Three "R's"

10/10/05

At the Jesus Connection September 2005 Pastors' Seminar it came more clearly to me than ever before that the work of congregational transformation can be regarded around three "R" words - which are then swept along the pathway of the new by a fourth "R" word. Let me share the insights as we walk the walk together for our mutual upbuilding.

The first "R" word is oneJan Linn often uses. Ruination. What a fascinating word. Ruination supposes actively wrecking something. Destruction comes to mind. So does devastation. When something is ruined it is made uninhabitable, it is wasted, finished. Transformed people are those who are "ruined to the old." The old no longer holds its charms. We are no longer tempted by its allures for it is exposed to us as the wide road to destruction. We can never abide the fermentation of the new unless we are also being ruined to the old. Being transformed, whether as individuals or congregation, requires ruination to the old, a disgust with the fruits of the old, a repulsion strong enough to make us take steps toward the uncertainties of the new. Ruination. We've got to have it.

The second "R" word is Risk. A man once asked at a Laity Seminar if there was a safe way for a congregation to undergo spiritual transformation. There simply isn't. Unless people have a sense of taking huge risks, unless they feel the fears of breaking apart and face the anxieties of chaos they're just playing head games. Risking means possible loss or injury. When risk is present, so are peril and danger. It feels like jeopardy and looks like hazard. People do not enjoy being at risk. To be sure we anticipate it with heightened pulse and awareness like we experience while waiting in line for our seat on the roller coaster. But when we are at the top of that tall climb into the skies looking down that narrow ribbon of steel falling impossibly away before us as it plunges straight into the maw of hell - we experience risk - and fear. After we have swept down the courses then, of course, we want to go back and do it all over again. When we are experiencing risk together in the church on the road of redemption what is at risk appears to be our life. Risk. Necessary for the ride.

The third word is Resistance. We resist losing our lives as we have known them because we believe we'll lose valuable things. Precious things will be ruined. It's not worth the risk. So we hold on. Even when our minds tell us that what we're being ruined to is not helpful stuff and our hearts tell us that taking a risk makes us strong we still draw back. We all do. It's not a "we -they" thing. Resistance is not our enemy to be conquered but a teacher who points out pitfalls and dead-ends. Resistance, then, becomes as necessary to the journey as both ruination and risk. It's the refining as we separate out that which is old from that which is new. It's the reflecting we do about how much risk we can endure in obedience to the gospel. It's the reluctance that rises up in us as we embrace those heady rides embodied in words like "going on sabbatical," "engaging intentional witness" and "stepping aside for the sake of the body."

The wind that fills the sails of the other three "R" words is also absolutely necessary. Resurrection. We follow a living Jesus who calls us to get up and get on. Death could not hold him. The old tried to ruin him with spike, spear, crown and cross. The resistance of all the organized orders of religion mounted up against him and it appeared they'd won the day. But on the third day... Resurrection. It's the core for the company of Christ. Easter. Thanks be to God!

David Digby

First Christian Church, Ames, Iowa