All things to all people

The Church needs to be all things to all people - which is not the same as saying that every single congregation has to be everything to every individual. Sometimes we try that, but it won't work. The other thing that we do is get fragmented and divided - and claim that we have got the right way. The reality is that the church is, rightly, a pretty diverse operation - and we all need to recognise the valuable contribution of other perspectives. I have greatly enjoyed Brian McLaren's exploration of this in his book A Generous Orthodoxy (Zondervan, 2004). McLaren gives his book the wonderful sub-title Why I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/calvinist, anabaptist/anglican, methodist, catholic, green, incarnational, depressed-yet-hopeful, emergent, unfinished Christian. The book explores these different perspectives, discovering the contribution that each makes. In so doing the book does some pretty effective theology because, as McLaren points out: theology is the church on a mission reflecting on its message, its identity, its meaning. (p. 116). I fear that, too often, we have tried to slot church into pigeon-holes, we have tried to curb diversity, we have rebelled against God's disturbing our way of doing things - but where the Holy Spirit is shown the door by the church, an unlocked window is found through which the Spirit will sneakily enter. Thus the Holy Spirit stubbornly refuses to abandon the church even when the church quenches the Spirit .... (p. 34). The church is a wonderful diversity and we really can learn by looking to other bits of it.