Knapsack 10-13

Notes From My Knapsack 10-13-11

Jeff Gill

An Empire By Any Other Name

___

For Christian believers, the challenge of living out your life day to day according to the principles you affirm is called "discipleship." A disciple is a follower of someone, and for a Christian, Jesus is whom you are following.

Let me say right up front that the most straightforward response to living in a violent world as a Christian is pacifism. The examples are there, the teachings are there, and frankly, while living it may be a "heavy lift," the discipleship of pacifism is an easy defense.

There are places, though, where it seems soldiers are not told they must quit their jobs in order to follow "the Way" of the early church, where John the Baptist just tells them to be content with their pay and not use their authority to extort more from civilians. Peter after the Resurrection, in the earliest life of the church, deals with Roman soldiers without ever telling them to quit.

Perhaps the point is that a Roman centurion was as much a public servant in certain settings as he was a warrior. Which is true in today's US armed forces, as well. At any rate, there is Christian tradition & teaching around a cautious acceptance of a role for the military life.

St. Augustine, around the year 400 AD, as the Roman Empire was falling to pieces around him in North Africa, developed something called "Just War" theory. This leading teacher and preacher of the developing Christian faith believed there were circumstances when going to war (jus ad bellum) was justified: if a legitimate authority declares war; if there is a just cause (such as self defense, defending third parties, or to restore order); and for the right intentions, both objectively (to restore peace) and subjectively (from a position of love for those oppressed, and for enemy).

 

Just war theory also has guidance for when to go to war: It must be a last resort; you must listen to sincere offers to sue for peace; the effort must be winnable; you should exercise proportionality in damage and reaction to enemy damage; your side shall respect treaties and law; and ultimately, you should be sincerely convinced that your side is just.

 

While in war itself there are guidelines (jus in bello), says Augustine: you shall observe an absolute immunity for the innocent; weapons must be used so as to distinguish between combatants; your methods must be proportional to the threat posed; and finally all the necessary means to this end in the terrible eventuality of war shall respect human dignity to every extend possible in that situation, which practically speaking includes - no torture, no slander, no rape, no poisoning of wells.

That last point about wells reminds us that these guidelines were written 1600 years ago.  How might Augustine have changed his outline if he saw airplanes, battleships, remote drones with missiles that strike an enemy from halfway around the world? Proportionality and discrimination in the means of war are both aided at times, and obliterated at others by the technologies of modern war. Some would argue that modern war can never be just by these standards.

What would Augustine have thought about our American empire? Because, like the description or not, that's what we are. In reach beyond our borders, in the projection of power, in the extension of our trade and our culture around the world, I don't think Augustine would find any argument credible to say this country is not, in most meaningful ways, an empire. We can argue that we are a kinder, gentler empire than any that has ever bestrode the earth, but we project power to defend our economic interests and national safety at home by acts of violence abroad.

So what are the ethics of empire? Can just war theory be extended to define what a just empire would look like? I will admit to being pragmatic enough in my theology & philosophy to be very impatient with an argument that says it is impossible to be an ethical empire, just as politically I'm very unimpressed by a starting point of "bring all the troops home." That would only make sense if you simultaneously say "and we're going to end all trade beyond our national borders."

And as Augustine was struggling to describe, there are times when injustice & oppression on a national scale require a response.  What hasn't changed over nearly two millennia is the knowledge that such response takes a terrible toll on the individual combatants, the victors as well as the vanquished.

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and supply preacher in central Ohio; tell him your story at knapsack77@gmail.com or follow Knapsack @Twitter.  

Faith Works 10-8

Faith Works 10-8-11

Jeff Gill

 

Oh, Why Bother. (Here's Why.)

___

 

 

Let's just sell all the churches and worship in living rooms.

 

Seriously, I got a bunch of e-mail and comments that were variations on exactly that from last week's column.

 

Congregations, especially congregations with buildings and staff (clergy and otherwise) and mailing lists, were given a number of ongoing developments to think about last Saturday. Some of you said "Tomaytoh" while others said "Tomahtoe," but a few suggested we call the whole thing off.

 

Before we dismiss our local, loveable cranks as, say . . . cranks, let's think about that. Why not get rid of the cost and bother and misplaced focus on buildings?

 

One obvious answer is size. Even a small, struggling congregations has 25 to 40 people a Sunday, and it's the rare living room which has the capacity for that many.

 

One of the challenges facing church leadership is that not long ago an average Sunday attendance of 70 was enough to sustain a building and a full-time pastor with seminary training. That number has shot up to more like 120 or more if you're talking about a full salary package with health insurance, and that's not even talking anymore about a custodian and secretary.

 

So churches up to 200 a Sunday in the pews are going to part-time jobs for office staff, building staff, and even for clergy. Meanwhile, if you have "only" 175 per week in worship, you sure aren't going to find even a basement rumpus room in a member's house that will fit you all.

 

Your fellowship can duck the whole building deal with renting space in a school auditorium or catering space that isn't used on Sundays; some new church starts find an older congregation which is willing to make a deal for Sunday afternoons, and that's very common in Ohio for ethnic congregations of Korean or Hispanic members.

 

You avoid certain complications with that sort of borrowed space approach, but you pick up new ones. And until you've worked with it, you can't calculate the very real expenditure of leadership & volunteer time spent in setting up and tearing down in gyms or hallways or theaters every weekend. That time and energy comes out of possibilities that you never quite can plumb, but that loss is not nothing.

 

A truly hard-nosed church building skeptic might say "why not keep establishing house churches, and just never have any one get bigger than can fit, but the growth is in an expanding number of home meetings?" You'll not have an organ or stained glass windows, but you'll have none of the limitations of those walls, either.

