When Pam and I began Vision eight years ago, we had, as the great theologian Desi Arnez often said “lots of ‘splanin to do.” we had to explain this church and the vision we had for it. People asked us a lot of questions. Often, they were questions that were coming from such a different mindset, that we could not even begin to answer them. Questions like, “Why are you starting a new church in Warwick? There’s already a dozen of them.” Or, “Why do you advertise your church? Do you actually want people who don’t go to your church to come?”
How do we even respond to that? I remember once explaining to a woman from another church, that yes indeed, we wanted to reach people who did not currently go to church and invite them to come and be part of the Vision community. I even suggested that she might want to adopt the same approach in her own church, to reach beyond the walls of the building and connect with the many people who didn’t have a church home. She looked at me in shock and said, “Well if they don’t go to church, we certainly don’t want them here!”
Unfortunately, that attitude is all to common in many churches today and in one form or another and has been present throughout the history of the church, and religious communities in general. The Apostles Creed says we believe in the holy catholic church, but sadly the church often twists the word holy (which means set apart for a special use) into meaning exclusive and unwelcoming. Here’s the thing, when the church ceases to seek community with those beyond its walls, it ceases to be the church of Jesus Christ and instead becomes something else.
Over these past few weeks, our Mythbusters series has been shattering misconceptions about Christianity. Each week we have busted myths our culture has about Christianity such as; Christians believe God is an old man in the sky or that Jesus was just a good teacher. We have busted those myths using the words of the Apostles Creed. Interestingly, when the Apostles Creed first came together in the 2nd century, it was designed to bust the myths of its day. Many scholars believe it was principally designed to bust the myths of Gnostic Christians.
Our culture today is more familiar with them than previous generations since they were popularized in the book The DaVinci Code. The Gnostics derived their name from the Greek word gnosis, which meant knowledge. The knowledge of which the Gnostics spoke was a special or secret knowledge of God. For them, knowledge of God was not available to everyone but only a select few. Like many pagan cults of the day, thes select few were initiated into this secret knowledge through special rites and teachings. The Gnostics believed In Jesus, but believed that he taught a deeper secret gospel to special people. So the key doctrines of Christianity were reserved for a select few. In contrast, what we now refer to as orthodox Christianity believed the message of Jesus was for everyone.
When we read the line in our Creed that says, “I believe in the holy catholic church, the communion of saints,” we may well wonder what those words mean. Over the years, some of you have asked if that means we are saying we are somehow Roman Catholic. It is important to note that this is catholic with a small “c”, meaning “universal”. It’s not that we are anti-Roma Catholic. God is working through the Roman Catholic church, as well as Baptists, Presbyterians, Assemblies of God, and Nazarenes. In fact that is what we are saying when say the only catholic church.
At the time the Creed was written there were Christians with a variety of what we would now consider exotic beliefs about Jesus. However, amidst all the diversity a consensus was emerging as to what most Christians believed. In addition, those who concurred with that consensus were rising up to power in churches across the Roman Empire. With that, came the power to label groups like the Gnostic heretical and outside the norms of Christian belief.
So in one sense the word “catholic” meant “universal” as in “official”. But in another sense, it meant “universal” as in “for everyone”. When we say we believe in the holy catholic church we are proclaiming a tension. The church is holy or set apart, but it is also for everyone. We are set apart and special because we are performing the mission of Jesus in the world which is to reach and love everyone. That holiness or specialness does not cause us to withdraw from the world. Instead it sends us out, Jesus said as salt and light, to radically transform this broken world.
Over the past few years, many pundits have described our culture as more divided than ever before. However if there is one thing that both secularists and some Christian folks have in common, it is a fear of public or community religion. A secularist would say, “Hey, believe whatever you want. That’s between you and God. But it’s private. Keep it that way!”
Now I certainly don’t want to live in a theocracy, but that is an absurd notion. To insist that people keep their most deeply held convictions and beliefs from influencing their activities in the public arena, reduces those beliefs to irrelevant fantasies. The abolitionist and civil rights movements, as well as the social reforms of the progressive era were all spearheaded by Christians. Even today, the personal faith of Christians has been the force behind very public activism. Christians are working to eradicate everything from poverty to environmental destruction and human trafficking, not because they seek to get with the times, but because they are sincerely living out their commitment to follow Jesus. A faith that is only private, personal and singular is, in fact, impotent.
