By Brandon Morgan

I’m a big fan of The Lord of the Rings. If you haven’t seen the films or read the books, you’re going to have to bear with me for the first part of this. Gondor, the main kingdom in the series, finds itself under threat by the forces of darkness. Despite being a kingdom, no king has sat on the throne of Gondor for centuries. Instead, a line of stewards has resided in the place of the king until the king returns.

Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, well-meaning (at times), endangers the people through both his power-mongering and intransigence as he stays within its walls, leaving the people of Gondor on a limb. This isn’t so different from the Pharisees of Jesus’ time. They were insistent about keeping the tradition and practices of God, but they weren’t ready when God walked among them. They abandoned justice to keep their customs, leaving the inside of the cup filthy to keep the outside of it clean.

What Fruit Are We Bearing?

The thing is: as both inheritors and stewards of the Kingdom of God, we are judged by the fruit we bear. Throughout 2020, I heard prominent church voices speak more about keeping church doors open than finding ways to care for folks most affected by COVID and how to maintain fellowship in a time when we are mostly confined to our homes. It’s taken thankless advocacy from groups of Christian doctors and dentists to encourage churches not to hold in person services in the midst of spiking cases (McCammon, “Evangelical Doctors' Group Pleads With Churches To Stay Home”). I’ve seen more efforts to preserve the status quo in “mainstream church” than to consistently cry out on behalf of justice in response to what I’d consider the silent pandemic of racism (though not silent for those that experience it). We have justified our inaction by saying things like: “It’s a fallen world,” or “God will bring about true justice in his time.” I hear this from people that often don’t experience the death that racism brings (even if that death affects us all), and they don’t want to. James Baldwin once wrote, “A civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless” (Baldwin 1963, 64-65). Spinelessness often persists in the church when situations with racism arise.

I won’t go into detail of how I have been shocked and appalled by what I’ve heard my fellow brothers and sisters say in response to events in 2020. Instead, I’m going to focus on some solutions based on what I would consider a reasonable measuring line:

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:16-18, NKJV)

Throughout John’s epistle, he’s stressed the importance of doing the things that “we have heard from the beginning,” but he isn’t impressing the method by which we do things, but the foundation on which our methods are founded. He’s speaking of the foundation of love. The love that is not provoked, but the love that initiates. The love that is active and lively and responds to those in need. This is the kind of love that reaches out to the paralytic that others have forgotten, changing the course of his life. This is the kind of love that listens to the cry of the blind man for healing. This is the kind of love that “makes itself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant,” and washes the feet of his disciples. We see Jesus illustrate his love through action time after time, but what does this look like in our time?

Open Spaces for People to Be Heard and Seen

Well, it looks like responding to what people actually need. In times when the shadow of loneliness is rampant, we need to expand our understanding of the way in which we fellowship. The following model has “worked” in the past: pre-fellowship time, praise and worship, announcements and tithes and offerings, sermon, call to action, prayer/close. These are all good things, but they may not all be the most appropriate thing in times such as these. I might catch some flack for saying this, but sometimes people don’t always need a sermon. Sometimes, people need to be seen and heard, the way Christ sees and hears people.

This isn’t and shouldn’t be just reserved for small groups. There should be intentional time on Sundays to hear people, to pray, and to address the needs of the saints. Leaders of the flock, we should be rocked with compassion when we hear about people getting COVID-19, people losing jobs, and people being isolated. That in itself should cause a change in our daily programming. And when we do shift, it demonstrates to the Body of Christ and to the world that Christ’s Church is not program-centered but people-centered. And we thus fulfill the law of Christ, right?

I’m not saying that we throw everything out and change everything. Like Matthew 13:52 says, “Every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.” There is still time to bring out the old, but sometimes the times call for something new as well.

