Silver Bullets

Pastor’s Epistle—February 2022

There is no silver bullet for what all ails the Church in the Western world. We face a great tide of socio-economic forces which have swept before them most all of what we used to call civil society: those voluntary organizations that would mediate between the individual and the state. Any group relying on in-person commitment—book discussions, bowling leagues, Boy Scouts, fraternal lodges, service organizations, political parties—they’re all getting shellacked. They’re all dead or dying. It isn’t just the Church.

It's not that people have stopped believing in God, nor that people have rejected faith for science, religion for reason, or superstition for sensibility. We still overwhelmingly believe in God. And as Church attendance plummets, fascination with the paranormal has ballooned: ghosts, witches, Bigfoot, UFOs, cryptids, you name it. If it’s weird, we love it. And I still believe that this appetite for wonder is an expression of religious yearning. The search for sasquatch in some odd sense is still the search for God.

Falling membership, then, is not so much a religious or Christian issue as it is a societal malaise present throughout the post-industrial world. The Sōtō school, for example, largest of the three traditional Buddhist sects in Japan, currently has only four monasteries with more than 10 monks, a catastrophic decline leading some to proclaim “the death of Zen in Japan.” Clearly, then, this is neither simply an American nor a Christian issue. We’re all becoming isolated. We’re all finding ourselves alone.

Part of this is economic. We work longer hours for less pay. We lack social safety nets, meaning that we possess neither the stability nor the free time which allowed civil society to flourish in previous generations. Such voluntary organizations, mind you, were what Alexis de Tocqueville credited with the astonishing success of democracy in America. Now that we’re all atomized individuals, it’s little wonder that our political processes have collapsed into a Hobbesian war of all against all.

Such is the problem. What then the solution? As Americans we do love the quick fix, the easy out, the technological response. We emphasize matters of style over substance. In the life of the Church, this usually manifests as the suggestion that worship become more entertaining: that we use guitars, flatscreens, fog machines, and “contemporary” music from the 1970s. And I’ll say this: we shouldn’t be afraid to barbeque some sacred cows. There are certainly ways to improve our worship together. Many of us have good ideas.

Yet we must recall that the role of the Church has never been mere entertainment. On that score, we are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned. No Church service will ever be more entertaining than Netflix on a Sunday morning. The internet offers everyone everything all of the time, on demand and in their pocket. We will always be behind the curve. The Church cannot be contemporary, and must not be stuck in the past. Rather, the Church is timeless. We come here to experience eternity breaking into our lives.

There is no silver bullet. There is no one magical thing that we can do to instantly revitalize the Church, in terms of attendance, in terms of influence. That’s not our moment in history. And congregations that go for the quick fix, the cheap trick—that trade in the altar for the stage, the sanctuary for the theater—they are flashes in the pan. They are fun until they aren’t and then all their people go back home.

Rather, if we are to continue to be the Church within this culture, we know what we must do: we know that it will not be easy, and that it will not be popular. We must go deep. We must train Christians for discipleship, for the mystical encounter with Christ. We must dedicate ourselves to more than just an hour a week on Sundays. We have to take our faith seriously: not as one more burden to shoulder but as liberation from a life of constant consumption, ceaseless stimulation, and existential despair.

We have to relearn silence. We have to relearn meditation and prayer. We have to take seriously the study of our Scriptures. And we must remember that our highest and deepest calling, from our Baptism to our death, is to be Christ together for this world: to love as Christ has first loved us, and to live as those whose King has conquered the grave. Strive to be as one with Jesus, strive to stand forever in the glories of His grace, and He will change you, raise you. This Christian path, this Way of Christ, has been walked by billions of people for thousands of years. They found God in this Man, as do we all.

Our tradition offers solutions which have stood the test of time. Last month I challenged people to open up their Bibles, not just once but every day. Follow the readings we post, or just crack that book and start where you will. I guarantee it will affect you. I guarantee it will spark questions, and sparks can lead to flame. This month I offer a similarly simple yet difficult solution: come to worship. Do not neglect to gather as the Body of Christ.

Yes, religion must be a matter for the household and the individual, but that’s what we do through the rest of the week. We cannot walk this path alone; we can only be Christ together. Let us come confess our sins and hear the words of forgiveness. Let us together tell the story of God and us His people. Let us receive into our broken lives the Spirit of Christ, the Body of Christ, the Blood of Christ, that we might be the Risen Jesus for a world in need of Him. Jesus meets us here to give Himself to you.

We can talk about everyone’s ideas for worship and music and outreach and education and whatever else we do together, but none of that can happen if you aren’t here. Everyone thinks that if the Church would change, then would people come; but it’s the other way around. The future belongs to those who show up for it. We need you, if we’re to be the Church, if we’re to do anything at all. And yes, I know that life is busy. And I know that many are vulnerable and keeping their distance for good reason. No-one wants to get sick at this stage in the pandemic. I get that.

But Church must be a priority in the lives of Christians—for here Christ promises to meet us, in word and in water, in bread and in wine. We are the first and the last of civil society. We are the Body of Christ sent forth for the world. How then can we not rise?

In Jesus. Amen.