![\"img_pod_0904-pictureoftheday-Easter-celebration-\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/941\/2013\/02\/img_pod_0904-pictureoftheday-Easter-celebration-.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhen I woke up this morning I awoke, as so many others did, to the news that Pope Benedict XVI is resigning.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a big theology and church history guy, so I\u2019m devouring every piece of news I can find about this event and can\u2019t wait for conclave to begin.<\/p>\n
And I\u2019m not even Roman Catholic.<\/p>\n
Which got me to thinking about something.<\/p>\n
How many Protestant Christians think the Pope\u2019s sudden resignation even matters?<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0My guess is some, but that many more see the papacy, if not the Roman Catholic Church itself, as rather irrelevant.<\/p>\nWhy I do say that? Because I think we as American Protestants have become rather myopic when it comes to the Christian faith. You can see our myopathy in the way we toss around the word \u201cchurch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of us use \u201cthe church\u201d as an all encompassing term, as if there were one united Christian body overseeing the faithful, deciding policy, and formulating theological positions (something the Roman Catholic church actually does see itself as doing).<\/p>\n
While this makes it easier to talk about \u201cthe church\u201d and far easier to criticize or trash \u201cthe church,\u201d the truth is that when most of us non-Roman Catholic American Christians toss around the term \u201cthe church\u201d what we really mean is \u201cthe Protestant\/Evangelical church\u201d or our particular denomination. Worse yet, the Roman Catholic Church, or the Eastern Orthodox Church for that matter, doesn\u2019t even cross our mind when we Protestants think and talk about \u201cthe church,\u201d even though it contains more of the Body of Christ than all other Christian traditions combined<\/em>.<\/p>\nWhy does our use of \u201cthe church\u201d matter? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nBecause if we\u2019re seriously about changing the church for the better, we can\u2019t do that without knowing what we\u2019re actually talking about.\u00a0The church is infinitely more diverse than we give it credit for. And within that diversity are a whole host of gifts, resources, people, talent, beliefs, hope, goodness, and practices that get tossed aside in our sweeping critiques of \u201cthe church\u201d as if all of \u201cthe church,\u201d or even most of \u201cthe church,\u201d believes, thinks, talks, or acts in the way we are critiquing \u201cthe church.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sure, there are plenty of problems across the various Christian traditions, including the Roman Catholic Church, but we do a disservice to, if not outright slander, the Body of Christ when we talk about \u201cthe church\u201d as if our small corner of it exhausts the Christian experience.<\/p>\n
The truth is, the church is far larger than we can imagine and, in many places, greater than we have experienced.<\/p>\n
So, as the Roman Catholic church prepares to select a new pope, I hope this moment can be a reminder for all of us non-Catholics that \u201cthe church\u201d is a far bigger and infinitely more diverse, and in many places healthier, Body than most of us give it credit for.<\/p>\n
As such, it deserves the work it will take to talk about and critique it faithfully if \u201cthe church,\u201d rather than \u201cmy church,\u201d is something we actually care about.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grace and peace,<\/p>\n
Zack Hunt<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I woke up this morning I awoke, as so many others did, to the news that Pope Benedict XVI is resigning. I\u2019m a big theology and church history guy, so I\u2019m devouring every piece of news I can find about this event and can\u2019t wait for conclave to begin. And I\u2019m not even Roman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3437,"featured_media":8967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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