Engagement as Corporate Practice

As we seek to understand what it means to be the Church in our post-modern, post-Christendom society, engagement is a key concept. How do we interact with the wider society? How do we show Christ's love to the world, while taking care to not get caught up in the world's way of doing things?

Sympathetic Outsiders


Engagement is about thinking like missionaries. To engage the dominant culture as sympathetic outsiders, we must learn its myths, assumptions, language and values. Our ultimate goal is to transmit the radical message of Jesus and his living presence with us today, seeking to inspire and empower indigenous forms of Christianity and local leaders to express the Gospel in their own particular contexts.

Obviously, to truly engage with the wider culture, major changes will be required of us. If we are to be missionaries to the West, we first must admit that we as Friends do not have all of the answers. We must admit that we need the Gospel to be shared with us; that we have still not quite understood it.

As we recognize how we have failed to live fully into the Way of Jesus, we begin to seek relationship with those around us, not only to invite them into the Kingdom-life, but also to discover what new lessons Christ wants to teach us through people whose lives are very different from our own.

The Church as Sanctuary... Or Launch Pad?


What is the role of the Church in all this? Some of the missional literature seems to suggest that the traditional congregational model is no longer adequate as the basis for fostering and sustaining Christ's Reign. And, certainly, they are right that we miss the point if we think attendance at our worship services is the only measure of growth in faithfulness and spiritual maturity. As the rise of "prosperity gospel" mega-churches makes clear, attendance numbers are no sure sign of spiritual depth or changed lives. Nevertheless, gathering together for worship as a community is critical to the depth and stability of a Christian community.

On the one hand, we have the missional imperative to get out of the "Quaker ghetto" and share our lives with our non-Christian neighbors. We do no one any good by hiding our light under a bushel and retreating from the world. On the other hand, we benefit greatly from times of fellowship, worship, and shared life with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We gain strength through our regular connection with other believers, and our relationship with God is deepened when we wait on the Lord together. How are we to balance our need for nurturing relationships within the Church and Christ's call for us to be present in our neighborhoods, workplaces and public gatherings?

This is not merely a theoretical question. Each of us has only so much time and energy. How do we balance time within the established community and time spent as Christian examples in other communities? As we strike this balance as individuals, it is important that we focus on existing relationships. It would be easy for us to exhaust ourselves by trying to make a whole slew of new friends in new communities. But, for most of us, this is probably not necessary. Most of us have regular contacts with folks who might like to go deeper in their relationship with God - whether at work; in a club or association we participate in; or just by way of time-tested friendships and family relationships. Each of us probably knows a few people who we could reach out to in friendship, seeking to make Christ's love visible in their lives.

As communities, we need to look for these same kinds of relationships. What are the communities or organizations in proximity to us that we could reach out to as a Meeting? While individual connections to our neighbors in the wider culture are an important part of the Church's work in the world, there is nothing quite like uniting around a shared project. When the Meeting can commit itself to a specific form of service - whether it is cleaning up a neighborhood, volunteering at a charity, or opening our homes to refugees - the witness of Christ shines even more clearly than it does when an individual acts alone. The world can see the good work that we do together, and because the work is done as a church, it is even easier for us to give the glory to Jesus. This builds the Kingdom.

Engagement as Corporate Practice


Christian engagement, serving as missionaries in a broken world, is most powerful when done as a corporate expression of faith. When we as the Church come together and discern the specific work that God is calling us to, the Holy Spirit empowers and strengthens us for that mission. If we are to grow spiritually as a people, we must gather together to hear Christ's guidance.

The process of engagement begins when we look inward to receive Christ's guidance in our hearts. Next, we let Christ change our character and lifestyle, living into God's will for us. Then, we move outward, to share our lives with others in obedience to Jesus. And finally, we again look inward to see whether we have heard and responded correctly, and to discover what further guidance God has for us. This cycle is just as true for our Meetings as it is for individuals. And, just as individual men and women are transformed and remade in Christ's image as they pass through these steps, so, too, are communities.

The Church is where we come to be refined through deep listening, faithful action, and submission to one another in Christ. As we discover our true nature as members of Christ Jesus, we come to realize our spiritual unity with the rest of the Church, and we learn that our salvation is inevitably bound up in the lives of others. We are one in Christ Jesus.

Each local Meeting of the Church has to determine the right balance between outward engagement and inward reflection. Some churches are more naturally inclined to a spirituality of action, while others lean more contemplative. But all of us must wrestle with how we are to live out God's call in community. As we listen and discern God's will together, we will be transformed into a body that is a force for righteousness, justice and reconciliation in the world.

