Dammit Jim, I’m a Pastor Not a Curator!

Contrary to popular belief, it seems that people who most want churches to stay the same, are the people who never go to church.

A few months back, our church moved to a site that was home to a Mainline congregation for over two centuries.  Facing many of the same challenges of other small churches in the Northeast, the congregation of that church had tearfully decided to dissolve back in the spring.  The one comfort they had, was that the building would continue to be a house of Christian worship when Vision moved in, and not be converted into a gym, as happened with another church in our town.

The current structure, built in the 1860’s, features beautiful stained glass windows, a tin ceiling, and chandelier.  Aesthetically, it suits Vision’s eclectic style of worship, although we are in the process of making some modifications to the space.  The old Erben organ has been given to another sister Presbyterian congregation who is looking for someone to purchase it (Know anyone interested?).  Hopefully, it will find a good home where it can be restored, maintained and enjoyed.  Additionally, we have had to remove a few rows of pews to accommodate our pre-worship hospitality time, as well as handicap access. 

Some members of the previous congregation have chosen to worship with us, and have found Vision to be a meaningful new church home for them.   One would expect that they would be very critical of the changes we are making to the worship space.  Much to my surprise, they are not.  In fact, many of them have shared how inspiring it is for them to see new life in this old building. 

The only negative feedback I have heard is from passers-by who have no connection to Vision, the old church, or for that matter, any church.  Between cyclists, walkers and runner popping in throughout the week, as well as music lovers who attended our summer concert series, many new people have passed through Vision’s doors.  Many of them express regret to hear we have taken out a few pews or that the organ is being removed. 

Mistakenly, I assume they are active members of a traditional congregation, which would be fine.  After all, we all respond to different styles of worship.  But this is often not the case.  Usually, these critics are not a part of any church.  Yet, they are more than willing to tell me how churches are judgmental, preach hellfire and brimstone and are boring.  In short, everything Vision is not.  More surprisingly, these self described “open-minded” people are more excited by the prospect of a restored pew than that of creating a community of diversity and bridging differences among people.

I am all for preservation of historical buildings and restoring them with integrity.  However, I fail to see why people who have no use for churches think they should have a say in how churches operate.  Many of you from other parts of the country probably have no idea what I’m talking about.  Here in New York, I encounter many people who seem to think churches are some kind of quaint ornamental structure.  To them, churches are supposed to be innocuous harmless civic organizations where one’s children can come and get married with a veneer of spirituality and Americana.   Sometimes, there is a certain pompous detachment in their voice (think the hybrid drivers from the “Smug” episode of South Park), expecting our church to be merely a set piece in the movie of their lives.

Again, it’s great to restore old churches to their former beauty and at Vision we plan to do that - to a point.  However, the driving force behind our decisions will always be our mission, making disciples of Jesus, not conforming to cultural expectations.

Here’s the bottom line:  our churches are supposed to be challenging, not charming.  We are supposed to be saving the world, not preserving nostalgia.  In a broken and hurting world, whether or not our buildings have authentic period-appropriate copper gutters sometimes strikes me as a pretentious concern of rich over-educated white people.  A church is a mission, not a museum.

So how are you being a true revolutionary leader in your community, when much of that community may have the expectation that you be nothing more than a curator?  Do you sometimes feel like your church is being relegated to the role of historical curiosity, like an Amish tourist site?   Besides old buildings, are there programs, dogmas and doctrines you feel as if you are the curator?

 And for those who don't get the reference in the title of this post...

 

Comments

[gwalter]

Great post - love the title.

[Drew Ludwig]

Great post. I've had the same experience.

[karla]

thanks for this post! I came here via Songbird's link.

[Mainecelt]

Also here from Songbird's link.

.."to be challenging, not charming..." Oh, that more would share that goal!!! Our (dwindling) congregation is also trapped in curator mode, with the same unhelpful comments from passers-by. Sometimes I daydream about some natural disaster quickly and efficiently excising this Holy Albatross and setting us free once more to follow the Holy Spirit's flight.

[RevDisco]

Preach it RevDon.....I heard recently there are two types of pastors...those hospice pastors that are sitting with a dying form of Christian worship...and that is often tied to a building....and midwifing pastors who are birthing new church in new contextualized ways. How can we claim to be followers of a living God if we don't engage in ways to highlight and lift up the living God for those whose context is not an 1850s building and worship!

[Don Heatley]

Thanks, all of you for your comments. Nice to know others have to deal with this as well.

[Andy Edwards]

Your post reminds me of the travesty of the Supreme Court case, City of Boerne v. Flores, in which the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was deemed unconstitutional because the Court wanted to play power politics and put Congress in its place. The result: churches in historical districts better consult their lawyers before attempting any renovation plans.

PS - Lest "curation" become a buzzword with negative connotations, see the first few pages of Barth's CD III/3 for a fascinating employment of "curatio" in a doctrine of providence! In that sense we are indeed curators of God's creation.

[J. Denise Smelley, interim minister, Redeemer's UCC, Littlestown, PA]

Yesterday I "built" on 1 Kings 8: 27 ("But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!), talking about the challenge of balancing the value of a church structure in an increasingly virtual world over against its seductive escapist possibilities. The over-60 first service congregants seemed to "get it", although the younger second service crowd, which included a large family group attending for a baptism, were quite reluctant to see the church building as anything but the place that has to always be there so they can come home to it. Maybe it's something one has to live into, or maybe it has to do with no longer having a "homeplace". This is going to bear more cogitation. Live long and prosper!

[Don Heatley]

Andy,
Thanks for the Barth tip. I'll look into it.

Denise,
Yes it is remarkable how a younger church crowd can sometimes be more flexible and stodgy.

Peace,
Don