demographics, congregational self-understanding, and denominational polity of my congregation.\u00a0 My goal was to discover the church thinking (ecclesiology) that shapes the practices of the church in relation to its neighbors.\u00a0 If this thinking serves as a barrier to neighbor love, it must be challenged.\u00a0 The goal, therefore, is to develop a contextual ecclesiology–church thinking influenced by the church’s setting–that redefines what it means to be church in this particular place and leads to greater love for neighbor.\u00a0 Such an ecclesiology provides the rationale for developing next steps in addressing the division between this congregation and its surrounding community.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo 5. The church gym prepared for the New Year’s Day meal and warm clothing give-away.\u00a0 Photo by Josh Hunt.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo 6. Volunteers serve a traditional New Year’s Day meal.\u00a0 Photo by Josh Hunt.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo 7. Persons from the community line up for the meal and warm clothing.\u00a0 Photo by Josh Hunt.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo 8. Persons from the community line up for the meal and warm clothing. Photo by Josh Hunt.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo 9. Persons from the community line up for the meal and warm clothing. Photo by Josh Hunt.<\/p><\/div>\n

As I suggested in my parable, being healthy does not always translate into acting healthy.\u00a0 True wellness involves both.\u00a0 The process is akin to a knee replacement procedure.\u00a0 The surgery itself will replace deficient joint with healthy, but the patient must learn how to walk on a healthy knee again.\u00a0 This project is like physical therapy for a church that is emerging from sickness.<\/p>\n

The Dilemma: Church and Community Disconnect
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

My congregation is seen as a wealthy, white church in a poor, black neighborhood.\u00a0 The church made the decision decades ago to stay in its downtown home while some other predominantly white churches moved to suburban, residential neighborhoods.\u00a0 The difference between congregation and immediate community represents a significant obstacle to meaningful community engagement.\u00a0 Though the church supports community efforts through finances, this is done at a distance, through the efforts of parterning agencies in town.<\/p>\n

The church’s challenge is to respond to every person with the love of Christ, but the narratives that seem to be at work in the congregation must be named before the church can move toward addressing the challenge and opportunity within its own neighborhood context.\u00a0 What is First Baptist?\u00a0 What is First Baptist’s community?\u00a0 How did the church’s major priorities come to be separate from the community in which the church exists and more focused on the work within the church facility?\u00a0 Supppsing that such a separation between church and community is neither biblical nor Christian, how can the congregation rethink its priorities as church in this community?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo 11. The church fa\u00e7ade decorated for Christmas.\u00a0 Photo by Josh Hunt.<\/p><\/div>\n

Being a Student of the Community<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I also spent hours reading the history of my adopted home.\u00a0 Tracing the threads of Anderson’s story from the displacement of the Cherokee in 1776, locals fighting to preserve slavery in 1860, the development of the world’s first cotton gin powered by electricity in 1897, and the rise and fall of the textile industry in the 20th and 21st Centuries informed much of my thinking about how the community came to be the place I know, as well as the centuries-old decisions that left some native Andersonians poor and some rich.<\/p>\n

I also did a study of current demographics, property values, and crime statistics.\u00a0 I conducted asset mapping and interviews with boundary leaders currently serving in the neighborhoods surrounding the church.\u00a0 As the minister takes on the mantle of a student, he or she is not served particularly well in that roll if they pretend that they are the only person who is studying.\u00a0 There are people engaged in the ministry that you may be seeking to learn more about.\u00a0 Use them as a resource.\u00a0 Partner with them in their ministry.<\/p>\n

My community research revealed that the distance between the church and the community that now surrounds it is not new.\u00a0 Thought the church was once very engaged in the life of its neighborhood, the neighborhood has changed but the church’s efforts to reach the neighborhood have not.<\/p>\n

Becoming a Student of the Church<\/strong><\/h2>\n

My work began with a history of the church.\u00a0 The time I spent pouring over Georgia Hamlet’s History of First Baptist Church<\/em> proved immensely worthwhile.\u00a0 Beyond studying the official written history, I had conversations about the church’s history with people who have been around the church a long time.\u00a0 While the written history detailed church accomplishments and milestones, the oral history talked about the highs and lows that are associated with the life of any church.<\/p>\n

