During our first men’s theology night of 2024 I was struck again by something quite amazing. As I looked around the room at the 20+ guys ranging in age from 16-76 who had gathered together, I came to the same realization that I always do when we start our new year of study – this is an interesting, strange, and inconceivable (from a human standpoint) gathering of men. We have retired guys, young professionals, guys that work with their hands, farmers, office workers, and students. Some guys like video games, others don’t know how to turn on a computer. Some guys can fix anything, others, like me, are good at breaking stuff and calling someone to fix it. We have men from all backgrounds, all ages, and all ranges of life experience. It’s an eclectic, diverse, and simply amazing group.
As I thought of the makeup of our group, I started to reflect on what this group of men reveals about the makeup of the entire church. I was quickly reminded of something that Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his classic work on the church, Life Together – “The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.” As I watch the men fellowship before and after our formal time and as I reflected on this quote, I must admit that I was filled with an unspeakable joy for what God has done and is doing at CRC. I was also nagged by a warning bell sounded by Bonhoeffer’s quote. Let me explain what I mean.
I’m pretty sure that for all of us the makeup of our church, as God has constructed it, is a lot different than what we would have constructed it to look like. If we would build our ‘dream church’ I’m sure it would be filled with people who look, act, talk and interact with us, in our preferred way. We all have preferences for what we would like church to look like, feel like, sound like, etc.; whether it be the governance structure, the worship we have, the way we run our Sunday service, the people who fill the pews, the ministries we have and how they are run, the kind of pastor, what we think the church leaders should be doing, and on and on we could go. In other words, we all have our idea of our ‘dream church' lingering in the back of each of our minds, what we think CRC should be like, and this ‘dream church’ is often more like me than it is like Christ. If we aren't careful this ideal takes over how we see the church and its people and then all sorts of problems arise.
It is obvious that any desire for the church that is not a biblical desire, is absolutely not for the betterment of the Christian community, or our own personal faith. It is, instead, an expression of my sinfulness. Desiring MY dream for the church to become reality is an expression of my own selfishness. This is a sin that must be repented of and redeemed. God has made CRC what it is. Christ said that the church is his and that he will build it into whatever he sees fit. It is not up to us to make CRC into anything that fits with our desires. Our responsibility is solely to be obedient to Christ as he builds his church. The building is exclusively up to him. I must simply enjoy what he is building and be faithful within whatever it is that he builds.
Let me return to Bonhoeffer. Immediately before the quote above, he drove this point home -- “Every human idealized image that is brought into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be broken up so that genuine community can survive.”
Bonhoeffer’s point is simple – our dream of what the church should look like, in any or all of its facets, will always prevent us from loving those who make up the community. By doing so we will be tearing down the community, not building it up. Until we are willing to give up what we want the church, its people, and its leaders to be like or act like or talk like, we will never be able to be a part of true Christian community. We will never truly be a part of what God is building in CRC.
Bonhoeffer continues to press this point home in the next paragraph -- “God hates this wishful thinking because it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. Those who dream of this idealized community demand that it be fulfilled by God, by others, and by themselves. They enter the community of Christians with their demands, set up their own law, and judge one another and even God accordingly. They stand adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of the community. They act as if they have to create the Christian community, as if their visionary ideal binds the people together. When their idealized image is shattered, they see the community breaking into pieces. So they first become accusers of other Christians in the community, then accusers of God...”
Let me set this within the context of the men’s theology night. Each one of the over 20 men that gathered together for our discussion of theology on Tuesday night was there because God had brought them to our church and had laid upon their heart a desire to study theology for their sanctification and the sanctification of their wives and families. Each man represents a family that is at CRC because God has brought them here. Some were brought here from the very first days of our church just over 8 years ago. Others have come only within the last year or so. This was not a group that any of us could have ever dreamed of being put together. Nor was it a group that any of us would have chosen to be together. God alone has worked to build his church by bringing each one of them here. None of us could have predicted what God has done to bring each one to our community. But praise God that he did!
Expanding from the men as a microcosm of the church to the rest of us we see that it is the responsibility of each one of us within the community that God is building to lay aside our ‘dream church’ and to be obedient to the ‘one another’s’ of Scripture with each of those whom God has brought to our church. Bonhoeffer again, “Because God already has laid the only foundation of our community, because God has united us in one body with other Christians in Jesus Christ long before we entered into common life with them, we enter into that life together with other Christians, not as those who make demands, but as those who thankfully receive. We thank God for what God has done for us. We thank God for giving us other Christian who live by God’s call, forgiveness, and promise. . . Christian community is not an ideal we have to realize, but rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all our community is in Jesus Christ alone, the more calmly we will learn to think about our community and pray and hope for it.”
Soli Deo Gloria
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