A number of years ago, I reviewed
a book on church life and was struck by the author’s
comment: “the church is a messy place.” As
one who generally likes order and neatness, such a description
of church life seemed discordant to me. Yet over the years,
I’ve begun to realize the glory of that messiness
and finding the presence of God in it.
I’ve learned
these things:
A church without messes
is one that is also without much creativity or life. The
creative process almost always means that things become
unsettled and normal processes and procedures are transformed
into radically different ways of seeing and doing.
A church without messes
often puts such a high value on unity that holy union
is exchanged for unholy unanimity. Forced unanimity
often leaves honest opinions unexpressed. And those unexpressed
opinions mean that the church as a whole is missing some
of its wisdom and knowledge.
A church without messes
is one that says, “You have to look like me to come
here—diversity is not welcome here,”
and such a church lives in denial of the invitation from
God that says, “All are welcome here.”
Certainly, not all messes are
good. Messes that arise from an unwillingness to love
the neighbor as one loves the self generally lead to destructive
attitudes. Messes that linger because of a refusal to
face sin honestly and discover the wonders of grace on
the other side of repentance almost always lead to cold
and hard hearts. Messes that fester because of unforgiving
hearts shut down all possibilities of creative life.
Any group of people that intentionally
opens its doors to the gifts and graces of all comers
will discover the need to embrace the messiness of change.
The challenge for all lies in learning to discern the
difference between the destructive messes and the ones
that breathe new life and fresh air into the community.
We’re going to talk about
this more during this Sunday’s worship at 11:00
at the Krum UMC. Come join us and discover the transforming
power of the messes in your life!