From a Lone Nut Into a Movement

I came across this video by Derek Sivers recently, and I found it helpful in thinking about how leadership functions in a movement. I wondered also whether there might be some lessons that we could glean as we look at how we as Quakers might reclaim the movement ethos that accompanied the dynamic energy and growth of the early Friends.

What stands out to me most about Derek's video is its assertion that our tendency to glorify our most visible and outspoken leaders may be misguided. Certainly, we owe a lot to the first people to stand out and take risks for the sake of a new way of seeing and living in the world. They are the pioneers, and without their ridiculous boldness, there could be no movement. Nevertheless, as Derek points out, one person dancing to the beat of a different drummer is easily dismissed as a "lone nut." It is the first followers that lend legitimacy to a pioneer. They transform the lone risk-taker into the nucleus for a movement.

Those who are first to join in with a pioneer leader take on almost as much risk as the pioneer herself. There are plenty of lone nuts out there, each with a the seeds of a movement in their message. But many of them really are nuts. The first followers, the first people to join forces with a pioneer leader on the margins, risk being ridiculed themselves for joining with the lunatic fringe. One person who insists on being different is written off as crazy, but a small group of markedly different people is often labeled a "cult."

If the first collaborators are right, however, and this lone nut is less crazy than she seems, they will be able to play a critical role in the invitation of other, slightly less daring people to join in the movement. The more people who take part in the movement, the less social risk participation entails. Eventually, as Derek points out, a movement may become so widespread that it is more socially awkward to remain on the outside than it is to join.

We as Christians are ultimately followers of the ultimate lone nut, Jesus. How can we courageously follow him, even when doing so will put our relationships, livelihood and reputation at risk? How can we invite others to join in the movement of love, mercy and justice that he inspires?

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Note: In email correspondence with Derek following this post, I learned that Derek is the author of the words of the video, but not the videographer himself. Credit for the video goes to dkellerm.

Missional Quaker Faith: Conclusion

The end of this series of essays is really just a beginning. From here, I hope we can move together from theory to concrete application. Friedrich Engels once wrote that, "an ounce of action is better than a ton of theory," and one transformed relationship certainly beats any series of essays I could write. While I hope that my writing might serve as an impetus to deeper reflection about where we are at and where we might be headed as a Religious Society, my greatest desire is that we translate our reflection into lives of faithfulness and courage.

I hope that these essays have served as the beginning of a call to action. I am not the first one to issue this call, and in many ways this is nothing new. The Gospel seems new and fresh to each individual and community that receives it, though it is the same Gospel that every generation has been confronted and comforted by. Our call for today is to contextualize this eternal Gospel into our life in the post-modern, post-Christendom West.

This re-contextualization will take many forms. It will effect the revitalization of some of our old structures - our Meetings, Yearly Meetings and para-church organizations. We will also see the Gospel rising up in new communities and new structures, just as it did in the early days of the Friends movement in seventeenth century England. Many of our traditions, structures and networks can be salvaged; if we are faithful, much of what we cherish about twentieth century Quakerism can be re-tooled, re-defined and re-deployed. But we cannot remain the same as before.

The post-modern, post-Christendom era requires that we move beyond the Constantinian church models that have seeped into our tradition in the last three hundred years. We can no longer be a "faithful remnant," hedged off from the world and more concerned about our own purity than the needs of our neighbors. Nor can we be unreflective activists, tossed about by every wind of human wisdom; we must root our engagement in deep listening to Christ. We must ourselves be changed before we can seek to change others.

If we are ready to be transformed, Jesus will walk alongside us. He will guide us, heal us, strengthen us, prepare us. When he bursts the old wineskins that no longer fit God's purposes in our present time, Christ will give us new wineskins, new ways of thinking and organizing ourselves that can sustain us in the work we are called to. Are we ready to lay everything at Jesus' feet, holding nothing back?

I would like to invite you to join me and many other brothers and sisters in exploring this new thing that Christ is doing in our generation. To begin with, consider whether you have something to contribute to this online conversation about what a missional Quaker faith looks like. Join the Quaker Church-Planters group. Write your own blog post, either on your personal blog, on QuakerQuaker, or Facebook. Or, just write me an email. I would love to connect with you.

And, as important as it is that this conversation continue online, I hope that you will join us in putting all of this theory into practice. Come and worship at a missional Quaker worship group, or start your own. Let us know what you are doing, so that we can pray for you, collaborate with you and share the word of what God is doing in your town or city. Let us be the Church with you.

Have no doubt: Christ is calling us to the same depths of courage, sacrifice and joy to which he called the early Church and the early Friends. Be valiant for Truth upon the earth.

Resources for Further Study:


The full text of George Fox's epistle to Quaker missionaries (including the famous, "answering that of God in everyone" line): http://lightandsilence.org/2007/02/walk_cheerfully_over_the_world_1.html