Let’s be honest. It’s not easy, and requires intentionality, to overcome the biases we’ve inherited from the economic and social class we inhabit. Although Americans live in a society a bit more class fluid than some cultures, we nevertheless each of us have to overcome many entrenched habits if we are going to move toward the kin-dom of God rather than the comfort of class.
This is at least in part because the majority view in most of our churches is beholden to a vision of the church in the 1950s or 1980s, roughly Boomer or Gen X. From the Boomers we got the idea we were the majority (and we also got Sunday school wings). From Gen X we got certain sensibilities and cultural forms around church and attraction (entertainment) and we also got multipurpose rooms with basketball courts.
What we didn’t get in our church buildings (mostly) were homeless shelters or addiction recovery units or laundromats or free auto repair centers.
The churches with our sensibilities and values moved to or built in the suburbs. This is their imagined territory for Christianity.
As our congregation moves into the 2020s, I have been observing how these limiting visions of church are really hamstringing us. On the one hand we have many new connections and members and funding streams that recognize the value of our intentional movement toward communities previously alienated by middle class values. You still won’t find very many churches who know queer faith or connect to minority communities like ours.
But then we also lose people who prefer to preserve the ideal middle class church they have known, and perhaps even believe that is the authentic “Lutheran” church.
Here is where I need to admit that I personally struggle to overcome or escape from this middle class captivity. I’ll give you some examples.
1. I have a manual on my desk for learning Marshallese and I have friends available to teach me but I haven’t yet carved out the time to do so. I’m more comfortable doing middle class Anglo culture things. This is a sign I’m stuck. But also: I don’t have a ton of Anglo members showing up on the regular saying they want to go visit Marshallese church with me. We seem habituated to worshipping and living in our comfort zone, even when we have cross cultural opportunities just down the street and in our own building.
2. We are located in a single family dwelling homogenous zone. The church has an architectural vibe commensurate with this neighborhood. Although we also have a Friendly Fridge and Little Free Pantry, we haven’t built low income housing on our property or planned to house those without homes. We are comfortable.
3. We are a primarily white congregation. Although we have committed 4% of our income to reparations, and offer a land acknowledgment during worship, we don’t really conduct any of our worship in other languages and we don’t ask ourselves regularly what we need to change so those in other economic classes or poverty would need to feel at home with us, and we definitely haven’t modified ourselves so that our worship life feels odd to white people but perhaps comfortable to those of US minority cultures.
4. We don’t even know what we don’t know. I don’t even know what I don’t know. Much of the history of the church was vulnerable enclaves gathering furtively under the aegis of empire, and then when the church gained the favor of empire we never looked back. We are now back at that tension point again and we aren’t sure about relinquishing our influence and wealth.
5. I appreciate having health insurance and a pension plan and wish I was paid well enough to save better for our kids college. I recognize these are accoutrements of middle class life.
I don’t know how to ask people to reevaluate their understanding of their Christianity in light of this middle class captivity other than to try to be honest. If you are questing around for the church you knew in the 1980s or 2000s or if you are prioritizing your personal worship experience over a commitment to equity and a walk in the way of Jesus, I guess I don’t know what else to do than challenge you. Challenge myself.
Most middle class Christians would be a lot closer to Jesus if they spent a year worshiping in a jail or in a church whose primary language wasn’t their own, because it would help them overcome this false notion they’ve been raised in that church is supposed to “feed” you.
Well, it is supposed to feed you, but what you eat in church is either the Word or the Eucharist, and in either instance what you eat transforms you into something other than yourself. It is shaping you into Christ. Which isn’t to say that it won’t help your relationship with God grow. It will.
It’s just that it will help you practice what churches often pay lip service to but don’t put into action. It will put you on the way of the cross.
The way of the cross is connected to eternal life with God, no doubt. But it is so only inasmuch as it is also transformative of how we live now. So by all means, if you think you need to leave a specific religious tradition or church to follow Jesus, do so. Just make sure your departure isn’t rooted in fidelity to a false sense of church shaped more by the accoutrements of middle class life than the actual way of the cross.
What I hear you saying, is that most Lutherans and a majority of white middle class Christians belong to a church (attend a worship service) for a feel-good experience for themselves. That usually means experiencing something familiar - comfortable, yet also being reminded of what the Bible says, praying together, singing worship songs to/about God. To some extent every culture is comfortable with doing church the way they've always known, right? So we're not exactly unique in that respect. But what I also hear you saying, and completely agree with, is that being the Church was never supposed to be so self-centered. Worship gatherings were never meant to be an end in themselves, just for our comfort club. We do need to be asked if our faith in Christ compelling us to help a stranger - especially a stranger very different from us. Does our faith (and essentially, the Spirit) lead us individually and as a congregation to do anything to help anybody else? Can we mix with people different from us who call the same Jesus Lord and Christ? Can we mix and be neighbors to people who don't yet know Christ, but could possibly be introduced to Jesus through our Christ-like-ness? If those questions don't all get a resounding YES we have to do a gut check. But I am ok with my congregation having a regular amount of comfortable if it still helps us scatter and do the latter.
What a bunch of BULLSHIT this is! Do you actually believe this crap?