On the other hand, many Christians have reduced following Jesus to merely a private matter. Just believe the right things and you will go to heaven, they will say. They would argue that is the whole point of Christianity - personal salvation. As we have explored over the past few weeks, Christianity is so much more than that. Yes, God is personal. Yes, our relationship with Jesus is personal. But that’s not where it ends. The Gospel of John says “for God so loved the world” the cosmos, the whole creation. Paul said that in Christ God was reconciling the Creation back to God’s self. Salvation is not just for you. It’s not just for me. It’s for everyone and everything in God’s creation.
By emphasizing only a “personal relationship” with Jesus, many overlook the fact that the church has always been a community. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement in which this church has its roots, once said “No one is a Christian alone.”
Some people would argue that. I meet people who say, “I believe in God. I just don’t believe in organized religion.” I tell them, “Good. Come to Vision. We aren’t organized at all, in fact it’s pretty chaotic.”
I also meet self-described Christians who ask, “Can’t I just be a Christian at home and read my Bible and pray by myself?” I always say no. When they ask why I explain its because you’re an idiot, that’s why. You’re an idiot. I’m an idiot. We’re all idiots. If you prefer, I can put that in more biblical terms, “All have sinned and fell short of the glory of God.” It is because we’re all flawed that we can’t be Christians alone. We need one another. We need to be accountable to one another. We need to be an interpretive community together. Some people would have us believe that you can be a Christian off by yourself somewhere and church is just something we have to tolerate. Church is not a necessary evil. It is an essential good of Christianity.
Look, I am the first to admit there is a lot wrong with churches. There are so many barriers churches put up to keep people from even walking through their doors, let alone getting deeply involved in them. In the literal sense, many older church structures have features that prevent people with physical disabilities from entering. In recent years, these churches have had to build ramps or add special parking facilities to make it easier for people to get inside.
Likewise, there are many other non-physical obstacles that keep people from the church. Pam and I, were called by God to begin this particular church to remove some of those obstacles. For instance, some of those obstacles are ones of hospitality. Everyone is welcome here at Vision, no matter what you’ve done in your life, no matter where you are in your spiritual journey, no matter who you are. You can be anything here except a jerk. Hospitality is a radical act. It’s more than coffee or a fellowship hour. It’s welcoming everyone as Jesus would welcome them and because Jesus would welcome them. It’s being a church with a front porch. Now the architecture of this building may prevent us from building a front porch, but we can always have a front patio. In this new building, Vision will not be a private chapel but a welcoming presence to the surrounding community.
Many of the obstacles that keep people from church are cultural. Our postmodern culture is one of multi-sensory experiences and creativity. Yet in recent centuries, worship has been reduced to a talking head behind a pulpit and the church has given up its role as the center of creativity. That’s why Pam and I have created worship that engages all our senses so that we can meet God in may ways. That is why there are songs by U2, videos and interactive elements. At Vision we have always sought to recapture the church’s rich creative heritage. We do that in our worship celebrations, but now that we have our own building, we also want to use this space for gatherings for all kinds of music and the arts. We welcome people, not to build up our own institution, but so that people can experience God here, with all of their senses.
Some obstacles for people are intellectual. That’s why we always welcome questions and conversation. None of us has all of the turth. Sometimes that can be uncomfortable, but we know God is always with us as we wrestle with the Bible, or science or moral issues. The church is for everyone, even those who don’t yet believe. Vision is the kind of church where you can belong before you believe. We are here so you can experience a Christ-centered community and the love of Christ through it and see what beliefs arise from that experience.
We believe in the holy catholic church - holy - set apart, but set apart to be catholic - universal - to welcome everyone. The church is the one institution that exists for those who are not yet here.
On this magnificent and beautiful day, let us remember that this church is still not about the building. This is not a place we come to but a place from which we are sent. Although now it’s nice to have a place to be sent from.
So we are here to welcome everyone to experience God and be transformed by the Holy Spirit into disciples of Jesus Christ. We seek to connect with people, bring them into a committed relationship with Jesus and the turn them loose on the world in mission and compassion.
You ready get started?
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