Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, 30 September 2018
United Service, Eldroth
What would you say are the marks of a healthy Christian congregation?
PCC members might say it’s when numbers are up on last year’s Harvest service; church treasurers might say it’s when we manage to pay our diocesan share on time and in full and still have some left over for charity; some might say it’s where children and families come along regularly to join in the services.
All of these things are very valid of course. But what can we learn from the picture which James paints of a healthy congregation? James was a leader of the early church in Jerusalem, and his letter to those Christians describes a healthy congregation as a spiritually and emotionally mature congregation, whose people are mutually involved in spiritual leadership.
James’ congregation is remarkable for the way it involves all the people in ministries to which they are well suited.
Read again, James advising his congregation that their prayers should be led by those who are suffering evil - and their psalms of praise be led by those who are cheerful.
Now this teaches us a few things about James’ view of congregational life. It tells us that anyone in that church can lead prayers and praise - and that the people leading may vary week by week, depending on what each brings into the time of worship from their everyday lives.
It may be that the people leading prayers pleading for God’s help, one week, may the following week be the ones leading prayers of praise giving thanks for God’s provision. Or the other way around - for in that congregation it seems there’s room for honesty about the people’s questions when God seems absent, as much as for the wholehearted praise of the thankful.
Who organises the prayer rota then? Well, it’s unlikely there is one - instead it looks like there’s a spontaneity in worship where people can stand up and take a lead, as the Spirit leads them.
This is not to say that the worship is chaotic, that the congregation is leaderless, rudderless. Far from it: for spontaneity to work well, it must have someone carefully coordinating it, a strong and sensitive leader. James may have been that person to this group, or another appointed by them.
And likewise in James’ congregation there is a team of ‘elders’. Prayerful people chosen by the congregation for pastoral roles. James encourages those who are sick to call for these ‘elders’ to pray over them, to pray prayers of faith which will raise up the physically ailing and forgive the spiritually ailing.
This is a close and caring group of Christians, comfortable in each other’s company in sharing their faith - and doubts, their joys - and pains, together. The members of this congregation are sufficiently trusting of each other that James can confidently encourage them to confess their sins to each other, and be forgiven; to ask for healing of each other, and be healed.
This is a prayerful group of people, trusting like Elijah in the power of prayer to provide for us and restore.
It’s also a group of people which genuinely cares for each other’s emotional, spiritual and physical well-being - to the extent that they will strive for each other’s well-being when that is under threat.
We see this in the closing section of this extract from James’ letter when James calls on the people to take every opportunity to bring back those of their fellowship who ‘wander from the truth’ - in other words, to invest in honest and open relationships where probing conversations and words of discipline can be shared, for the good of each member.
Now the way we organise ourselves, the way we relate to each other as Christian congregations here, bears marks of all these things. For there is caring, there is sharing, there is prayer among us and between us, I’ve seen all that in my early months here. And that is encouraging. But when you re-read James’ description of church today, did it make you reflect on how much deeper we could be living as Christians together; of how much more we could be sharing; of how much more spiritually mature our congregations could be?
Village congregations tend to consist of a mixture of people some of whom have been raised in a free church background and others steeped in more ‘catholic’ traditions. So the concept of the ‘priesthood of all believers’ may be familiar to some, and strange to others. The understanding that ministry is something shared by every member of the Christian community is a bit of a challenge to so-called ‘clericalism’ where the ministry of the clergy is the only one that matters.
But the times demand that we rethink the shape of Christian ministry. The world at large has changed so much in recent decades, and from the journey our society has taken we can learn valuable lessons in how to apply the principles of equality and collaboration in our congregations.
Shrinking clergy numbers mean that church leaders who have previously taken on every aspect of ministry in a parish are now learning to encourage everyone’s vocation and find ways to develop new forms of leadership. Some clergy find it hard to let go - and some parishioners find it hard to embrace the idea that they too are gifted by God to minister to others, in church and in daily life.
But if clericalism is a stumbling-block then we ought to repent of it. If every-member ministry is how Christian congregations are meant to be, then we should celebrate it. Should we, could we, organise ourselves the same way as the churches James led? How do we keep exploring this theme? How do we keep moving in this direction? Let’s talk.
Notes
[1] Acknowledging the work of Parish and People in the area of Valuing Everyone's Ministry; in particular their Manifesto for taking lay ministry seriously.
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