 

Xenos Christian Fellowship in Columbus is built along that model, with a few of their home groups here in Licking County. They argue that they aren't a large church with home groups, but a connection of home groups that occasionally has large meetings.

 

I have to count myself a rueful pragmatist on church life. You can focus, as a Frank Viola does, on home groups, or you can be a Joel Osteen and celebrate size and expansion as an end in itself. What I see in Christian history are home churches that grew to where they had to purchase a home, keep it looking that way outside, but gut it out inside to create a worship space (you can online search for "Dura-Europos" to see our earliest example).

 

Once you have social approval, such as under Emperor Constantine in the Fourth Century, you find yourself with an option to set up shop in underutilized basilicas or repurposed temples, and next thing you know you're in a giant physical plant and the report of the trustees is half the monthly board meeting.

 

So moving into old pagan temples left vacant, bad idea (you'll have to put a new roof on in no time); putting up something bigger than a residential home but smaller than a blimp hanger, good idea (though some pastors have blimp-like ideas about what is a sustainable size).

 

Rather than wish them gone, I wonder what would happen if we look at our buildings, our real estate, our gathered fellowship -- with all the parking and sanctuary temperature management problems that these imply, and if you consideration led to . . . stewardship.

 

Perhaps a vital personal faith needs to be tied to the vitality that can, that may, that SHOULD grow from taking seriously a shared obligation: to take care of a classic building, or to carefully select and affirm a staff that's right-sized and well-purposed to your particular fellowship's calling?

 

In other words, annoying though they can be, you probably need a church more than you think. Big-C church and small-c church alike, building-church or sense of membership and commitment to a shared vision-church. If irritation helps oysters create pearl, what might going to church help you to do?

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and supply preacher around central Ohio; tell him what (or who) annoys you at church to knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow Knapsack @Twitter.

Faith Works 10-8

Faith Works 10-8-11

Jeff Gill

 

Oh, Why Bother. (Here's Why.)

___

 

 

Let's just sell all the churches and worship in living rooms.

 

Seriously, I got a bunch of e-mail and comments that were variations on exactly that from last week's column.

 

Congregations, especially congregations with buildings and staff (clergy and otherwise) and mailing lists, were given a number of ongoing developments to think about last Saturday. Some of you said "Tomaytoh" while others said "Tomahtoe," but a few suggested we call the whole thing off.

 

Before we dismiss our local, loveable cranks as, say . . . cranks, let's think about that. Why not get rid of the cost and bother and misplaced focus on buildings?

 

One obvious answer is size. Even a small, struggling congregations has 25 to 40 people a Sunday, and it's the rare living room which has the capacity for that many.

 

One of the challenges facing church leadership is that not long ago an average Sunday attendance of 70 was enough to sustain a building and a full-time pastor with seminary training. That number has shot up to more like 120 or more if you're talking about a full salary package with health insurance, and that's not even talking anymore about a custodian and secretary.

 

So churches up to 200 a Sunday in the pews are going to part-time jobs for office staff, building staff, and even for clergy. Meanwhile, if you have "only" 175 per week in worship, you sure aren't going to find even a basement rumpus room in a member's house that will fit you all.

 

Your fellowship can duck the whole building deal with renting space in a school auditorium or catering space that isn't used on Sundays; some new church starts find an older congregation which is willing to make a deal for Sunday afternoons, and that's very common in Ohio for ethnic congregations of Korean or Hispanic members.

 

You avoid certain complications with that sort of borrowed space approach, but you pick up new ones. And until you've worked with it, you can't calculate the very real expenditure of leadership & volunteer time spent in setting up and tearing down in gyms or hallways or theaters every weekend. That time and energy comes out of possibilities that you never quite can plumb, but that loss is not nothing.

 

A truly hard-nosed church building skeptic might say "why not keep establishing house churches, and just never have any one get bigger than can fit, but the growth is in an expanding number of home meetings?" You'll not have an organ or stained glass windows, but you'll have none of the limitations of those walls, either.

 

Xenos Christian Fellowship in Columbus is built along that model, with a few of their home groups here in Licking County. They argue that they aren't a large church with home groups, but a connection of home groups that occasionally has large meetings.

 

I have to count myself a rueful pragmatist on church life. You can focus, as a Frank Viola does, on home groups, or you can be a Joel Osteen and celebrate size and expansion as an end in itself. What I see in Christian history are home churches that grew to where they had to purchase a home, keep it looking that way outside, but gut it out inside to create a worship space (you can online search for "Dura-Europos" to see our earliest example).

 

Once you have social approval, such as under Emperor Constantine in the Fourth Century, you find yourself with an option to set up shop in underutilized basilicas or repurposed temples, and next thing you know you're in a giant physical plant and the report of the trustees is half the monthly board meeting.

 

So moving into old pagan temples left vacant, bad idea (you'll have to put a new roof on in no time); putting up something bigger than a residential home but smaller than a blimp hanger, good idea (though some pastors have blimp-like ideas about what is a sustainable size).

 

Rather than wish them gone, I wonder what would happen if we look at our buildings, our real estate, our gathered fellowship -- with all the parking and sanctuary temperature management problems that these imply, and if you consideration led to . . . stewardship.

 

Perhaps a vital personal faith needs to be tied to the vitality that can, that may, that SHOULD grow from taking seriously a shared obligation: to take care of a classic building, or to carefully select and affirm a staff that's right-sized and well-purposed to your particular fellowship's calling?

 

In other words, annoying though they can be, you probably need a church more than you think. Big-C church and small-c church alike, building-church or sense of membership and commitment to a shared vision-church. If irritation helps oysters create pearl, what might going to church help you to do?

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and supply preacher around central Ohio; tell him what (or who) annoys you at church to knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow Knapsack @Twitter.