What worries you about the church?
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009-From Byron Wade, the Vice Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA):
I know for myself I tend to worry a lot about the church – that is my particular congregation I serve. I think the saying is true that the church is a “jealous mistress.” Hardly a day goes by that I am not thinking about the hopes, failures, and dreams for this congregation. I worry about a lot of things – older congregants that statistically don’t have much longer to live; how to introduce others to Christ and bring them in to our community of faith, analyzing long-standing barriers to growth in ministry, etc. Always something to think about. However when it comes to the larger catholic church, I really believe that we have some real things to worry about, especially through the eyes of those who are newly trained and ordained into ministry.
As mentioned before, I was at a Lilly-funded Pastoral Resident consultation which you can read here with pastoral residents from a variety of denominations. As one of thier assignments before the consultation each of them had the opportunity to answer three questions on reflections of ministry. The one question that was asked was “Name one thing that worries you about the church.” I took the liberty to quote directly from some participants that will give you some insight as to where their worries are:“I worrry that the church can easily become self-absorbed and curved in on itself.”
“The church has to nurture its malleability and its ability to accomodate (instead of assimilate) new members . . . I do not mean that the church should reject its traditional practices (as those are also desired and needed) but be more willing to be a “both/and” instead of an “either/or” church.”