I also sought to determine what the church has valued about itself and what it values now.\u00a0 The determination of values is crucial to the development of future ministries and also to engage community in a richer way without sacrificing a deep church identity.\u00a0 This exploration of the church’s theology, doctrine, and polity revealed a strong value on freedom, education, music, and worship.\u00a0 These values form the beginning point for community engagement.<\/p>\n

The church’s ordinances, baptism and communion, also provide a framework for the establishment of ecclesiology.\u00a0 Celebrating baptism in the life of the believer, which is itself an indicator of the health of the congregation, and a challenge to the baptized person and the baptizing community to grow in the Holy Spirit is an important step in using this Baptist distinctive as a way to encourgage the congregation to venture outside the walls.<\/p>\n

The other ordinance in Baptist life, the Lord’s Supper, is a reminder of the welcome Christ extends to anyone who would respond, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, or station in life.\u00a0 The way the elements are received in my church–through the distribution of small cups and pieces of bread throughout the congregation–is itself a subtle reminder that Christ equips every Christian to serve and that all Christians stand in need of receiving that which is offered.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Commending Contextual Exploration
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

While the development of ministries, programs, and opportunities for the church and communtiy to get to know each other are crucial, such development should take into account the complex context in which church and community mutually dwell.\u00a0 Ministry programs have varying levels of success in different contexts, but intentional contextual awareness can happen in every kind of congregation and can involve congregants, regardless of gifts and abilities.\u00a0 Contextual ecclesiology is a prerequisite to healthy ministry where congregation and community meet.\u00a0 Contextual ecclesiology begins with contextual exploration.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Toward Engagement
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

How might a church begin to engage the community from which it has been previously disconnected?\u00a0 The church begins the process of going out by first looking in.\u00a0 The church may not be able to make immediate changes in the surrounding neighborhood, but it can change its perceptions of its neighbors and its role as a church in the community.<\/p>\n

First, the church can learn its history and the history of the community and be honest about its role, intentional or not, in perpetuating historical inequities.<\/p>\n

Second, the church can listen for the history told by its neighbors.\u00a0 How do people in the surrounding neighborhood tell the history of Anderson, their neighborhood, and the relationship between the church and its neighbors?<\/p>\n

Third, the church can reexamine its understanding of what it means to be church in its context.\u00a0 What is the congregation’s theological understanding of what it means to be church?\u00a0 Or, put another way, what is its unspoken ecclesiology?\u00a0 Does that theology reinforce the disconnection to the surrounding community?\u00a0 If it does, the congregation’s thinking about what it means to be church needs to be challenged and revised.<\/p>\n

What’s Next?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Photo 12. The steeple of First Baptist Church.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the absence of bishops and presbyteries to keep the congregation in line, in the context of a system of calling ministerial staff that sometimes makes prophetic teaching and preaching difficult for fear of losing one\u2019s job, the family at First Baptist must continue to teach our people how to read and interpret scripture for themselves.\u00a0 Church staff must train congregants to be sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Leaders must encourage Christians to engage in cross-generational conversations, in cross-racial conversations, in cross-cultural conversations.\u00a0 Institutional memory has a way of maintaining a history that is heavily-edited in a way that benefits the institution.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo 13. First Baptist Church in 1858.\u00a0 Courtesy First Baptist Church archives.<\/p><\/div>\n

The First Baptist observed today did not suddenly become what it is; it has been born and born again for nearly two centuries.\u00a0 Worship style, affirmation of women in ministry, theology, doctrine, scriptural interpretation, denominational identity, and community engagement have been shaped as much by the people who have \u201clost\u201d and left the church as much as it has been by the people who have \u201cwon\u201d and stayed.\u00a0 The outcome of some of these once-divisive issues\u2014previously the result of an effort to create a compromise and initiate a fragile peace\u2014has now solidified into an identity.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo 14. Photo Jack Abraham. Used with permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

Baptist ecclesiology is not always formed in ideal circumstances or with ideal motives, but even with denominational and congregational eccentricities, I remain a proud Baptist and feel called called by God to this place and time.\u00a0 I count it a blessing to serve and serve among the people called First Baptist Church, for I know that as I serve, teach, preach, and study, I am undertaking the sacred work of interpreting the ecclesiology of this church today and helping author what he hopes will be an increasingly contextual ecclesiology of this church tomorrow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t
<\/div>\n\t
<\/div>\n\t