I continue a series of posts from research I have done about lay leadership training in the United Church of Canada. In previous posts and this one, I examine the context in which that training needs to happen — a context in which many churches are struggling to serve faithfully while their numbers (attendance, finances) are declining.
Alaric the Goth and his army ransacked Rome in 408 CE. The Roman Empire did not fall at that time, but the process of its dying had begun. By the fall of that year, refugees had begun streaming into North Africa. Alongside on of the wharves, the young governor of the province, Volusianus, stood watching as the displaced refugees disembarked from the ships. He saw the looks of numbed and bewildered shock on their faces and began questioning, “Was this the end of everything? Why? What had gone wrong? Could anything have been done about it?”
Volusianus was, at the time, considering baptism as a Christian, so he wrote a letter with his questions to his bishop. His bishop was Augustine. Augustine replied to Volusianus, “Rome may be dying, but time is not dying. And God is not dying. Even as the City of Man dies, there are those within its streets who are called to be builders of the new city.” (Herbert O’Driscoll, The Unshakeable Kingdom, 39 -40).
All who have been baptized are called and commissioned by God to be among the people who are the builders of the new city that God is making in this place and in this time. Baptism sets us on a journey, a way of living in which we practice, day by day, letting go of everything that has ceased to give life. We are those who are learning to hear the questions God is asking in our everyday lives. We are learning live with open hands in order to receive the new creation God is bringing to birth. We are on the lookout for signs that the resurrected Lord is on the premises, convinced that God’s wild, passionate Holy Spirit is bringing new life in unexpected ways.
Leadership for such a community entails cultivating an environment in which all God’s people are equipped to get in on that holy, life-transforming work. This will mean examining critically and changing the attitudes, cultural assumptions and structures that elevate one type of leader over others.
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