Church as Pointless #2

I’ve never understood why, when I say that a church should have no vision, some people leap to the conclusion that this means, as someone once said to me, that “You just sit by the phone all day waiting for God to call.”  Why do people assume that if you “be” that this excludes “do”?

Have they ever read about John the Baptist, our Old Testament hero spilling into the New, who lived in the austere desert his entire life shouting insanities?

Have they never heard of the entire Christian monastic movement, beginning with Anthony of Egypt in the third century, who prayed, consumed only bread and water, and weaved baskets?

Have they ever read, without a critical Christian eye, Beginner’s Mind, a splendid Zen Buddhist text?

These all would emphasize “being”. But I would also suggest that they represent catalysts for significant change.

My family, as I said, is pointless. I said yesterday that this means that we don’t serve a purpose. We are beyond the utilitarian agenda of the world around us. We delight in just being a family. As soon as any authority demands that my family be useful, we have tyranny.

Churches would be (or do) best to delight in just being. Does this mean that they will not be catalysts for change?

Maybe not.

But also maybe!