Faith Works 4-21-18

Faith Works 4-21-18

Jeff Gill

 

New beginnings are all around us

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Last week I talked about the end of "NAMA," the Newark Area Ministerial Association, as an entity. A long history, a lengthy arc of accomplishment, which like all human creations has a beginning, a middle, and an end. But I also noted that there are beginnings sprouting all around.

 

It's spring, and the daffodils and pear trees and other signs of the season are starting to show their colors. Forsythia bushes seem to have been overruled this year, but their yellow is branching out everywhere, and we know that the snow has to come to an end sooner or later.

 

Likewise, a faith-based collaborative called "Community In Action – Licking County" has had three or four meetings, their last one on April 10^th, to bring churches and community faith-based efforts together in response to the drug overdose crisis (check them out on Facebook for their next scheduled meeting). Here, a number of area clergy, from Newark and beyond, have been part of bringing congregations together.

 

Not long ago, both Heartbeats and Gideons International held programs to invite churches and ministers to support their work. These groups have their own specific areas of interest, but have tried to provide opportunities to bring congregations together, not just for their own fundraising purposes . . . but that's always in the mix in this world.

 

The Newark Think Tank on Poverty and the Transport Licking County groups have had a number of ministers and church leaders involved in their gatherings to discuss matters both political and spiritual, about payday lending and health care options, redistricting in elections and justice for different minority groups in public programs.

 

For churches that used to turn to their judicatory bodies for advice and support, whether they called them districts or regions or dioceses or synods or conferences, there are now many fee-for-service consultants and advisors whose counsel is available on subjects from personnel to finance, mission projects or liability coverage. The basic task of finding a new preacher is something that now search services offer to do on a contract basis where the historic relationships are no longer functioning as well within denominational structures. That's a change for many of us who are older, but for younger church leaders who are used to Uber and Airbnb for personal services, contacting a private provider to look for a new minister in what's not the "standard" way of doing things makes much more sense.

 

My religious tradition is meeting today at our church camp facility to discuss how to continue being congregations in connection. We don't have the history or polity to compel financial support, but we're not good at convincing each other to share funds, either. My prayer in the week leading up to today is that we find the grace and peace and good will and discernment to work together even when we don't agree with each other.

 

This is a problem that is both growing for those used to religious tradition affiliations, and disappearing for those who have chose a path that's normally described as "non-denominational." It wasn't that long ago that families moving from one area to another looked for the logo of "their" church, but just as brand loyalty has vanished with toothpaste and breakfast cereal, in large part, so has the "nameplate" for denominations. I'm enough of a child of my particular tradition to find that a positive development, but it means for all of us, my own congregation included, that a family that once would have sought us out now has to be sold on whether our form of the tradition is really to their liking. Brand loyalty? It's gone with baked bean preferences and car sale leanings. Are there still Ford or Chevy families? Well, ditto for denominations.

 

So there are new affiliations and organizations rising up, and they are even less concerned with artificial borders between churches than our forbearers were. People of good will, come together now to work, and we'll hash out theology over lunch.

 

Which is really how we all started, isn't it?

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he teaches the history and polity of his tradition, but that doesn't mean he thinks they're infallible! Tell him what you see being born between churches at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.