At one point, as we were working on the cover of this issue, we had a photograph of some worshippers with the title The New Evangelicals, referring to a new thrust of evangelicalism in the United States on social issues, particularly poverty.
We changed this for a variety of reasons, in part because we realized many evangelicals would say that concern for social issues has always been a part of their tradition.
Canadian evangelicals might also argue that although they have concerns about morality — also echoed in the Roman Catholic Church — they have been less preoccupied with these than their American counterparts for whom certain moral issues, notably abortion and homosexual rights, have been a prime political focus in the past two decades.
But whatever one's interpretation of scripturally based moral living is, no one in today's free-thinking society is likely to be converted simply by running into or being run over by dogma. Our children don't learn right from wrong in a book, they learn it from the people around them, whether from family or their friends. They learn in community. The question is, which community?
I was recently asked to participate in a questionnaire by a Christian newspaper that wanted to know what I thought were the most important issues facing the church today. To me, the answer is plain: it's about building relationships.
It's a frequently noted observation that Canadians are most friendly with their neighbours in the winter when we are all out shovelling snow. I grew up doing that. And it's a start. But relationships need to be deeper than the shovel in the snowpile.
In a country as wealthy as Canada, we are fortunate that we have an almost fully employed society. But millions of us are in dual-income relationships with children. Urban transit is far behind the rapid development of our cities and one or both parents join the lemming rush every day.
Children need to be dropped off and picked up from school or daycare. Then there is music, ballet, soccer, hockey — did anyone pick up the groceries for supper? Supper? Who's home to make it? You're working late? OK, I'll make supper and put the children to bed. Your supper will be in the fridge when you get home at when, 9? I'll be at the computer.
And so the exhausting merry-go-round spins. Sunday rolls around. Will it be a morning of family time, perhaps at the cottage or on the ski-slopes? Or maybe just lolling around with a latté and The New York Times while the children play with Lego? Or church?
If church is in a dark building with tired hymns and a we-hope-heaven-knows-what-reality-this-is-about-because-we-don't sermon, the answer is easy. It's even easier if the people judge your busy lifestyle with simplistic ideals based on a 1950s concept of family or don't even speak to you. Who wants that?
Which is perhaps where the “new evangelicals” have a lot to teach all Christians. The best of them, as typified by the notables in the U.S. such as Rick Warren or Bill Hybels, have built their church communities by fostering relationships. Small groups of a dozen or so people are the essential building blocks of the megachurches just as cells build a human body or bricks a house.
Welcoming communities will always be successful. Because creating community is the one thing we all crave. It's lonely being just another lemming. And although we all know — or desperately hope — there is more to life, it's not easy to find. Yet poll after poll proves that there is a keen interest in things spiritual. It's organized religion, a.k.a congregations, that get in the way.
Rev. Chuck Congram built an amazingly successful congregation on the shores of Lake Erie near Windsor. In this issue, he offers some salient observations on how churches need to change to share the Good News. His first point is “a commitment on the part of Christians to build meaningful relationships with those who are not believers.”
I might take it one step back and suggest that churchgoing Christians just need to build meaningful relationships — with anyone. Belief grows in community. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name…”
