How Far Are You Going?

For the last several years, I’ve concluded my summer vacation by going on a Sunday morning run around our community. I do this, in part, to see what takes place in the community during those hours that I’m normally leading Sunday morning worship. It’s a kind of incarnational move that I’ve recommended to pastor friends for some time; maybe not the running part, but the get your butt out of the church bubble every once in a while and see what people are up to part.  Go to a local coffee shop. Visit a soccer field. Walk around your congregation’s neighborhood. What’s God up to in your community while your congregation is in worship? 

This year’s run turned out to be a kind of Emmaus Road (Luke 24:13-33) experience for me. While cruising down the road, a fellow runner showed up beside me and started to strike up a conversation with the typical runner’s question: “How far are you going?” Before I knew it, I was sharing my recent struggles with injury, the fact that I won't be running my marathon this year, and my desire to get back into racing shape. With a few words of encouragement and a big smile, my companion was off to complete her morning run. 

 

In the moments that followed, I thought to myself: What if church could be like that for people? In fact, isn’t that what life in Christian community supposed to be like? Do we ever take the time to invite people into conversation about their hopes, dreams and desires when it comes to their own lives of faith? Do we give people the opportunity to express the struggles or injuries that are preventing them from achieving their goals? And then, do we create ways to intentionally walk with people to achieve those goals? I’ve always found it to be incredibly enlightening that in the Smalcald Articles, Martin Luther not only lists the proclamation of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments as marks of the church, but also “the mutual conversation and consolation of brothers and sisters” (SA III, Art. 4). This conversation adds an important feedback loop to our proclamation of the Gospel. Instead of assuming that we know what people need and then trying to give it to them, this kind of conversation assists us in meeting very real needs with the Gospel. 

As congregations prepare to resume Sunday school and confirmation classes, Bible studies and service projects, perhaps we need to be finding ways to create space to invite “mutual conversation and consolation.” What could those spaces look like?