Be for Real about Justice: It’s God’s Business

I spoke of racism earlier, so I’ll be frank. Things are happening in this country that are wrong. It is not a time to wring one’s hands and say things like “I know it’s wrong, but I don’t know if I like the way people are reacting.” Wrong is wrong. If your sons and daughters were systematically being killed by people sworn to protect them, you wouldn’t sit on the sidelines. If it were your brother and sister that were murdered for the country to see, I doubt you would respond with diffidence and indifference. Jesus flipped over tables and chased money changers out of the temple for perverting his Father’s house. How do you think God feels about the unjust death of his children?

I’ll be honest. I’m a Christian, and I’m a Black man. And what has been one of the most disappointing things in response to the events of racialized violence in the United States has been the Western Church’s response to it. How are we lagging behind the world in speaking out against racism? How is the world outdoing us in love when the last commandment Christ gave was for us to love one another as he first loved us?

We have to lean into and be intentional about both knowing about the racism in this country (and the church’s complicity in it), as well as addressing it. I know not all church leaders are subject matter experts in it, but that leads me to my next point. We all have a role to play in these times, so church leaders should empower the children of God to live out their God-given destiny for the sake of others.

Empower the Flock

It was the destruction of the temple that allowed the true worshippers of God to worship in Spirit and in Truth; could it be that the closure of our temples allows the people of God to live out their God-given destiny? Can you imagine if the Church of Christ remained at the church of Jerusalem after they received power? There’s a good chance none of us would have the gift of eternal life that Jesus so graciously offered. In those days, it was the soil of crisis in which the reach of the Church extended and became what we know it as.

Yes, I miss being in person at church services too, but it opens up a keen opportunity for the people of God. Right now, there are so many needs out there; there is no choice but for everyone to labor for the Kingdom. Shepherds of the flock, I guarantee you there is someone in your congregation who knows more about racial justice than you or your leadership team does. There is someone in your congregation that likely knows how to facilitate Zoom better than you do. Everyone in your congregation was brought to the Kingdom for a time such as this. So, there really needs to be a paradigm shift in the way we see and do church.

An example of this could be having a service where congregants form smaller groups, and each group listens to what need the Holy Spirit desires their local church to address. After that, the groups can appraise how they can seek to do this using each person’s unique gifts and callings, and then plan to do it. The Church of Christ is certainly made up of pastors, evangelists, and teachers. But it’s also made up of economists, childcare providers, public health officials, social workers, bankers, soldiers, engineers, artists, and researchers. Perhaps, it is time for those members that have received less honor from the church in the past to receive greater honor in this hour.

The early church was a force to be reckoned with, and one of the reasons is because they not only gave themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word, but they were dedicated to addressing the needs of others, “and the number increased in the Church daily” (see Acts 2:47).

I’ve been a bit rough on the teachers of God’s Word because we will be held accountable for our actions and the way we loved in this time, but I’ll also speak to those that aren’t recognized as “leaders” in the “church.” If you feel God has placed a passion in your heart for anything that he desires for you to pursue, go after it. You are loved by the most powerful Being in the universe, and if God wants you to do something, he will ensure it comes to pass.

Conclusion

For those of you who don’t know, the king did return in The Lord of the Rings. Darkness was defeated. There was a happy ending.

I find it interesting that as I write this, we are just leaving the Advent season. But I feel it’s always a healthy thing to be  reminded  that  our  King  is  also  returning. As stewards of his Kingdom and will, how will he find us? Will he find us clinging to a shadowy form of church that isn’t loving or serving anyone? Or will he find us fulfilling his will on the foundation of love?

References

Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time. New York: Dial Press, 1963.

McCammon, Sarah. “Evangelical Doctors' Group Pleads With Churches To Stay Home.” NPR. NPR, November 19, 2020. https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/11/19/936857525/evangelical-doctors-group-pleads-with-churches-to-stay-home.

 

 

Brandon Morgan currently serves as a youth worker for a public health nonprofit in the Greater Boston Area. He believes in the power of youth in the next generation, and his work revolves around their success. When he's not working towards these goals, he can be found reading, writing, rock climbing, or spending time with those he loves.