What Makes Grace Grace?

Even though I played hooky from Grace this past weekend, I did attend worship.  I visited a church I have been reading about for years.  This church is doing incredible things in terms of serving their community and in terms of being an inclusive church.

I hesitate to critique any church but this church was such a mixed and challenging experience for me that I wanted to use it to say some things about Community of Grace.

I arrived 30 minutes early so I had a chance to talk with one of the ushers.  While it is a denominational church, he said, they are open to anyone and everyone.  He mentioned that they serve free meals three times a day (they are in the heart of downtown San Francisco) for over a million meals a year.  After the first song the leader announced that the church needed 5 people to volunteer immediately to pack lunches for the homeless--that's immediate mission!  The choir was made up of a variety of people and sexual identities.  I've never seen that kind of living picture of an inclusive church before.  It really is a magnificent mission--one that is embraced by the city of San Fran. Almost 2000 worship there per weekend, with about half being visitors!

The usher mentioned that they took down the cross from the worship center so as not to offend anyone.  The opening prayer was a further demonstration of that desire not to offend.  They prayed to the God who is known by many names, who is found through many paths, and a special prayer of thanks was given for the truth of God found in the Hindu scriptures.

The music was amazing--a large choir backing up vocalists with a strong Black Gospel feel (one of the soloists was probably in his 70's and he sang a couple of spirituals in a Louis Armstrong vibe including Amen!).  In between the songs the pastor or others would talk--and they always talked about the congregation and the great work they were doing.  Again and again they upheld their openness, their often radical take on inclusiveness, and, after awhile it seemed to me--did a lot of patting themselves on the back.  I understand the importance of a congregation owning its mission and feeling good about what they are doing.  But after awhile it got a bit much for me.

That's the critique.  It seemed to me to be all about them.  About their mission.  About how unique they are among churches.

What was missing (and I missed the message--I could only stay an hour; the service was 90 minutes) was that this is all about God in Christ.

I came to this conclusion: When your vision of God is squishy (and in my opinion, this church has a squishy view of God--all paths lead to the same God, God is known by many names, all religious texts are equal to the Bible, the cross has been removed from the worship center so as not to offend anyone, etc.), then promoting the church becomes the focal point--because the church and its mission becomes concrete while God remains somewhat abstract.

This is in no way meant to demean the amazing work this world-class church is doing.  But I disagree with their theological center.  And at the same time, I was deeply challenged by how we talk about Grace and what makes Grace Grace.

If we claim to be Christians, or a Christian Church, then Jesus is not optional. The cross is not something we remove from the worship center so as not to offend.  Paul says the cross is the great offense. The cross means God isn't squishy.  He isn't known by many names.  He's known only by the name Jesus.  His inclusive grace doesn't come to us through many paths, all of them equal, it comes to us through the cross and only the cross.   God isn't squishy.  God comes to us on a rugged cross with nail holes in his hands and a wound in his side.  And that can be a stumbling block for many.  But that's how God chose to make himself known to us--using the scandal and recklessness of the cross.

And so, with Paul, as a church we should ultimately be known for one thing and one thing only: Christ and him crucified.

While it's important to hold up how God is at work through us as Community of Grace to inspire us to continue to follow him, ultimately, if we aren't known for our passion for Christ, for being a faith community gathered around the cross of Christ, then we've lost our way.

What makes Grace Grace? The cross of Jesus.  The call of Jesus to take up the cross and follow him.  Following him on the bold, daring, reckless adventure of bringing grace to the world.

This is going to be increasingly important these next 10 years as we begin to transition to the next generation of leadership.  It's not about Tim Wright.  It's not about the staff or worship team or volunteers. It's about Jesus the crucified one, using us to bring his grace to the world for generations to come.

My prayer is that Grace increasingly gains a reputation in the community for being a church that really believes in Jesus and really follows the Crucified One.