Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Picturing an Imperfect Church

What picture does “imperfect” bring to mind? A church where anything goes? A church with realistic expectations? A church down on itself? That, of course, illustrates the problem with words. Communication get complicated when a word has different meanings to different people. So we’ll need to define it, or at least put up a “straw man/church” so we can all talk about the same imperfect church!

Imperfect implies mess, and most of us don’t like it (even if we’re chronically messy). We learn to live with it in our children, but we also spend years teaching small increments of intentionality and un-messiness. Is not the church like this, too? Because we want to avoid the mess we-
  • Hide the mess, often with a façade of perfection
  • Get rid of messy people
  • Redefine what’s a mess
What drives our reaction to mess? In our children, sometimes it’s genuine desire to help them grow; sometimes their mess is in our way and we want our way. Sometimes we’re tired and don’t want to deal with it. Similarly, in the church, there are many possible drivers.

The first is pride, an inflated view of self, forgetting that in this life we’re terminally imperfect.

The second is that we value appearance over process, so we forget the principles of progressive sanctification. The progress of others (and ourselves) doesn’t meet our “standards,” so we too little celebrate growth and display grace. It’s tough balancing standards and grace, but teetering is no reason to give up.

The third is that we forget how secure we are in God’s love. No matter how painful, no imperfection or human criticism can do eternal damage to us. Because we are secure in God’s love, we can love our sisters and brothers who may feel like enemies.

There’s a fourth, and it is that our standards are too low. We are like the patient that insists an imperfect leg is “just fine” because she can still get around on it. Just as the patient must acknowledge infirmity in order to get medical help, so we also must acknowledge spiritual infirmity to get spiritual help. And if we don’t think we need help, we need to meditate on Romans 7 and Ephesians 4.

Imperfect church calls us not to imperfect (lower) standards, but to God’s perfect standard. “Imperfect” becomes a statement of fact, not an excuse. That in turn recognizes we’re all on a level playing field, none of us better than any other, with nothing we can fully hide. We are fellow spiritual patients needing tough love and continuous grace, the imperfect ministering to the imperfect.

1 comment:

  1. Very well said, Rev. Nelson!

    I especially enjoy your conclusion: "'Imperfect' becomes a statement of fact, not an excuse."

    Your point about the need to combine genuine introspection with the standard of perfection is right on. Without this, repentance is impossible & salvation/progressive sanctification does not seem necessary.

    We really have redefined "good enough" around the way we are: our "normal" has become morally normative. Throw in the fact that pride has hard-wired us to see ourselves with rose-colored glasses, and we have a real problem.

    Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts (and more importantly, the Light that shines through them).

    Your servant,
    fr anthony (another imperfect pastor)
    Woonsocket, RI

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