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April 24, 2008
> 10:24 PM
church, money, future conversation Well, this ought to be interesting. There's a bit of a blog-versation going on among some of my friends about the future of the church, how it conducts itself, how and where churches come together for worship, how ministers/pastors/priests are supported by their communities - all in light of possible coming monetary problems, financial crisis, etc. You can check their musings out first if you like to keep in stride...
I spent quite a few years with my mouth wide open about how large church buildings that depend on quite a bit of money and ministers who depend on salaries that suck the life out of a congregation are bad for the Church as a whole - that they put our focus on the wrong things and help perpetuate a way of being Christian which is not quite what I'm thinking Jesus intended. Now, some may think, here I am in the biggest, richest, most opulent ecclesiastical institution of them all - shut up! I guess technically they'd be right. Nothing like Rome for some gold and stained glass and seeeeeriously whoopdeedoo vestments. Right. Nothing like the Vatican's stash. Right. And those Cathedrals! Holy, well holy cathedral Batman! Show me the MONAAAAY! Rome doesn't fund local Catholic parishes by the way - just thought I'd through that in there. There's a lot of medieval mess in all that. There's a ton of leftover, as Jason mentioned, deeply "Christendom" ideas floating around this ancient church. And yes, I believe it's a problem, one not easily or quickly solved. Some of the defense behind some of these things is a sort of anti-Gnostic, matter and things here on earth are important, beauty draws us to contemplate God, He is worthy of something amazing and cool like that kind of thing. Can you see where that's coming from without me having to write another book on it? I can see some of it, but not all of it. I can understand an attitude that God in His infinite wonder and wants to reflect that around us in a context of worship - sacred space and all that. I get that. I love beautiful spaces. I'd rather be in a beautiful, sacred space than in a corny, goofy lookin' space. We're human. We're of this earth. It matters. BUT, how much does it matter? In what way does it matter? I think we've too easily answered these questions. We've adopted answers that aren't "our" answers over the years and unfortunately they have stuck with us and we've developed apologies for them. How about the beauty of simplicity? Can I get some Franciscan love up in this joint? Is Jesus really looking for golden thrones and million dollar sanctuaries? It seems odd for a God who once tried to convince us that He doesn't dwell structures built by human hands - doesn't it? It does. Oh, I know, the Blessed Sacrament (pardon me for a second guys) - yes, I do believe in His Real Presence in the Sacrament. But then there's that animal stall in Bethlehem, those dirty streets He walked on, the humble, normal house he lived in - all that. This is only part of my point. To me, opulence and finery are a very surface way of getting the point across, of showing respect. It's not evil, necessarily, but it's also not necessary. Simple, normal, regular, how about that? Things seem to be moving in a direction that might cause us all to have to rethink what we spend, what we build, how we pay our staff, etc. Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, whatever - things will change and we will all have to face it sooner or later. This all makes me remember a story an old Priest told me about something a friend said to him who had spent a lot of time in Rome, that the best thing that could happen to the Catholic Church is for an oppressive government to take over and strip it of all it's wealth, tear the external institution down and push it back into the catacombs. OK, the catacombs part was my creative addition, but you get my point. And it's not only the Catholic Church but much of the rest of the whole Church - let us all lose the ability to own buildings, to pay our leaders or our tax exemptions. Bring it! Where would our focus be then? Maybe on the Kingdom of God, something novel like that. It's time for some Body of Christ creativity. Maybe we should start practicing now - maybe. Lord have mercy. technorati tags > church, church buildings, church and money Labels: catholic, church, emerging church 0 Comments:| permalink | e-mail me | 
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